Michaels® Debuts Next Gen Stores Designed to Fuel Creativity, Celebration, and Community

New store format marks an important milestone in Michaels' transformation to elevate the customer experience through enhanced products, store environment, services and events

IRVING, Texas, Aug. 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Michaels, North America's leading destination for creativity and celebration, today announced the latest expansion of its new experiential store model with the opening of its third location in Rogers, Arkansas. Debuting in Easton, Ohio, and Irving, Texas, and now Rogers, the new store marks a pivotal acceleration of Michaels' broader transformation strategy, bringing an upgraded, customer-first experience to shoppers while piloting key elements that will eventually roll out to shoppers at all stores.

Serving as a dynamic environment to test and learn, the new stores provide an opportunity to continuously refine and scale several features across all stores. The company plans to open additional concept stores and bring enhanced elements to existing locations throughout 2026, ensuring customers everywhere feel the evolution of Michaels.

"Our new stores represent an exciting milestone within Michaels' broader transformation to redefine the customer journey and become a true destination for creativity and celebration," said David Boone, CEO of Michaels. "The new format reflects our customers' desire for more inspiration and hands-on, analog experiences, while providing a space for the local community to connect, create, and celebrate."

An Immersive Retail Journey
To make shopping at Michaels even more inspirational, engaging, and memorable across every aisle, the new store concept features fresh elements designed to spark ideas to create and celebrate.

The store features distinct shopping worlds, creating a more modern, experiential, and visually appealing customer experience. Each world features dynamic lifestyle vignettes to provide inspiration by highlighting key products, creative projects, and step-by-step styling instructions. 

• Knit & Sew Shop: Now prominently placed at the front of the store, the shop features our largest-ever assortment of fabric and textiles. The space centers around a fabric Cut Bar and introduces an industry first Swatch Bar, invented by Michaels to bring 1,000 online samples directly into the store. Shoppers can physically touch every swatch to find their favorites, scan the QR code on any sample to shop and order on their mobile device, or receive one-on-one assistance from a Team Member to place the order and have it shipped right to their door.
• Fine Arts: Designed with a distinct color palette and creative waterfall fixtures to showcase more product, Fine Arts features deep counters tailored to a wide selection of canvas, paint, brushes, and more.
• Floral & Greenery: Unifying the floral department into one dedicated space, this area elevates the assortment with trendsetting real-touch and outdoor-ready products where customers can create their own custom arrangements.
• Expanded Framing & Personalization Services: Michaels' ready-made and custom framing is combined into a single destination elevated by warm wood tones and a modern display of molding and components. Customers will find photo services including 10-Minute Custom Framing, where shoppers can print any photo from their phone and have it framed in as little as 10 minutes for only $29, alongside same-day prints, printed on fine art paper in sizes ranging from 4x4 up to 16x20. A striking glass wall lets customers watch expert Framing Specialists bring projects to life in real time, while the Custom Bar introduces brand-new personalization services for the first time like embroidery, engraving, and made-to-order stickers.
• Crafting & Kids: Bringing it all together with a curated mix of leading national brands and Michaels private labels, this vibrant space provides ample room to inspire artists of all ages. Near this section, customers will also see an expansive assortment of papercraft, encouraging hands-on making.
• The Party Shop at Michaels: A dedicated celebration hub featuring an expanded party assortment, Balloon Bar, and an open, upgraded Party & Event space with an enhanced classroom to host birthday parties, community events, and classes.
• Signature Moments: As shoppers explore the store, they will discover five interactive stations designed to spark inspiration and hands-on creativity at every turn. These include:
  • Candy Bar: Ideal for designing a picture-perfect dessert display or custom favor bags, the Candy Bar offers a wide assortment of colorful sweets like gummy bears, jelly beans, gumballs, and more. 
  • Favor Bar: Designed to make gifting effortless for all ages, the Favor Bar allows customers to mix and match trend-forward items to build custom party favors. Customers will find beauty treats like face masks and lip balm, bachelorette-ready gift sets, playful items like glitter drink mixes and playing cards, and more. 
  • Charmed Bar: Starting at $3.99, customers can personalize jewelry like bracelets or necklaces using a wide selection of charms, bases and more.
  • Patch Bar: Starting at $1.99, customers can browse trending patches to personalize totes, hats, apparel and more. 
  • Marker Bar: Launching at all stores at the end of this month, customers can customize their own marker - watercolor, acrylic, or alcohol - across various colors, sizes, and tips exclusively from Artist Loft, starting at just 99 cents.
• Seasonal & Trends: Located near the front of the store, this section features an elongated aisle holding space for all seasonal decor and a new Pinterest Trend Bar, showcasing viral creative trends with the exact products to bring them to life.
• Welcome Center: Positioned at the front of the store, a dedicated Welcome Desk is staffed by a Michaels Team Member to greet shoppers. The front area features a queue for Michaels Rewards members to access fast self-checkouts alongside an assisted line for customers who prefer it. Reimagined, easy-to-access Buy Online, Pick Up In-Store stations are located directly to the side for seamless online order retrieval.

For more information, visit Michaels.com or follow @michaelsstores on social media. For images or video of the new store format, please visit http://www.michaelspressroom.com/media-assets.

About The Michaels Companies, Inc.
At The Michaels Companies Inc., our purpose is to fuel the joy of creativity and celebration. As the leading destination for creating and celebrating in North America, we operate over 1,300 stores in 49 states and Canada and online at Michaels.com and Michaels.ca. The Michaels Companies, Inc. also owns Artistree, a manufacturer of custom and specialty framing merchandise. Founded in 1973 and headquartered in Irving, Texas, Michaels is the best place for all things creative. For more information, please visit www.michaels.com.

Media Contact
Kim Kornfeld
[email protected]

SOURCE The Michaels Companies, Inc.