On Saturday December 21st, my disabled mother and I went to the Hobby Lobby location on 4162 Elm Park Dr, St. Louis, MO 63128. While the shopping experience was fine, I feel as though we were treated rudely at the checkout by the store manager. If I remember correctly, her name was Elaine.
Upon arriving to the checkout lines, my mother noticed that another line was about to open and moved to secure a spot. She is a kidney dialysis patient who has also sustained lower back injury and cannot stand for extended periods of time. As I begin to move our cart the manager rudely jumped in front of my mother with purpose and cut me off as she directed the two caucasian young ladies in front of us to the line that my mother was in, letting them in front of us. My mother was visibly upset by this given her condition and the manner in which the manager acted. We did not want to believe that it was a racial situation here in late 2019, it did not help that we were the only African-American customers in the store.
Being that it was our first time shopping at a Hobby Lobby, we had questions regarding the coupon system which we felt that the manager should be able to answer. I approached her in an attempt to have my questions answered. I was a good three feet away from the woman when I politely called for her attention ( I excused myself three or four times) and she blatantly ignored me and ran off to who knows where. At this point I was highly irate but, I did not make a fuss in the store about it. The cashier was friendly and helpful as any face supporting a company should be and she answered our questions politely, albeit awkwardly as she'd witnessed her superior's behavior. The manager did eventually return to the area but she hovered around our checkout line until we left the store.
After leaving, my mother and I discussed not returning to another location, specifically that one. We reside around north county in St. Louis and so driving all the way down I-255 was not convenient in the slightest but, we figured that because of the location that the yarn selection should be bigger and the atmosphere should have been pleasant. It is unfortunate that we were mistaken in this case. I was truly excited to shop at the franchise and blog/vlog about it and I wish that I was able to make a happier record of my trip.
I am sure that this is in no way a reflection of Hobby Lobby as a whole, however I cannot deny the bad taste left in my mouth regarding my visit and I do hope that this doesn't happen to anyone else who visits one of Hobby Lobby's  locations.
I usually hear nothing but awesomeness from people who go to Hobby Lobby and I'd love to shop there again (at a DIFFERENT location), that however, depends on how my case is handled by customer service. I'd tagged HL to my tweet regarding my experience and also reached out to them via email. Depending on their response, I may consider shopping with them again. Right now though, this whole ordeal has been inexcusable.
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