"Freakin' Hobby Lobby!" Topic

Once upon a time Hobby Lobby used to be a fun place for me to go, and get stuff and have a good time.
Not anymore.

You can't find help there anymore. When they see you wanting to ask them something they turn and start walking away from you…

My lady was making a run the to get some stuff, and I told her to pick me up some Alumilite RTV. She didn't know where it was, even after I told her what aisle it's on. She had to hunt two different people down and asked for it, and was told, "We don't carry that anymore".
The next day I went there with here and showed it to her.

And speaking of it…30 bucks for one jar of rtv?!?!…plus the fact that they NEVER carry more than ONE container at a time!!!

I guess I am going to just order straight from the factory now, and get it quicker, in bulk and cheaper too…

I'm hoping that other Hobby Lobbys aren't this poorly run…

I haven't had a problem with the Hobby Lobby nearest me, but I only really go there if I need something small like a bottle of primer or other such stuff. Prices are a bit too high in my opinion.

I always thought Hobby Lobby was the "no service, low prices" competitor.

Sorry to hear about your plight, Murphy. I can speak to you from experience, since I worked at a local Hobby Lobby a few years ago. Most stores are generally run very well, but, like seemingly most retailers these days, the name of the game is to do the most work with the least amount of employees, which I personally feel is wrong. I can tell you that, sometimes, one employee would be responsible for two, or even three departments, regardless of knowledge of it's contents.

Whenever I go into my local Hobby Lobby, if I see someone who looks lost, I'll go out of my way to help them, since I'm still somewhat familiar with what they carry. There are some items that they've done away with, and they've gone through several rearrangements, including a major one transposing several departments, so I tend to get a little lost in there myself.

On a personal note, the last time I was there (a couple of weeks ago, in fact), I asked a young girl (more like a teenager) if she knew where the lighted magnifiers were. She said she'd go look, and that she would be right back. Well, I'm sorry to say she pretty much forgot about me, and I wound up immediately finding the items myself. Now, it was closing time, and she was policing her areas, and when she saw me a few minutes later she apologized for not getting back to me. What could I do but show her some class; I smiled and said "Thanks, anyway".

All I can suggest is check with other arts and crafts stores in your area, like Michaels. Good luck, Murphy, and sorry again to hear about your experience.

Murphy, if buying direct, you might consider the resin from Vagabond as well. Both companies offer great service in my experience. Vagabond offers a resin that is very similar with a slightly longer set-up time (a little better for larger castings I think) and is a little chaeper than Alumilite. I tend to use Alumilite for smaller, or more finely detailed pieces, and Vagabond for larger parts.

The aisle service at my Hobby Lobby is pretty good. If I ask for something, they take me there.

The check out is different, though. I tend to go during my lunch hour at work and there are only 2 registers open – one for sales and one for returns. It makes waiting in line annoying when you are in a time crunch, but I've never been late getting back because of it.

I suspect it might be local management rather than the chain Murph. Our local Hobby Lobby has been amazingly stable in terms of staffing and performance. I've never had any real issues with folks there. The only time I ever ran into the "Sorry we don't have it was when I was checking to see if the carried the Foamwerks cutting system. The lady assisting me couldn't find it but I did a few days later. Ironically it was in the same aisle as the worker had indicated for the matte board cutters, just on the other isde. If I were you I'd drop a note to the folks at the corporate offices about this via their website.