Hancock Fabrics

Very friendly and exceptionally helpful staff!

I actually like the store itself and nearly all of the regular employees.
However there is ONE WOMAN there who makes shopping there un-​fun. I call her the «Coupon Nazi» because she will only ever let you use ONE coupon, and makes it clear she disapproves of you and your coupons, ESPECIALLY if you present said coupons on Sr. Discount Wednesday. No other employee at any Hancock in any state has ever treated me this way.
She is cold and dismissive if you ask her for help. She speaks as if she thinks she is better than anyone who would shop at Hancock Fabrics. She looks down her nose at the customers. I’ve had the misfortune to run across her several times in person and once over the phone. The phone incident put the nail in the coffin for me, I will never set foot in THIS Hancock Fabrics again (the one on Kietzke in Reno, not the Sparks location) because if she is there she just makes it a bad experience. Here’s what happened when I called and she answered the phone.
I don’t keep my cell on me, and since Verizon only lets the phone ring for 30 seconds, frequently I can’t get to the phone before it stops ringing. So I missed a call by a fraction of a second and when I checked, it was from Hancock Fabrics on Kietzke. So I IMMEDIATELY called back and this woman answered the phone. I immediately recognized her frosty voice. I explained that someone from the store had just called me less than a minute ago. She told me she hadn’t called me — apparently she thinks she is the only employee who knows how to use the phone. Nevertheless, I told her, SOMEONE had just called me from the Hancock number, and I wondered why.
After being grilled for a few minutes (how did I know it was from their store, etc), she finally informed me that there was no reason anyone from there would have called me. Apparently phone gremlins scrambled the circuits of my data phone and put a fake entry in my missed call list. Because she insisted she didn’t make the call and therefore it didn’t come from their store, and she wouldn’t ask any of the other employees — just to show she was in control, I guess, because the store is not so over-​run with employees that it would have taken her more than a couple of minutes to poll the one or two other employees in the store to find out who had called me.
Mystified, as well as insulted and annoyed by her overbearing attitude and total lack of desire to try to be of some help, I gave up.
A few weeks later (just today, as a matter of fact), I came across a raincheck from Hancock in my handbag. So that is most likely what they had called about — that item had probably come in and someone (one of the NICE employees) must have called to let me know that. I’m guessing they left a voicemail, but my phone doesn’t always properly notify me of that if I’m on the phone when the notification of a voicemail tries to come through. A few days later, I noticed a flag for a voicemail but I accidentally erased it when I tried to play it. I’m guessing that was the message from Hancock on Kietzke when I missed the call.
Well by the time I found the raincheck and realized what had happened, I had already bought the item — for about 35% less — from Amazon.
Every other employee in that store is just fine. Some of them have gone far, FAR out of their way when I have needed (sometimes significant) help. But given that finding this woman in the store guarantees a negative shopping experience, I’m not going to risk a wasted trip driving out there. I’ll just go to the Sparks store instead — it’s a bit further, but there is 0% chance of a ruined shopping trip at the other location.
Plus, the Sparks Hancock store is getting ready to move to new digs. I hope they’ll be closer, but at least the store will be getting a face-​lift, so it can only be MORE pleasant to shop there as opposed to the Kietzke store when the dragonlady happens to be in.

It’s amazing how much fabric you can pack into one small store!
Hancock does an excellent job with this! They have every kind of fabric you might need for any sewing project! I loved that they had different fabric than can be found at other local stores. It’s always nice to see different patterns than the usual ones being sold.
They have all the usual pattern suppliers from Butterick and McCalls to the fancier Vogue ones. The store also has a fantastic selection to help you finish any garment from hemming tape to zippers to buttons. Anything you might need for sewing can be found in this store!
There was one friendly employee who greeted me when I first arrived in the store and once I told her I was just browsing she got back to stocking fabric. I loved knowing she was there without following me around the store. I found her when I had a question and she was very helpful.
Since I’ve just gotten back into sewing I was really just here to browse but once my skills return I will definitely be back to buy some of these unique and gorgeous fabrics! I won’t be able to stop myself.