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Hobby Lobby history
Hobby Lobby company history timeline
Hobby Lobby officially began operations on August 3, 1972, with a mere 300 square feet of retail space, and the family-owned business has been growing ever since.
Since Green first founded Hobby Lobby in Oklahoma in 1972, the billionaire businessman has drawn ire for imbuing his religious beliefs into the company and its 900 stores.
A FAMILY AFFAIR: David Green in 1972 expanded a picture frame company started two years earlier and named the new business Hobby Lobby.
In 1973, Larry Pico left the business, selling his share of Greco to Green for $5,000.
1975: Green quits TG&Y supervisor job and opens second store, 6,000 square feet at NW 10 and Meridian Avenue.
1976: Family opens first Tulsa store.
1977: Family founds wholesale arts and crafts company, Crafts Etc., and real estate company, H.L. Realty.
In 1981, another son, Mart, founded the Mardel bookstore chain, which concentrates on religious material.
For proof, consider how it took until 1984 for it to open up its first store outside of the state of Oklahoma.
For fiscal 1985, Hobby Lobby had sales of $25 million but was $1 million in the red.
1988: Family starts wood, fixtures and crafts manufacturing company, WorldWood.
In 1997, the company began taking out full-page ads in local newspapers touting the true meaning of the Easter and Christmas holidays.
1997 Hobby Lobby begins featuring full-page Christian message ads during Christmas and Easter seasons.
1998 Hobby Lobby announces that it plans to expand into ten new states by the following year.
In 1999 Hobby Lobby opened 30 new stores in ten new states.
2001: Family opens first Hemispheres home furnishings store in Oklahoma City.
In 2001, Green launched Hemispheres, an upscale home furnishings store concept.
2002: Mart Delyn Green starts movie company, Bearing Fruit Entertainment, and makes first Christian documentary about five dead missionaries.
2003: With this year's sales projected at $1.3 billion, family announces plans to open 91 more Hobby Lobby stores in the next three years.
The Green family first started collecting the biblical antiques in 2009, despite warnings from a property law expert contracted by Hobby Lobby at the time.
In short, what happened was that Hobby Lobby spent $1.6 million purchasing Iraqi artifacts from dealers situated in the United Arab Emirates in December of 2010.
In December 2010, the Greens purchased the 5,500 artifacts for $1.6 billion, the New York Times reported.
In 2011, the founders of Feed the Children, a non-profit organization in Oklahoma, accused the Green family of pushing them out of their own charity, "alleging interference, defamation and civil conspiracy," according to The Oklahoman.
In 2013, Hobby Lobby found itself in hot water after news broke of anti-Semitic remarks made by a store employee in New Jersey.
In 2017, federal prosecutors found that Hobby Lobby illegally smuggled rare and stolen artifacts to the US by shipping the items to its Oklahoma City headquarters in boxes labeled as ceramic tile samples.
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Hobby Lobby competitors
| Company name | Founded date | Revenue | Employee size | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jo-Ann Stores | 1943 | - | 23,000 | 1 |
| Nordstrom | 1901 | $15.0B | 74,000 | 641 |
| Kohl's | 1962 | $16.2B | 110,000 | 1,140 |
| Bon-Ton | 1898 | $2.7B | 23,300 | 15 |
| Von Maur | 1872 | $620.0M | 5,000 | 249 |
| SHOE SHOW | 1960 | $6.2B | 140 | 1 |
| Walgreens | 1901 | - | 210,500 | 21,095 |
| Michaels Stores | 1973 | $5.3B | 45,000 | 1,719 |
| Dillard's | 1938 | $6.6B | 40,000 | 20 |
| Kirkland's | 1966 | $468.7M | 7,300 | 703 |
Hobby Lobby history FAQs
Zippia gives an in-depth look into the details of Hobby Lobby, including salaries, political affiliations, employee data, and more, in order to inform job seekers about Hobby Lobby. The employee data is based on information from people who have self-reported their past or current employments at Hobby Lobby. The data on this page is also based on data sources collected from public and open data sources on the Internet and other locations, as well as proprietary data we licensed from other companies. Sources of data may include, but are not limited to, the BLS, company filings, estimates based on those filings, H1B filings, and other public and private datasets. While we have made attempts to ensure that the information displayed are correct, Zippia is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of this information. None of the information on this page has been provided or approved by Hobby Lobby. The data presented on this page does not represent the view of Hobby Lobby and its employees or that of Zippia.
Hobby Lobby may also be known as or be related to Hobby Lobby, Hobby Lobby Stores Inc and Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.