Lincraft Is Closing Every Australian Store After 80 Years and the Internet Is Taking It Personally

Lincraft, the craft, fabric and homewares chain that has been part of the Australian shopping landscape for more than 80 years has confirmed it is closing all of its stores. All 60-plus of them, across Australia and New Zealand, gone within the next six months. Three hundred jobs will be lost.

The online store will continue operating. For many longtime customers, that is not much of a consolation.

The company described the decision as "difficult and deeply emotional," adding that Lincraft had been "a place where ideas came to life, where families learned to sew and knit together." It is the kind of statement that reads like a eulogy, because it is.

For a certain generation of Australians, Lincraft is the shop where they bought their first sewing pattern. Where they picked out fabric for a school costume, or yarn for a gift they made by hand. It is not the kind of store that generates a lot of loud loyalty until it is gone, and now that it is going, people are feeling it.

This is also the latest in a long line of blows to physical retail in Australia. Harris Scarfe, Borders, Jeanswest, Dimmeys – the list of beloved chains that could not survive the shift online keeps growing. Lincraft outlasted most of them, which makes it sting more.

If you have a store near you, it might be worth going in before it shuts. Some things are worth seeing in person one last time.