Hobby Lobby HQ & Distribution Center

[Larry OKC]

Duly noted. If most is warehouse, not quite as impressive but still growth. More power to them!

[ljbab728]

Duly noted. If most is warehouse, not quite as impressive but still growth. More power to them!

Agreed. If you look at most of their complex, it is large warehouses with small office areas attached.

[dmoor82]

Please note that it says 1 million sf of warehouse and office space. Most of that will be warehouse. They have little use for that much office space.

Ooops!sorry for the confusion!

[chuck johnson]

Plans to expand everything but the Point-of-Sale system. They still use "sku #'s" and no scanning equipment. Most large retailers obsess over inventory controls. Do they plan to run that huge warehouse with a note pad and an abacus? I know they have a varied selection of items from varying vendor and one of a kind items imported from parts the globe but that's weird.

[Popsy]

Plans to expand everything but the Point-of-Sale system. They still use "sku #'s" and no scanning equipment. Most large retailers obsess over inventory controls. Do they plan to run that huge warehouse with a note pad and an abacus? I know they have a varied selection of items from varying vendor and one of a kind items imported from parts the globe but that's weird.

Mr. Green talks about why he does not use scanning equipment in an interview he did with Voices of Oklahoma. It is an extremely interesting and indepth interview which I was fascinated with even though it is somewhat lengthly. If interested you can find a link to the website in the "Nostalgia and Memories" section in this forum in a thread entitled Voices of Oklahoma.

[Larry OKC]

from Thursday's Oklahoman:

The craft store giant is adding 860,000 square feet of warehouse space and 105,000 square feet of office space...The company is opening 30 new locations this year and plans to open 25-30 more next year.

That still sounds like a lot of office space. What would be a comparable building that we know?

[SkyWestOKC]

None come off across the top of my head. But that would be basically like a 10 story building with 100 ft x 100 ft floorplates.

[Larry OKC]

Take 57% of the average Wal-mart Supercenter (186,000 sf), and it comes pretty close. Certainly seems like a lot of ADDED office space!

ON EDIT:Not sure why I compared to a Wal-mart Supercenter...pretty well describes their own Hobby Lobby stores...so roughly equal to that in added office space...LOL

[ljbab728]

Mr. Green talks about why he does not use scanning equipment in an interview he did with Voices of Oklahoma. It is an extremely interesting and indepth interview which I was fascinated with even though it is somewhat lengthly. If interested you can find a link to the website in the "Nostalgia and Memories" section in this forum in a thread entitled Voices of Oklahoma.

I also posted a link to that interview in my post number 47 in this thread.

[bombermwc]

Well if you look at a lot of what they sell, you can't put a barcode on the thing....it's too small...LOL. But at the same time, Michael's figured out a way to do it so they can track inventory...so if HL is really concerned about accurate tracking, they should to. I would be they operate under a false pretense that they know what they have and would be grossly surprised if they went to accurate tracking methods.

One down side is that you can to stick the barcode on things that don't currently have them. So that's manual labor time....a cost you either have to absorb or pass on to the customer.

[chuck johnson]

"I’ll just say that my three competitors have it and two of them lost money last year. One of them barely got their head above water and we are very, very profitable. So, I can say that there is no guarantee that it’s going to make you money. (sic) one of the problems with companies is that they think they can run their stores from the home office with computers. I don’t want to run it. I want someone every week checking every item in every department because there’s nothing more important. Sixty percent of our items we only sell one or two a month. So if someone steals one or two of these items, I don’t have it on the counter. How much does that cost me? When someone breaks something, there’s no accounting for it. But quarterly, I come back in and I check these things to get it back in stock. So I am checking every item, every week in every store to make sure that I have got those items for the customer. That is more important to me than for me to try to take over the replenishment system in the stores. So that is the positive side from my standpoint. Instead of saying, look, I don’t need you guys. Instead of using you, I am going to use the computer to replenish your stores. So we do a much, much better job than any of our competitors. They don’t have to count every item, but they can see and we give them a basic idea of what they should have on the shelf of every store based on their volume. " David Green

Can't this be done in addition to the barcode scanner? How long can they keep doing this as they expand? Perhaps being in a niche business with no corporate governance and dominating it allows you to do what you wish as long as it works. Returning items there is a nightmare or worse, standing behind someone returning items.

[MadMonk]

Thanks for posting that interview ljbab728; it was long but interesting. With 490 stores in 40 states, it seems they are doing something right, bar codes or not. You couldn't get that large otherwise.

[kevinpate]

... Returning items there is a nightmare or worse, standing behind someone returning items.

Have rarely ever needed to return something to HL. When it's been necessary, it has never been an issue. Just spoke to my lovely and she related the same from her perspective. Sorry you have had issues.

[Pete]

Very interesting interview with David Green -- thanks so much for sharing that.

He said they had no ceiling for how big they would like to be; would like to be in every state (in 36 now) and that they would still run only one huge warehouse/distribution center and that it would always be OKC. They are 5 million square feet now and growing.

I also didn't realize they manufactured lots of things at the Council & SW 44th site: picture frames, paper products, candles, etc.

Also interesting that Mr. Green said he has never (!) been on a computer and doesn't own a cell phone.


They could very well end up being the largest private employer in Oklahoma before long.

[Skyline]

He's never been on a computer and I have never been in one of his stores.

I wonder which gives first?

[Pete]

Other interesting points:

• The company has absolutely no debt. Own all the warehouses and some of the stores.
• Very profitable as compared to their main competitors (JoAnn, Michael's) who make little to no profit of late.
• No bar code system because the stores are required to visually inventory all items every week. They don't count, but learn to quickly look and know when to reorder. Says they need to employ one extra checker per store but that they are way, way more efficient than their competitors (who all use bar coding). No plans to add bar coding.
• Stores are only open 66 hours per week, never past 8PM and never on a Sunday.
  High emphasis on clean, orderly stores with wide aisle (personally, I find their stores infinitely better about this than JoAnn or Michaels).

[kevinpate]

...
I also didn't realize they manufactured lots of things at the Council & SW 44th site: picture frames, paper products, candles, etc.

I knew they had a subsidiary, World Wood Works, something along those lines. I don't recall ever being aware they were into their own paper and candle products. I guess they are growing in many ways.

[Pete]

He mentioned about a dozen subsidiaries that manufacture all types of things, including most the fixtures for their stores. Very, very interesting guy and approach to business.

He also said that he views Hobby Lobby as "the tree" and that it belongs to God. They can harvest the fruit for their various ministries but can never touch the tree and that his plan is to have it keep growing and growing and bearing more and more fruit.

[chuck johnson]

Have rarely ever needed to return something to HL. When it's been necessary, it has never been an issue. Just spoke to my lovely and she related the same from her perspective. Sorry you have had issues.

Don't get me wrong, I love that place. I grew up building model airplanes and rockets and Hobby Lobby was the place to go other than the Hobby Shop at Crossroads. I was very fortunate to become a professional model maker and having access to a hobby shop definitely had an impact.

[khook]

Yep they are known to try a company out to see if the product will work and then if it does they start producing it themselfs.

[ljbab728]

I knew they had a subsidiary, World Wood Works, something along those lines. I don't recall ever being aware they were into their own paper and candle products. I guess they are growing in many ways.

It was Worldwood Industries but it's now called Hobby Lobby Manufacturing.

[ljbab728]

Also interesting that Mr. Green said he has never (!) been on a computer and doesn't own a cell phone.

His wife, Barbara, uses both so I'm sure she helps him keep in touch. LOL

[ljbab728]

No surprise, but their Museum of the Bible will not be coming to OKC.

http://newsok.com/bible-museums-like...rticle/3639502

The Passages exhibit which recently completed a long run at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art is now in Atlanta. It will be going next to Charlotte and Vatican City in Rome.

[Pete]

Interesting information on their continued growth:

Hobby Lobby continues to grow, ending 2011 with 492 stores nationwide. The company is on track to open 40 to 45 more this year, including their 500th store in Las Vegas, Green said. That's halfway to their goal of 1,000 stores — what Green believes is the optimal number to saturate the U.S. market.

Read more: http://newsok.com/bible-museums-like...#ixzz1jG8Sq6Gg

[Doodle65]

I have actually heard that there will be a mini-highrise going up in the future. Nothing compaired to Devon's but that massive building would not be Mr. Green. I am thinking I heard they purchased the property across the street of the offices to build this one. I am pretty sure it is a little bit in the future because they are finishing up the one they are working on now.... I would imagine that would be where the office operations would be going, but then again just something I heard.