Hobby Lobby

I was visiting my brother in Washington and I had gotten him some American flags that had been flown in other countries for Christmas. We decided to get specialty shadow boxes made for them at this Hobby Lobby. The initial visit went well enough and the staff seemed knowledgeable. I paid in advance because I was not going to be in town when they were ready. We ordered and paid for them on dec 9 and were told they’d be done by dec 22. My brother showed up on dec 22 and was told they still weren’t ready but to try back in a few days. He still hadn’t heard from them so he called on dec 26 and they told him they still weren’t ready because one of the frames had been delivered warped and they have to order a new one.
I understand things can happen but what I’m concerned with is the lack of professionalism. We did not receive one call from them letting us know these frames would be delayed. Also, we were giving conflicting reasons on the delay.
I called from Arizona to speak to a manager on the dec 26 to find out what exactly was going on and was less than pleased by the response I got. I was put on hold for two minutes while I waited for a manager. A female got on the phone stating she was the manager and when I explained the situation she apologized and said she’d talk to her framing department. Next thing I know I have a very rude gentleman on the phone giving me excuse after excuse about their lack of communication and why the frames were not done. When I asked to speak to the manager again he said he was the manager. When I asked why the woman I was speaking to previously said she was the manager he said she was a department manager and he was the general manager. Either way he was rude and very unprofessional. He said he would get us one of the two frames immediately and we’d have to wait on the second. I will update my post if and when this situation corrects itself.
As of now, I would not recommend this hobby lobby’s framing department (or the entire store if that gentleman really was the general manager!).

The store is very clean and it has lots of very good products. There are lots of projects that you can do. Unfortunately, the workers are not very knowledgeable of crafting in general. I asked two different employees about zippers and buttons but instead of taking me where they were they just pointed at a direction and gave me an isle number. The cashiers were not friendly at all. I have been there on several occasions but in none of those times they were friendly, no smiles or kindness of any kind. I even saw a worker telling a child to stop touching the candy unless it was going to be purchased. It’s a real shame because the store is great.

Giant craft store. A little on the expensive side for some things but I always bring coupons from retailmenot. Spend lots of time in here.

It’s huge! Love the seasonal sections of the store, I could spend a few hours in there just wandering around looking at all the cool stuff. I can’t wait for my daughter to get old enough to do craft projects with, this would be the place to go!

Alright, to get it out of the way, yes yes yes, I KNOW Hobby Lobby promotes themselves as a Christian based, Christian owned, Christian staffed store (I kid you not, they had a big to do here in Wenatchee over having all All Christian Staff… which makes me think that lawsuits are soon to follow, but I digress).
I searched online to see if I could find a certain art supply. Hobby Lobby claimed they had said supply. My partner and I went in to pick up said item (precut ATC blanks).
We asked first, for the drawing and paper department, and went there. Not seeing the product on the shelf, we went to 3 separate employees, hoping perhaps they were just in another department (craft paper, perhaps, or stationary, or even scrapbooking). No luck. Turns out despite Hobby Lobby’s website, they didn’t have the supplies. Matter of fact, they didn’t even know what they were, and looked at us like we were stupid, rude, and in their way when we asked for help.
But that’s not what’s got my blood boiling. It was the fact that the last employee looked us up and down and SNEERED at us and then followed us out to be sure we left. That was infuriating.
Folks, we weren’t making out in the store. We walked in. I was in a business suit (because I was on my lunch hour) and he was dressed rather conservatively, considering he regularly dresses like a farm boy while he’s doing messy art projects. We weren’t exactly waving a big rainbow banner. That tells me the employees routinely ‘profile’ people who walk in, making judgements on their sexuality.
No one likes to think they’re a bother to a store’s employee, but the attitude I caught going in there was ridiculous. I didn’t even stick around long enough to browse to see if they might be a decent resource later, even if they didn’t have what I needed on that particular trip. I haven’t been left feeling that uncomfortable in a store in a very long time. w