Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., formerly known as Hobby Lobby Creative Centers, is an American retail corporation. Its chain of arts and crafts shops generated more than $5 billion in sales in 2018, for various commodities, from books to floor tiles.
In 47 states, the business has 969 locations. Hobby Lobby, a Christian-owned business, blends Christian media with conservative American beliefs.
In northwest Oklahoma City, David Green launched the first Hobby Lobby shop in 1972. In 1975, Green resigned from his supervisor role with the department retailer TG&Y to open a second Hobby Lobby in Oklahoma City. The next year, he launched a second store in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
By mid-1982, Hobby Lobby had expanded to seven locations, and the first store outside of Oklahoma debuted in 1984. Early in the 1980s, Green broadened the company’s focus to include furniture and upscale cookery, but this decision cost him money because the economy was slowing down.
By late 1992, the chain had 50 sites spread across seven U.S. states, thanks to his return to a concentration on arts and crafts.
Hobby Lobby, a Christian-owned business, blends Christian media with conservative American beliefs. The website of Hobby Lobby features a statement by David Green, a preacher’s son, that reads, “By running the business in a way that is in line with biblical principles, we seek to glorify the Lord in all that we do.”
Signs on the front doors of their retail establishments state that all stores are closed on Sundays to “give employees time for family and prayer.”
Since 2014, the company’s full-time hourly rate has been $15. On September 14, 2020, they stated that it would increase to $17 as of October 1, 2020.
On January 1, 2022, it increased the minimum hourly wage for full-time employees to $18.50 while increasing the minimum hourly wage for part-time employees by 18% to $13. According to Hobby Lobby, the minimum wage has increased twelve times over the thirteen years leading up to 2021.
By 2022, Hobby Lobby will operate 969 locations across 47 states (every state except Alaska, Hawaii, and Vermont).
In the middle- to upper-class suburban regions, Hobby Lobby frequently looks to lease big-box properties like vacant supermarkets, hardware stores, or Kmarts. When opposed to developing new retail space, the company may save 50–70% on a lease for an older, existing facility, which they see as essential to maintaining their competitive advantage in the arts and crafts sector. Customers frequent these establishments, which can be up to 90,000 square feet (8,400 m2) in size and travel up to 10-15 miles (16-24 km).
Allegations of antisemitism, homophobia, and LGBTQ discrimination, attempts to evangelize public schools, “efforts to deny access to contraceptives for employees,” and “discrimination and illegally smuggled artifacts to endanger employees during the coronavirus pandemic” are just a few of the scandals and controversies that have surrounded the company and its owners.
Controversies surrounding smuggling and collection management Beginning in 2009, Hobby Lobby representatives were informed that the items they bought were likely stolen from Iraq. The acquisitions were made to support the company’s sponsorship of the Museum of the Bible.
In 2018, Hobby Lobby was ordered by the Eastern District of New York United States District Court to return the artifacts and pay a US$3,000,000 fine. In May 2018, Hobby Lobby returned more than 5500 goods. Nearly 4000 of these tablets, which had been sent to Hobby Lobby labeled as “tile samples,” were allegedly from the long-lost city of Irisagrig.
The Dead Sea Scrolls fragments that served as the highlight of the Museum of the Bible’s collection were deemed forgeries in April 2020.
The Museum took down an exhibit of a little bible that a NASA astronaut allegedly took with him to the moon after its veracity was called into question.
The announcement that the Museum will be returning over 11,000 antiquities to Egypt and Iraq by board chairman Steve Green, also the head of the Hobby Lobby stores, dealt the Museum of the Bible another blow to its reputation. Numerous bits of antique clay and papyrus were also part of the collection.
According to papyrologist Roberta, the Green family “poured millions on the legal and criminal antiquities market without having a clue about the history, material qualities, cultural worth, fragilities, and issues of the artifacts,” Mazza of the University of Manchester.
The United States of America v. Approximately Four Hundred Fifty Ancient Cuneiform Tablets and Approximately Three Thousand Ancient Clay Bullae is the case name of a civil complaint that U.S. federal prosecutors filed in the Eastern District of New York at the beginning of July 2017.
On July 5, 2017, Hobby Lobby agreed to a settlement that called for the antiquities to be forfeited, a $3 million fine to be paid, and the return of more than 5500 artifacts. The Museum of the Bible’s board chairman, Steve Green, announced in January 2021: ”
As part of a voluntary administrative procedure, we gave the U.S. government control of the fine art storage facility that housed the 5,000 Egyptian antiquities.
Officials in Egypt have reportedly received the papyri from the American administration. In addition, 8000 clay pieces were sent to the Iraq Museum in Baghdad.
The “Gilgamesh Dream Tablet,” which contained a portion of the Epic of Gilgamesh and was discovered in Iraq in 1853, was among the items returned.
In 2003, the Jordanian Antiquities Association sold it to an antiquities dealer, and in 2014, Hobby Lobby purchased it from Christie’s auction house for $1.6 million.
The auction company made up information regarding how the item came to be sold, saying it had been available in the U.S. for many years.
Federal authorities confiscated the tablet in September 2019, and a civil complaint to forfeit it was filed in May 2020. The Gilgamesh tablet was taken from Hobby Lobby in July 2021, according to a statement by the U.S. Department of Justice, for repatriation to Iraq.
For the Eastern District of New York, acting U.S. Attorney Jacquelyn M. Kasulis declared: “This office is committed to combatting the black market sale of cultural property and the smuggling of looted items.” When collecting antiquities, Hobby Lobby disregarded professional guidance, which led to several seizures and fines.
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