First, I forgot who, but one of the Grumblers is a Corners employee.
Ok, take this as unconfirmed "vendor talk." We know how accurate that can be.
Essentially this is rumor and probably has the accuracy you would expect.
They were Frame King Express and a had a number of "corporate stores" as well as franchisees. Some time back (5 - 10 yrs???) they stopped franchising, but retained the corporate stores. At that time they changed their name to Corners.
About a year and a half ago they merged (were bought out) with BA Framers. As I understand it BA Framers have their "own" line of moulding and their own stores "in the South." I have been told that BA Framers is the outfit that "runs" the A.C. Moore framing departments. Again, remember ... rumor!
When the "merger" happened with BA Framers they "threw out" the vendors they were using, so there was a lot of grumping by the reps in the area! I have since acquired a number of their "old" customers, because they "don't have the good frames anymore." The one a few towns away honors Michael's coupons as well as having their own big postcard mailings regularly.
Looking at a couple of price quotes that customer's brought in I was running +/- 10% of their 50% off price. (That was when they carried LJ and I could do an apples to apples comparison.) Haven't bothered to check prices, since they changed hands. The closest one is not really that near and I am pulling customers because the mouldings apparently aren't "up to expectations."
As Ellen says ... take what you can use, etc.