West Lebanon
Crafts store Michaels will be opening its first store in the Upper Valley on Feb. 3 in the space formerly occupied by Books-a-Million between Price Chopper and Wal-Mart on Route 12A. The move caps 18 months of planning for the Irving, Texas-based chain, which began laying the groundwork in 2015 when it advertised for employees to staff a store in West Lebanon.
At the same time, long-time Lebanon yarn shop Country Woolens is closing after more than 50 years, with owner Deborah Hodges saying internet sales have eaten into her business and she has grown weary of vandalism to the Mechanic Street property.
“The store has been vandalized again and again. The last time was in October. ” Hodges said. “And there’s been graffiti. I’m sort of sick and tired of it. … The recession also killed off a lot of yarn shops and Amazon and other online sellers have hurt us.”
Hodges is the latest small retailer in the Lebanon-Hanover area to be pushed out of business by customers’ shift to buying products online. More than two dozen stores have closed in recent years with their owners citing loss of sales to the internet as a major factor. Hers is the second yarn store in the Upper Valley to close in recent months: White River Yarns in White River Junction closed its doors in November.
Hodges, a onetime administrator at Dartmouth College, has owned Country Woolens since 1999. She said the store had two previous owners and had been in existence for “30 to 40 years” before she acquired it about 18 years ago. She also organized knitting classes at her store and said she might continue classes at another location “if there’s a call for it.”
“She’s been a fixture in Lebanon,” said Kim MacMillan, of West Lebanon, makes Waldorf dolls which she sells through the Esty.com marketplace. “These two yarn shops that just closed were needed.” MacMillan said the chain stores do not carry the quality yarns, natural fibers and knitting materials available in small, independent shops.
The closing of Country Woolens and White River Yarns leaves Northern Nights Yarn Shop in Norwich, The Whipple Tree in Woodstock and Hodgepodge Yarns & Fibers in Newport, N.H. Also, a fiber shop has recently opened in Enfield operated by Aker Fiber Farm, which sells yarn made from Corriedale sheep wool and English Angora bunny wool on the farm.
Michaels New Hampshire district manager Jennifer Dropski said the store’s Feb. 3 “soft opening” will be followed by a “grand opening” on Feb. 12. Dropski said the store is looking to hire 30 to 50 people to staff the grand opening and 25 to 30 employees on an ongoing basis.
The nearest Michaels store locations are in Rutland, Keene, Manchester and Concord. “We look for communities that love crafting,” Dropski said. “I live in New Hampshire and I know there are a ton of crafters here, that’s for sure.”
Passersby had expected Michaels to open before Christmas in order to take advantage of the holiday shopping season. When work in the 20,000-square-foot space appeared to stop, they questioned whether there had been a glitch in the plans. But Dropski said the company “likes to take its time” when opening a store and was not in a hurry to open before the holidays.
Michaels, which bills itself as the “largest specialty provider of arts, crafts, framing, floral, wall decor and seasonal merchandise for the hobbyist and do-it-yourself home decorator,” operates 1,368 stores in the U.S. and Canada. For the third quarter of 2016, the most recently available results, Michaels reported net sales rose 5 percent to $1.2 billion and net income was essentially flat at $76.5 million compared to the comparable period a year earlier.
Michaels is coming into a market already occupied by its chief rival, Jo-Ann Fabrics and Crafts, which also sells home crafting supplies. Wal-Mart, in the same shopping plaza where Michaels will be located, has a crafting aisle. In addition, Hobbies ’N’ Stuff and Valley Art Supplies in the Glen Road Plaza sells arts and crafts supplies.
