Hobby Lobby Stores

I worked here for only a short time but it was extremely obvious that multiple managers are openly racist and prejudiced towards customers. If a black person walked into the store a security check would be called almost immediately. Same for anyone who looked slightly poor or homeless. This was not after suspicious behavior, it was based solely on appearance and skin color. The main manager is extremely rude to employees and customers and has had these same complaints filed against her (Sandra) multiple times.

Yesterday at 5:45 I attempted a return at the Santa Maria CA Hobby Lobby. I wanted to return three "Home Decor" (per my receipt) platters costing $1.99 each. I had purchased four on 7/14/23 and intended to serve snacks on them at my daughter's baby shower. Upon removing the sticker from one, I saw the notice "Not intended for food use." I planned to return the other three for a refund as I could not use any of them as intended and had no other use for them. Rather than tell me that these were nonreturnable, the salesgirl turned her back to me, summoned another employee, and whispered to her quietly so I could not hear the conversation. The young lady turned back to face me and said "these cannot be returned." I asked "why not?" and she said "it's against our policy." I said "There must be a reason it's against your policy" and she repeated, "It's against our policy", stared at me in a defiant manner and said nothing else. It was incredibly rude of her to whisper about my return request and then repeat in a robot-like manner, "It's against our policy." The second employee with whom she conferred had already hurried off so I could not ask her the reason the return was declined. Believe me, the plates were unused with full labels attached. Because other customers were waiting behind me in line and I didn't want to cause a scene, I exited the store. I will tell you, though, that I've never been treated so rudely and been so dismissed by a salesperson. I don't believe it's your company's intent to make customers uncomfortable. I assume you can figure out, without me telling you, how this situation should have been handled. It's not the $6.00 loss that bothers me, but the manner in which I was treated by your employee. There's only one check-out line in that store labeled to accept returns, so you can easily identify the employee who was working that line at 5:45 on 8/17/2023. Her rudeness needs to be addressed. I'm certain you don't care whether or not I shop at Hobby Lobby again as I'm only one lost customer, but I do hope you'll handle this complain appropriately as the employee at the store should have done.