Hobby Lobby — Local services in Taylor

I am writing to formally express my deep concern and disappointment regarding an incident that occurred in your store on Thursday, January 23, 2025, around 7:30 PM.

While I was in the baking aisle with my mother and my young daughter, we were aggressively approached by a white male whom I later learned is the store manager, approached us aggressively. who accused us of theft without any justification, raising concerns about his prejudiced assumptions. His demeanor was threatening, and he demanded to know if we had taken an item from the shelf because it was missing from the box. My mother pointed out the irony of his targeting us, as we are were one of the few Blacks in the store at the time, in a predominantly white store at that time. My family and I were subjected to unwarranted scrutiny. This experience felt like a blatant act of stereotyping and discrimination. We were unfairly targeted. He accused of without evidence.

At the time, none of us carried bags or purses that could have indicated we had taken anything. I simply had a card for payment in my pocket. I asked the individual if there were cameras that could verify our innocence, but it was clear that he had already made up his mind about us based on our race.

Having frequently visting your store for years to purchase supplies for my business, I was shocked and traumatized by this encounter. My mother, daughter, and I are all feeling scared and unsettled by the experience. When I attempted to report this incident to the front of the store, I was informed basically I could not file a complaint, as the individual who approached us was, in fact, the store manager. This response was unacceptable and further compounded our negative experience. This experience has been traumatizing for all of us, particularly for my seven year old daughter.

I believe that I was wrongfully accused of theft due to racial bias. As a customer, I expect to be treated with respect and dignity, and it is disheartening to see such behavior from someone in a position of authority.

I hope that you take this matter seriously and address the behaviors of your staff to ensure that no other customers have to endure similar treatment...

I have to admit they have an impressive inventory of products and if you need Christmas decor, this is the place to go. However, as many other reviewers have noted, they don't use barcodes on their products so it's up to the cashiers to make a judgment call on if the product is or is not on sale. Why on earth would they not use barcodes like every other retailer out there? It makes ringing people up more efficient and takes the burden off cashiers to figure out the price and/or deal with angry customers. If they used barcodes, they could have scanners throughout the store so customers could determine what the final price is before standing in what always seems like a long line (probably due in part to the time it takes to manually figure out the prices when ringing people up!) For those who don't want to leave it to chance, I'd suggest looking up the product on their website and if it's on sale, have that ready to show the cashier when you check out, which is what I did recently (I did not have an issue but it could go either way.)

I find their extreme religious views which affect employees, potential employees, and customers, to be off-putting as well.

I shop here only when I've exhausted other options to find a particular thing I need--and when I do, I feel icky.

Nothing against this particular location (Taylor), but there wasn't a place to leave a review for the...

I used to shop here exclusively for my art needs. But This particular store made me completely en my patronage of this company as a whole. I need paint and a display case a few years back, so i am immediately asked buy who i assume is a manager about what i needed which he quickly denies that they carry. Knowing that they did carry these items i continue to the paints section. Now this man is looking directly at me as if i were there to steal. He had posted 3 workers at the aisle pretending to be simply talking while another walked through the aisle multiple times until i let it. I go to get my display case and again here he is walking near the end of the aisle doing absolutely nothing o benefit. clearly i was being watched and without reason or suspicion but my race. I simply have had enough o this man and decided to still check out regardless. Now, here i am PAYING or my items. And this man comes right to the end of the checkout table as if he was just ordained by god himself to project into reality what he wanted to assume about me from the moment i walked in. Needless to say i have an never will shop in this establishment again. But in particular the...