Cheap Joe’s Art Stuff paints its final chapter, closing NC stores after 40 years. Here’s when.
After four decades in business, the team at a local art supply shop spent a work day in March putting the final touches on one last project — a painting of a closing sign. The time had come for it to be official.
Cheap Joe’s Art Stuff, known for offering fine art and craft supplies at discount prices, announced on March 21 it would close its Charlotte, Boone and Asheville locations for good after “40 years of creativity, connection and growth.”
After a month-long closing sale on all of its inventory, the Charlotte location’s last day in business will be Saturday, May 17.
“While it’s never easy to deliver this kind of news, this decision was made due to economic strain within the industry, which makes it difficult for all of us at Cheap Joe’s to continue providing the services our customers have come to expect,” the team announced on Facebook.
‘A force in the art materials world’
The family-owned art supply company started out in a drugstore by founder Joe Miller, who was originally working in the pharmacy field.
The small corner he jokingly named “Cheap Joe’s Art Stuff” came to be while he was in practice at Boone Drug, according to the company’s website. But it wasn’t long before he left his career to build the brand “into a force in the art materials world” with locations in Asheville and Charlotte.
But now, about two years after moving out of South End to its new location, the Charlotte shop is closing for good, along with the other North Carolina locations.
This news was tough to hear in the local arts community, as it came on the heels of another big blow: The nationwide closure of all 800 JOANN fabric stores, which included Mooresville and Morganton locations in the Charlotte area, as well as other North Carolina locations in Asheville, Hendersonville, Goldsboro and Rocky Mount. The company was auctioned off to a new ownership group after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Since then, Cheap Joe’s has drawn in local creatives hoping to get in one last shopping trip while they can.
Following the news of the closure, Cheap Joe’s customer Brooklynn Thompson wandered the store with an armful of supplies, including a filled canvas tote sporting the store’s logo. “I think that it’s sad,” she said, telling us she only recently found out about the store. “I think that it is an awesome place for new artists to see artwork around here and to be inspired. I think they have great pricing and great opportunities to network.”
‘It’s almost like a little artist commune’
On the day of the announcement by Cheap Joe’s, just three customers could be found walking through the aisles of paints, brushes, canvas, easels, drawing supplies, watercolors, oils, acrylics and more at the Charlotte location.
“I’m really going to miss it, but we persevere. We move on. It’s just going to be a little hard and a little sad not having this place for the community and being able to serve them for all of their artistic needs,” Noelle Kelly, a store employee, told CharlotteFive as she sat on the floor painting a crying Garfield comic on the door.
“Even people just come to hang out here, which is nice, and they always ask to see what we’re working on. It’s almost like a little artist commune. You just don’t get that at big-box places like Michael’s or Hobby Lobby or things like that. It just makes me sad.”
It’s unclear when the Boone location will be close, but the team announced the Asheville store space will be taken over by another locally-owned company to continue to sell art supplies. As previously reported by AVL Today, River Arts District painter Philip DeAngelo and his wife, Tina, will transform it into Asheville Art Supply.
In a statement shared in the Facebook announcement, CEO Joseph Miller said: “We want to express our heartfelt thanks to our loyal customers, employees, and partners who have been a part of our journey. While this chapter closes, the journey was a great one, and we will be forever grateful.”
Alex Cason and Melissa Oyler contributed.
Cheap Joe’s Art Stuff
Location: 2336 Freedom Dr, Charlotte, NC 28208
Location: 829 Riverside Dr, Asheville, NC 28801
Location: 374 Industrial Park Dr, Boone, NC 28607
Instagram: @cheapjoesartstuff
This story was originally published March 21, 2025 at 1:30 PM.
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