A new Hobby Lobby crafts store held its grand opening on Monday in Alexandria, at 6200-B Little River Turnpike.
The store is open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily and is closed on Sundays.
Hobby Lobby stores offer more than 70,000 arts, crafts, custom framing, floral, home décor, jewelry making, scrapbooking, fabrics, party supplies and seasonal products.
In 2018, the company opened 54 new stores and relocated 20 store locations. In 2019, an estimated 65 new store locations will open and another 16 stores will relocate, creating approximately 2,500 – 3,000 jobs. Hobby Lobby currently has more than 840 stores across the nation. There are two other Hobby Lobby stores in Northern Virginia — in Woodbridge and Gainesville.
Here's a little about how the stores got started, from the company website:
In 1970, David and Barbara Green took out a $600 loan to begin making miniature picture frames out of their home. Two years later, the fledgling enterprise opened a 300-square-foot store in Oklahoma City, and Hobby Lobby was born. Today, with more than 800 stores, Hobby Lobby is the largest privately owned arts-and-crafts retailer in the world with approximately 32,000 employees and operating in 47 states.
Corporate headquarters include a 9.2 million-square-foot manufacturing, distribution and office complex in Oklahoma City.
Affiliated companies include Hemispheres, carrying unique home furnishings and accessories from around the world, and Mardel Christian and Education Supply, offering books, Bibles, gifts, church and education supplies as well as homeschooling curriculum. Hobby Lobby also maintains offices in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Yiwu, China.
What began as a $600 start-up, continues to grow and expand–enabling customers across the nation to "live a creative life®."
The company made headlines a few years back when the Supreme Court allowed the business owner to refuse on religious grounds to cover birth control in his employee health plan in defiance of the Affordable Care Act.
Hobby Lobby is a leading supporter of the National Christian Charitable Foundation, which funds conservative political groups.
Forbes estimates Hobby Lobby founder David Green's wealth at about $6.3 billion. The family opened the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. in the fall of 2017. Estimates put the cost of building the museum at about $500 million.
