Sorry if this has been asked, but does anyone know if they do campus tours?

I've seen photos on-line of people that were given some sort of tour but I don't know how it was arranged -- might have just been through a friend that works there.

I've been told by people that work in IT at that site that they have an amazing automated picking system. That would be fun to see.

Would be a cool project for a local documentary maker to create a "how it works" type of doc with extensive site/process footage, and conveying how Hobby Lobby from bible belt america (the outsider perception) has dominated their market space so well nationally...

They have opened a handful of stores here in California and much understanding is that they are absolutely blowing out their projected revenues.

HL is far better than Michael's or anything else we have out here. Probably true in most other markets as well.


They just seem to do a very good job in a niche that always seems to yield messy, cluttered stores. Hobby Lobby feels very different from their competitors, tha's for sure.

And has been discussed previously, they have made the business choice not to use bar codes! Very interesting approach that seems counter-intuitive but has proven to give them a competitive edge.

That is NOT a ugly building.......Jeez

Just wait till they put their ugly orange angled roof on.

Just wait till they put their ugly orange angled roof on.

You think spanish tile roofs are ugly? Meh, different strokes I guess.

They have opened a handful of stores here in California and much understanding is that they are absolutely blowing out their projected revenues.

HL is far better than Michael's or anything else we have out here. Probably true in most other markets as well.


They just seem to do a very good job in a niche that always seems to yield messy, cluttered stores. Hobby Lobby feels very different from their competitors, tha's for sure.

And has been discussed previously, they have made the business choice not to use bar codes! Very interesting approach that seems counter-intuitive but has proven to give them a competitive edge.
There was an article a few years back about that, Mr. Green lives by his TG&Y training. He said that relying on technology can leave gaps in product management, he would rather have a person responsible for a department or section for ordering by walking that section daily to see what is coming off the shelf. A person watching what is moving closely can spot trends happening in real time rather than pouring over spreadsheets 1,000 miles away. Especially with many of their items being stocked in limited quantities (like art supplies) the eyes on the floor seems more reliable to him.



You think spanish tile roofs are ugly? Meh, different strokes I guess.
Catch22 must not like Austin or Dallas then because there are a ton of them there, so much so that I got tired of doing the "Tuscan style" or Mission style buildings for awhile after doing so many of them.

I actually adore Spanish architecture. But when you have a half mile long stretch of "copy and paste" Spanish tiles... And plans to add even more.. Gets a little tiring. I doubt the Hobby lobby complex is award winning Spanish architecture either... It's Rick Dowell in method, but by the greens.

I actually adore Spanish architecture. But when you have a half mile long stretch of "copy and paste" Spanish tiles... And plans to add even more.. Gets a little tiring. I doubt the Hobby lobby complex is award winning Spanish architecture either... It's Rick Dowell in method, but by the greens.
Maybe the repetition is tiring, but it's in the same style as their stores. Not hating on your opinion, it just seems a bit unrealistic to expect something "award winning" in an industrial warehouse area. Warehouse are pretty boring, architecturally. At least the style they use sets their bland boxes apart from the other bland boxes in that area and goes along with their store's style.

I was going down SW 44th yesterday and caught a quick pick of the construction of the new building across from the Hobby Lobby warehouses.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v291/Mad_Monk/HLNewCorpOffices_zps9094930a.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Mad_Monk/media/HLNewCorpOffices_zps9094930a.jpg.html)

I tried to get one of the construction on the corner of SW44h and Council but, unfortunately it turned out a little blurry.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v291/Mad_Monk/Construction_SW44th_Council_zps1315f3bd.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Mad_Monk/media/Construction_SW44th_Council_zps1315f3bd.jpg.html)

There was an article a few years back about that, Mr. Green lives by his TG&Y training. He said that relying on technology can leave gaps in product management, he would rather have a person responsible for a department or section for ordering by walking that section daily to see what is coming off the shelf. A person watching what is moving closely can spot trends happening in real time rather than pouring over spreadsheets 1,000 miles away. Especially with many of their items being stocked in limited quantities (like art supplies) the eyes on the floor seems more reliable to him.

TG&Y was a client of mine years ago. There were some funny (pitiful) episodes where they would have slow or non moving items and the manager would blow them out at almost give away prices to get rid of them. Then the home office would ship even more because the sudden fast movement of the quantity would trigger an automatic replenishment...sometimes with even more. There are lots of reasons they failed, but this kind of "system" is one of them.

2003:

http://gyazo.com/f215604d079beb8b018cdd04b7a574e5.png

2013 (and a lot more about to be under construction):

http://gyazo.com/b7006a7788a009470a77400dc77576b0.png

Does anybody know the Architect of Record is for the HQ building?

Does anybody know the Architect of Record is for the HQ building?

Mike Hughes Architects:

home (http://mharch.net/home.html)

I'm really amazed out how fast this has gone up.

I sent Pete a few pictures of this but he didn't post them. It was awhile back so it may be outdated, but it is a really nice facility and very big

Hobby Lobby just filed to build a huge $88 million warehouse, which would raise their total square footage to over 8 million.

See the article at the top of the page for a comprehensive update on their massive campus.

Geez.

Is this going to be off SW29th? It seems as though they are building everywhere over there.

I went for a drive to Mustang a few days ago and saw where they are moving large amounts of dirt on the south side of 29th street. I'm guessing that's for the warehouse

Isnt this getting so large it is going to start affecting the tilt of the earth?  :)

Yes, the new $88 million warehouse is on the south side of SW 29th, labeled as the "Moore Tract" in the article at the top of the page.

It's crazy; that complex is roughly the size of ALL of downtown.

I wonder why they didn't just buy up the old Firestone plant It had a lower roof compared to the new structures, but it also had a LOT of space. They had been using some of it that was relabeled Will Rogers, but there is still a LOT not being touched.

The best thing about this is that you don't often hear about disgruntled employees of HL, corporately or otherwise. I'm sure there are some out there, but they seem to treat their employees like people. That's not always the case (take other locals like Paycom for example).

I can definitely appreciate the no barcode approach too. One of my teenage jobs was at K-Mart. Ordering was a complete joke since the employees in each department ordered via our handhelds, but we had no way to see if someone else had already ordered (the "pending orders" was always wrong), there was always a 2 week delay in getting ANYTHING, often codes weren't in the system, inventory was wrong, etc...just wrong on all sides. If you don't have a barcode system to track what you THINK is in the store, it forces the employee to go look on their own to see what is ACTUALLY there. It may take a little longer and a little more effort, but it also means the employees REALLY KNOW their store and their inventory. Those folks always know exactly where something is. It's especially amazing that they do it this way because of the nature of the small individual pieces they have. Barcoding would be the easy way to go. Keep in mind that most of their products come with a UPC code already on it, but they just price-gun right over that bad boy. The other side of that is that they can save a TON on the backoffice computer system that would maintain that data as well as the cash register hardware (come on, have you ever looked at how simple those things were until the last few years).

Why does the State of OK own the Southwest corner of SW29th and Macarthur?

Is it possibly school land commission land? This reserves land for future schools, if needed, and goes back nearly to statehood.

I don't know, I do know that's Western Heights district and they have several schools one mile over.

I wonder why they didn't just buy up the old Firestone plant It had a lower roof compared to the new structures, but it also had a LOT of space. They had been using some of it that was relabeled Will Rogers, but there is still a LOT not being touched.

The old Firestone plant was bought by the producers cooperative oil mill, which was into the process of getting all the permits to allow operations there, they started a couple years back but were expecting it to take at least five years.

Is it possibly school land commission land? This reserves land for future schools, if needed, and goes back nearly to statehood.

land schools were build on at the time of statehood was tiny, most were closer to a city block or smaller (the school building my grandmother went was the size of a suburban house at the corner of the intersection of two county roads), unless they were planning a college to go there

What I'm referring to is that the school land commission owns designated Sections within designated townships in the western half of the state. Some have been sold but the state leases a lot of them and gets mineral royaties from a lot.

Here is a new pic of the new offices.
9015

An update on the new construction planned.

Hobby Lobby building massive warehouse in southwest Oklahoma City | NewsOK.com (http://m.newsok.com/hobby-lobby-building-massive-warehouse-in-southwest-oklahoma-city/article/5336430)


The $88 million, 1.9 million-square-foot warehouse is under construction at 6900 SW 29, north of Hobby Lobby’s corporate campus near SW 44 and Council.

By comparison, the 50-story Devon Tower building in downtown Oklahoma City is about 1.8 million square feet. Quail Springs Mall is about 1.12 million square feet.

The Hobby Lobby warehouse is one of the largest buildings to be constructed in the United States using tilt-wall construction, Kirkpatrick said.

^

Q. What's the fastest way to get a story in the Oklahoman?
A. Post it on OKCTalk first.


That building permit application was filed January 9, 2014.

I noted it and tracked it for months, waiting for it to be finalized with details posted. Finally, I put in a open records request in early August and wrote up the article with all the detailed information you see in the article at the top of the page on 8/19/14. I also put the link out on Twitter and Facebook.

Then today, 8/28/14, the Oklahoma decides to publish a story.


All this is their prerogative of course, but it's pretty obvious they monitor OKCTalk and do this all time and never, ever give us credit.

Conversely, if they put out a story first, we merely post the link with full credit and go from there.

Have you ever thought about contacting them about this issue?

Have you ever thought about contacting them about this issue?

I spoken to them about it several times.

I spoken to them about it several times.

And what's their response? Some generic BS or how they don't follow the common courtesy philosophy.

Google updated their Earth imagery for OKC today. This was May 4, 2014.

http://i.gyazo.com/e1936bb3e20974af6bbddd8e7e6ed786.png

Google updated their Earth imagery for OKC today. This was May 4, 2014.

http://i.gyazo.com/e1936bb3e20974af6bbddd8e7e6ed786.png

Mine is still old. How did you get the newer image?

The new images are on Google Earth, not the regular Google Maps aerials.

Usually, they release on Earth first then Maps a bit later.

They are booming since the ruling in their favor.

They are booming since the ruling in their favor.

They were booming before that ruling.

^

Q. What's the fastest way to get a story in the Oklahoman?
A. Post it on OKCTalk first.


That building permit application was filed January 9, 2014.

I noted it and tracked it for months, waiting for it to be finalized with details posted. Finally, I put in a open records request in early August and wrote up the article with all the detailed information you see in the article at the top of the page on 8/19/14. I also put the link out on Twitter and Facebook.

Then today, 8/28/14, the Oklahoma decides to publish a story.


All this is their prerogative of course, but it's pretty obvious they monitor OKCTalk and do this all time and never, ever give us credit.

Conversely, if they put out a story first, we merely post the link with full credit and go from there.

I'm not quite sure I understand your point Pete. Are you saying they only knew about this and reported on this because they saw something about it here and didn't mention OKCTalk in the article? If that was the case why would they wait to write about it? The article also includes interviews with those involved which makes it much more in depth. I liked your information and also enjoyed the Oklahoman article. You serve different purposes with different rules and it's not a contest.

I'm not quite sure I understand your point Pete. Are you saying they only knew about this and reported on this because they saw something about it here and didn't mention OKCTalk in the article? If that was the case why would they wait to write about it? The article also includes interviews with those involved which makes it much more in depth. I liked your information and also enjoyed the Oklahoman article. You serve different purposes with different rules and it's not a contest.

Yes, they only knew about it because we posted about it.

They basically take our research to write their articles without providing any credit whatsoever. It's completely unethical.

And if you don't thin this is a competition, you don't understand business. Trust me, if the tables were turned they'd be suing us.

The rules are not nearly as different as OPUBCO reporters would like you to believe. They all have blogs and Twitter and have pretty free rein.

I obviously understand why you are so passionate about this given all of the time and money you have invested in this website. You must have information that isn't readily available to everyone because I just don't see conclusive evidence of what you describe.

I obviously understand why you are so passionate about this given all of the time and money you have invested in this website. You must have information that isn't readily available to everyone because I just don't see conclusive evidence of what you describe.Well, quite honestly I do see it and it is a damn shame when NewsOk can't even add one sentence to their article giving credit where it is due.

Well, quite honestly I do see it and it is a damn shame when NewsOk can't even add one sentence to their article giving credit where it is due.

Sorry, but I still don't see it and I subscribe to the Oklahoman and read all of the relevant articles in full.

Sorry, but I still don't see it and I subscribe to the Oklahoman and read all of the relevant articles in full.man// i know man. listewn, we know who it is. It's the shimi man. Pete will his thing and Steve does his. But the Oklahoma needs to give the credit where it is due. I think OKCTalk does a lot of good.

You know reporters and news outlets are not required to divulge their source of information. This website would crash if OKCTalk was given credit for current information.

The smart news people navigate through this site to at least know what catches people's interest.


http://www.thunderfans.com/vforum/images/smilies/okc.gif "Oklahoma City looks oh-so pretty... ...as I get my kicks on Route 66." --Nat King Cole.http://www.thunderfans.com/vforum/images/smilies/okc.gif

I took a quick drive to see how construction was going on the Hobby Lobby warehouse and this thing is going to be HUGE! Looks like it's going to stretch all the way back to 29th Street. 9301

This facility is coming right along. Construction all over their campus and a lot of it is getting close to being done.

I'm not too familiar with this development/area, but is this fire at this under-construction warehouse?

UPDATE: Firefighters respond to building fire Thursday in Oklahoma City | News OK (http://newsok.com/firefighters-respond-to-possible-building-fire-thursday-in-oklahoma-city/article/5388768)

Firefighters battle large fire near Hobby Lobby headquarters | Oklahoma City - OKC - KOCO.com (http://www.koco.com/news/firefighters-battle-large-fire-near-hobby-lobby-headquarters/30984158)

Yes, it's one of their existing warehouses where they are adding more space.

Looks like its roofing material and tar that caught fire. Damage to the new section of building looks to be minimal.

Took this from work.

10071

It's ironic the railroad track runs right through the middle of the Hobby Lobby complex and they don't even use it.

Looks like its roofing material and tar that caught fire. Damage to the new section of building looks to be minimal.

True, the building was not affected.

Firefighter injured in Hobby Lobby fire | KFOR.com (http://kfor.com/2015/01/29/fire-crews-battling-blaze-near-hobby-lobby-headquarters/)

OKCTalk - Hobby Lobby continues it's rapid campus expansion (http://www.okctalk.com/content.php?r=106-Hobby-Lobby-continues)

OKCTalk - Hobby Lobby continues it's rapid campus expansion (http://www.okctalk.com/content.php?r=106-Hobby-Lobby-continues)

The inside is very nice.

Any over/under on how long before they start adding on?

The inside is very nice.

Any over/under on how long before they start adding on?

I'm surprised someone hasn't said they should build a 50 story tower downtown.

Why don't they just build a 50 story tower downtown?




:Smiley122