Hobby Lobby — Local services in Madison

I had an AWFUL experience at Hobby Lobby, one of the worst experiences I have ever had at a retail store. If I could give them less than one star , I would. In fact, I would suggest going to Joanne's fabrics if you would like to avoid the micro-aggression and hostile treatment I experienced at Hobby Lobby on Monona Rd..

I just had a wedding, and returned some items we purchased a week ago that were unopened and unused. In the past few months we have spent hundreds of dollars at this store on wedding items. Today, we had about $30 in returned items. I only had one of the receipts. The cashier refunded that item and asked if we used a credit or debit card for the other items. We confirmed that we did. We swiped the card and she was able to find the purchase and a list of items purchased, totaling $198. The cashier claimed she could not find the items we brought on the receipt showing on her screen. The way their system works, is that it will list the amount of the item, the number of items purchased, and a long number code of some kind. She said she couldn't find a match for the items at its regular or sales price. I thought, this is bizarre. So we checked our other cards which also showed purchases but they were not the right ones. So finally, I asked her if she could get a manager to help us figure it out.

The manager was nearby so I said, "excuse me sir, can you help us with something? She is having a hard time figuring out where the items are on this receipt. Oddly, everything on it was listed as "floral". So the manager, with a very hostile tone says "I can only approve what she does, she has to do it." I said, "that was not my question, I was asking if you could look at her screen and help us figure out which one is the item we are returning. He repeats "I can only approve what she does, etc." so I said, "Sir, I'm asking if you can just take a look at her screen." The manager repeats, in a very hostile tone, his face turning red, and I mean this man had a sneer on his face, so he repeats, "I cannot override anything she does, I can only...." so I said, "Sir, I am asking if you can help us figure something out, that's all. " Then he says no, and repeats the statement, standing away from the register. He will not look at it, listen, or help. I was confounded by his animosity. Bear in mind, my husband and I are an interracial couple. My husband is white and I am a black woman, so I am beginning to suspect that he is having a problem with that. So I asked him, "Sir, are you simply saying that you do not want to help us?" So he repeats, shaking his head, his face very red, "I can only approve what she does." So I turned to my husband and say, "We have spent hundreds of dollars in this store and this is how we are getting treated? He is basically refusing any service or assistance to us." So the manager interrupts, and says "Ma'am, I am saying..." to which I interrupt him , and said , "Sir, I am having a private conversation with my husband."

I turned to the cashier, and said, I will help you figure this out. SO I took my calculator out, and calculated the items we wanted to return. Apparently, the items were %50 off when we purchased them, and showed as 10.43 (7) items instead of seven separate items at 1.49 each. The cashier had earlier claimed she was looking for a line by line entry for each item when their system had actually totaled multiple items as one amount. Why wouldn't she know this already? And if she didn't, this is something that a manager would have been able to figure out. So I went through the list, calculating the purchases, 10.98/2 at 2.49 each, simple math. We were then given our money back.

Why should the customer have to figure out how purchases look on their cash registers? Why did the manager flat out refuse to assist us? I was not rude, I referred to him as "sir", and politely asked if he could help. There was no reason for his animosity. My advice, do not shop there. If you are black go where your money is appreciated, people respect you, and don't try to pick...

Very visually busy store. My ADHD brain has a hard time focusing on one thing at a time there. So I get frustrated and leave most of the time. I have to take this store one area at a time per visit otherwise I get overwhelmed/over stimulated. BUT this store has a lot of "things." Has a bit of everything. It always Christmas there it seems. The furniture looks amazing and adorable but once you lay hands on it you know it's very cheaply made and will fall apart quickly and is VERY over priced. If you want good looking cheap things for storage or what not go to HOME store. Pricing is odd in this store for everything. They always seem to be having a sale which is nice but most of the time it's on broken and opened things or stuff they don't have much of. Like for instance they had a sale on a certain brand of beads. They normally carry that brand all the time but during the entire sale they didn't restock that brand beads once. I asked an employee about a certain bead I was looking for bc online it said it was in-store. She looked sad and said they probably had it in back but it wasn't scheduled to be restocked yet. She said the date and it wasnt until the day after the sale ended. Idk if they were trying to get out of looking in back or if she was just being pulled in too many directions that day. There seems to be a lack of workers. I don't and won't shop here unless I absolutely have to bc nowhere else has a specific...

One star for the rude service! I find myself overly cautious of closing times for the sake of the employees, but this instance me and my friend went in close to closing time (10 minutes away). We knew what we wanted so I figured it wouldn't be a big deal. It was immediately apparent that the employees were bothered by this. The first employee we saw checked watch in an obvious motion, and told us how soon they would be closing. Then I witnessed another customer ask the MANAGER where something was. Clearly disgruntled, he spoke in a demeaning tone, and said "just keep going you're almost there, near the markers". Finally, when checking out the manager was standing "supervising" and then called over the store speakers for another employee to come check us out. Why he couldn't check us out, I don't know. He was just standing there. So these examples and others just created such a hostile vibe to have in a store BEFORE they close. If it is such a big of deal, they should work on adjusting hours! Trust me I get wanting to get back home, I've worked in customer service, but dang!

The only pleasant experience during this whole trip was the employee that came over to check us out, Marcie M. She was an absolute sweetheart. Everyone other than her really did a disservice to the...