I went by a hobby lobby today. First time in at least 15 years.
I wanted to buy some ceramic paint and brushes.
Nearly 80% of the store was decorator and gift items. Their “hobby” stuff was way,way in the back. I didn’t see any train sets actually on tables and working. No radio controlled cars or airplanes. If they had them, they were in a box on some aisle.
What kind of hobby shop is this? Where are all the clerks that love the stuff they sell? hobby shops are supposed to be places you hang out and learn. What’s the best locomotive. What gauge. You go to see cool stuff and wish you could afford it.
hobby lobby was a big let down. nothing like the hobby shops from my childhood.
A lot of businesses try to do the gift shop type crap when their main business doesn’t seem to be pulling in the moolah. I had a local Mailboxes, Etc. type place that had the exact same format; beanie babies and spoons and shot glasses and other gift shop type stuff all over the place, oh and the mail desk tucked in the back.
Hobby Lobby is more like Michael’s with extra decor stuff. They have an aisle of models, and also art and craft supplies, scrapbook stuff, fabric, a frame shop, etc. It’s not a traditional “hobby shop,” no.
It’s a fun place to shop, they have a big clearance area with lots of cool stuff.
The hobbies are mostly “women’s” hobbies, that is, knitting, crocheting, sewing, scrapbooking. I visit a couple of local HLs, and in each of them, the decor/gifty stuff takes up perhaps 25% of the public floor space. In this area, there are darned few places that sell RC thingies as a large part of their business, and those that do tend to sell RC thingies and accessories almost exclusively. I don’t know why, but it seems that there’s just not much market for these thingies in Fort Worth and the surrounding suburbs.
Generally I try to avoid HL, and go to Michael’s, because HL is a “Christian” store, and makes a point of being closed on Sunday. They do have a decent acrylic yarn that’s a house brand, though, so every now and then I find myself looking for more yarn.
I guess, if you’re not religious, it’s a question of what you can stand. At the risk of being all Great Debate-y, as an agnostic I just don’t see Hobby Lobby as being that overt in its Christianity. Sure it’s closed on Sundays, and its CEO is an unapologetic evangelical. Big whoop, the same could be said for Chick-Fil-A, and I’m not about to stop going there on my rare travels to CFA country. It hasn’t got religious symbols everywhere or doesn’t blast Graham Kendrick tunes out of the speakers or have its employees to tell you that “God loves you” on your way out the door. And it’s not like the Bangladeshi grocery store in Toronto where I was herded out of the place so the owner and his family could have their five-daily prayers.
No, the place is closed on Sundays. Just like nearly every store in large sections of the country was not so long ago. If that makes the place insufferably Christian, well, your call, but I don’t agree.
My local Hobby Lobby is about 50% home decor now. And next month they’ll start moving in the Christmas decorations.
I get all my framing done at HL, because I’ve found that it’s much cheaper than Michael’s.
I don’t think they push Christianity at you, but they do play Muzak hymns on the speakers. If I go there at lunch I spend the rest of the day humming “How Great Thou Art”.
I end up avoiding Hobby Lobby, because Sunday is the day I do my major shopping and they’re not open. My husband works most Saturdays and we only have one car, so I end up going to a hobby/yarn store that’s open when I’m out shopping. It’s their policy, good for them but it just doesn’t work out for me.
In my area, they run a full-page evangelical newspaper ad at Eastertime, usually with Crucifixion imagery. I call that plenty overt. The same company also owns a Christian education company. Their website has a ministry page. The affiliated company is Mardel, at the bottom of the page.
When I was doing model railroading (no space now :() I would go to HL quite often for supplies. Not the actual trains, models or track but scratchbuilding supplies like razor knives, sheet styrene, scale lumber, modelling materials, etc. And when I built my daughter’s dollhouse I picked up a bunch of supplies there as well. And the have a great selection of acrylic hobby paints.
But if you’re serious about a hobby, like (for example) trains, you’ll go to a specialty store or the internet.
ETA: I always considered the company’s Christian leanings a feature, not a bug
As long as we are on the subject (and the OP has been somewhat sidetracked), is there any truth to the rumor that Hobby Lobby funnels money to the Westboro Baptist Church?
Because I don’t mind a business being overtly Christian, but there’s no way I’m stepping foot in their store if they’re supporting the Phelpses.
Just to echo what others have said: they aren’t a “hobby shop” in the sense that a person who’s more familiar with traditional hobby shops (that is, likely a guy over 35) would know it. As you saw, they do have a section devoted to those traditional hobbies (models, trains, etc.), but it’s not a very big section. (That said, I know that many model rocketry fans keep an eye on the HL weekly ads, for when rocket kits and motors go on sale.)
It is, largely, more devoted to arts and crafts, and home decorating. Given that they seem to be doing pretty well, whereas traditional hobby shops have become pretty rare, it’d seem that they’ve made a wise choice in their focus.
Oh, I’m old enough to remember the Blue Laws (especially in Texas). My way of thinking is that HL markets itself on being Christian, and makes a point of noting that it’s closed on Sundays so that its employees can have “time for family and worship” or something similar. If they’re gonna market themselves as Christian, then they should also live with the fact that overt Christianity will turn some people off. And around here, they DO make a point of being a Christian store. They have a lot of religious based items, and the religion is ONLY Christianity. If I want to buy something for my Jewish friend (she collects dreidls), I have to get something neutral or nothing at all at HL. At Michael’s, the collection of stuff based on religions other than Christianity is much smaller than the Christian based stuff, but it’s there.
I don’t boycott them completely, as I said, I do buy their house brand of yarn…but I try to take my business elsewhere, if I can. And I also boycott Chick Fil A.
When I think Hobby-Lobby,I connect it to Hobby-Lobby the RC mail order business. Planes, boats, cars, helicopters, and as far as I know they are not tied to any christian groups, wacky or not.
Heh, one time I won this prize at church and they wanted to get me a gift certificate for a store of my choosing. Since I was working on a model railroad, I asked for a Hobby Lobby gift certificate. They went and bought one at the other Hobby Lobby, which has a store near here. Boy was I disappointed when I went in and it was all RC stuff!
