Michaels Crafts

Michaels Crafts bills itself as the largest specialty retailer of arts and craft supplies in America. It has been a publicly held company since 1984 and has more than 800 stores in 48 states providing an average of 40,000 items per store.

A History of Michaels Crafts

Michaels Crafts started as a small craft store chain located mostly in Texas. After the company went public it went through a period of rapid expansion and can now be found in almost every state as well as in Canada.

There were 805 Michaels Crafts stores at the end of January 2004, along with 158 Aaron Brothers stores, a wholly owned subsidiary of Michaels Crafts located in Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Texas and Washington and focusing on framing and art supplies.

Sales for the two sets of stores topped $3 billion in fiscal year 2003. The average Michaels Crafts store is 18,200 square feet, contains around 40,000 items and makes more than $3.9 million in sales annually. Aaron Brothers stores are smaller, at about 5,800 square feet and 6,100 items per store; they make about $1.1 million each in sales.

Other Michaels Crafts Businesses

In addition to Michaels Crafts and Aaron Brothers, Michaels Stores, Inc. owns Recollections, a scrapbooking concept with 11 stores in four states, and Star Decorators Wholesale, which sells direct to interior designers and professional crafters through stores in Dallas, Phoenix and Atlanta.

Other ventures by Michaels Stores, Inc. include Artistree, a frame and moulding operation that fulfills custom framing orders for the Michaels Crafts and Aaron Brothers stores, and seven distribution centers to help stock stores nationwide.

Michaels Crafts Stores

Walking into a Michaels Crafts store is a magical experience for people who love crafting. The store is full of general crafting products, from home décor to projects for kids, beads to yarn, paper crafts to painting.

In that way, it is a lot like the other large craft store chains, such as Hobby Lobby and Joann Crafts. One way in which it tries to distinguish itself is the in-store classes, informational displays and knowledgeable staff who can actually help customers with questions about how to proceed with a craft project.

Several classes are held at each store each month. Classes might range from making a Christmas tree ornament to practicing cake decorating, learning to crochet or picking up techniques for bead weaving.

Like other craft chains, Michaels Crafts also puts out a weekly ad with sales and specials. Often you can save money by shopping the weekly specials and getting 50 percent off items you would have bought eventually anyway. This is a great way to shop for seasonal craft items if you have a place to store them for the rest of the year.

Michaels Crafts Online

The thing that is perplexing about Michaels Crafts is its website. Don’t get me wrong, it's a lovely site, and the project ideas you can find there are wonderful. But I do have one complaint, and it's a huge one: you can't buy craft supplies from the website.

It looks like you should be able to. There's even a link on all the pages to view your shopping cart (gift cards can be purchased online--but make sure your recipient lives near a store by checking out the store locator before you buy). But whenever you click on an item you might like to purchase you get a page that says "Product information shown on the web site is not for purchase online. All purchases should be made at your local Michaels store."

Which would be fine if I had a local Michaels store. But since the nearest one to me is around an hour away I'm not about to shop there over the chain craft store that is in my hometown. If it were possible to buy items online from Michaels I'm sure I would, because I have bought from Joann online when they have something I can't get at my local Hobby Lobby.

But I digress. The website is still worth a visit if you are looking for projects. Click on one of the categories at the top of the page and you'll be taken to a page that highlights a couple of projects and features a drop-down menu where you can find projects for your specific craft.

There are many fun and creative project available on the Michaels Crafts site. If only I could buy the supplies as easily!

Michaels Crafts and Community

A final good thing about Michaels Crafts is that the company likes to give back to the communities it serves. Their website indicates that they give monetary and product donations to many charities, including the United Way, March of Dimes, the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army, Warm Up, America and the North Texas Food Bank. You've got to love a company that shares the wealth as well as the craft tips.