Michaels Opens First Manhattan Store

Arts & crafts leader redefines category with innovative urban store

IRVING, Texas, Oct. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Michaels, North America's largest arts
and crafts specialty retailer, sets a new standard in the category with its
first Manhattan store featuring a unique new urban store design that focuses
on providing creative inspiration with more than 30,000 products.

The Manhattan store is located in the new Columbus Square development at 808
Columbus Avenue at 97th Street. A weeklong grand opening celebration begins
October 25, 2009 and includes free craft workshops, product demos, giveaways
and a special appearance by Martha Stewart.

"Michaels' customers have been asking us for a Manhattan location for years,
and we think they'll love having the breadth and depth of thousands of
creative products under one roof," said Michaels CEO John Menzer. "The
Manhattan store brings something completely new to New Yorkers with everything
they need for jewelry making, scrapbooking, fine art, custom framing,
children's art, seasonal decor and much more."

Michaels' new Manhattan store is 14,700 square feet and features an open,
modern design with wide aisles, warm colors, 'inspiration kiosks' for project
ideas and work spaces for customers to lay out their designs before
purchasing.

The store is tailored to the Manhattan urban shopper and is the first Michaels
to offer a delivery service. Key departments, like fine arts, custom framing,
jewelry, scrapbooking and kids, are organized in a convenient,
easy-to-navigate, store-within-a-store layout.

- The fine art supply area takes center stage and includes an expanded canvas
selection with more shapes and larger sizes, more than 230 brushes and a broad
selection of acrylic, oil and watercolor paints. Brushes and other products
are arranged by skill level from student to professional to help any artist
buy with confidence.

- Custom framing comes out from behind the counter and becomes more
interactive to create a customer centric area that encourages a hands-on
design experience with a dedicated custom framing design staff. Frames are
color coded by price range to easily select the right design for each budget.
Customers work hand in hand with their Michaels personal framer to lay out
their artwork combining mats and mouldings on an open style design workstation
for a truly "custom" experience.

- The scrapbooking department is organized by themes like birthday, holiday,
sports and vacation, and features a new variety of loose paper pads, thousands
of stickers and embellishments, plus a vast assortment of punches, tools,
organizers, adhesives, albums and other necessities.

- The jewelry department has more than 5,600 different styles of open stock,
pre-strung, and packaged beads for beginners to expert beaders. Michaels'
jewelry department staff helps guide customers, who can use the section's
design trays as they choose beads, pendants, charms, chains, cords and
findings to make unique combinations.

- The new kids' department provides parents a total solution to inspire their
children's imagination and creativity. The department features an expanded
assortment of kids' art supplies for school projects, the largest selection of
Crayola products in any store, kids activity kits, and foam and value-priced
products under $5. The KnackSM, Michaels' resource for moms and teachers that
helps enrich kids' lives through creativity, features free project ideas by
age group with step-by-step instructions and a shopping list for the products
needed to complete the project.

The Michaels Manhattan store grand opening week continues through Saturday,
October 31, with special savings on select products, and free events that
include a book signing with Martha Stewart, demos and workshops with Michaels'
creative expert Jo Pearson, an American Girl Make-It Take-It workshop, a
Wilton Cake Decorating demo and a Halloween Event with a free trick-or-treat
pail, balloon, candy and a Make-It Take-It Halloween frame (while supplies
last). For more information on these and other Michaels Manhattan grand
opening events, go to www.michaels.com/manhattan.

About Michaels
Irving, Texas-based Michaels Stores, Inc. is North America's largest specialty
retailer of arts, crafts, framing, floral, wall decor, and seasonal
merchandise for the hobbyist and do-it-yourself home decorator. The company
currently owns and operates over 1000 Michaels stores in 49 states and Canada
and over 150 Aaron Brothers stores. For more information visit
www.michaels.com.

Media Contact:
Kristen Kauffman
214-379-7000
kristen@spmcommunications.com

This press release was issued through 24-7PressRelease.com. For further
information, visit http://www.24-7pressrelease.com.

SOURCE Michaels Stores, Inc.

Kristen Kauffman, +1-214-379-7000, kristen@spmcommunications.com, for Michaels
Stores, Inc.