On the
wal-mart thing - being a member of a sewing charity, this is a hot topic. Many of us charity folks had a huge letter/call/email campaign to corporate headquarters lobbying to keep fabric in walmarts.
Here's what I know from talking to our local guy here in our store, along with what I've gotten 2nd hand from another crafting charity director in the area who talked to the corp headquarters.
Early in 2007 (or sometime before that - the rumors started hard and fast in early 2007) the decision was made corporate wide, to eliminate cut fabric from a lot of stores, especially the smaller ones. They also planned to end live pet (fish) sales at most stores also.
They will keep the craft department in stores, but may size down significantly there as well. Several ones in our area (Charlotte metro NC) have had cut-fabric removed already. Basically the fabric doesn't have a very good return per square foot based on the amount of space it takes as well as the high labor costs to have someone there to cut and measure.
The guy who works the cutting table at our local one here (Concord, US29) told me last spring that July 1, 2007 was the last day for fabric in that store. Then there was such an outcry to the corporate office that they decided not to get rid of ALL fabric but just at some stores.
The worst thing about all of that is that Wal mart came into a lot of these communitities that had their own fabric stores - either chains like Hancock or JoAnns, or mom-and-pop stores. Their prices on fabric were so much lower, that they ran a lot of these places out so that
Walmart was the ONLY place around to get cut fabric and crafts. Now
walmart stops selling fabric, and because of them there is no other place to find it.
Hobby Lobby was also rumored to be getting rid of fabric in their stores. I called them myself and was told that they were not getting rid of ALL fabric, but would be downsizing the selection to the more 'staples' and home dec, and carrying less speciality fabrics like bridal, etc. True to their word, our local HLs have really slimmed down their fabric sections to the basics - more like what
Walmart sells - and no longer have such a large selection of garment fabrics.