JoAnn's New "Design Your Decor" Offering

I love JoAnn's stores... it's one of those places where I could spend hours getting lost in all the cool new sewing and crafting gadgets. That's why I was so excited when they launched a new program called "Design Your Decor." What a great concept! You can use their online tool to create pretty much any kind of furniture or decor you want. Pick what you want to design (sofa, window coverings, etc), pick the fabric (best feature: large selection offered), pick the finishings, and voila! you have a custom-made item! So I went online to investigate this new program, and went through the steps to design a small ottoman for my living room. I loved the program! It was super easy and intuitive. But of course, there were drawbacks... first of all, I will not buy a piece of furniture or decor before I see the fabric sample in person, and this program did not have an easy "order samples" button. And when I got to the end and saw my beautiful new ottoman I had designed, I was sadly shocked by the price. What a dream killer! The program never listed base pricing when showing the various options, so I had no idea how much this would cost me until the pricing summary at the very end. They wanted to charge me $600 for a small foot ottoman! I couldn't believe the outrageous price. Even with the promotional 50% off fabric, it was still way more than I wanted to pay for any piece of furniture, especially an ottoman. I realize this is much cheaper than a truly "custom-made" ottoman, but it is significantly more than comparable items at other retailers. One great option is Home Decorators Collection, which allows you to choose from a variety of fabrics in order to customize your furniture. Until JoAnn's gets their pricing in line with their true competition, I don't see this program being successful.