Social media posts claim that national arts and crafts retailer Hobby Lobby has stopped selling Hanukkah merchandise. Hanukkah is an eight-day Jewish festival that takes place between November and January.
Some of the social media posts shared screenshots of conversations with Hobby Lobby’s online customer service representatives, with others accusing the retailer of anti-semitism. Hobby Lobby has been the subject of a number of controversies over the years related to the political and religious beliefs of its founder and CEO David Green.
A VERIFY reader asked us if it’s true that Hobby Lobby will no longer sell Hanukkah merchandise.
THE QUESTION
Did Hobby Lobby stop selling Hanukkah-related merchandise?
THE SOURCES
Hobby Lobby store in Woodbridge, Virginia
THE ANSWER
Hobby Lobby stopped selling Hanukkah-related products in 2022.
WHAT WE FOUND
Hobby Lobby does not currently sell Hanukkah-themed merchandise and stopped selling Hanukkah-related products sometime in 2022. A Hobby Lobby store page dedicated to Hanukkah items contains zero products.
VERIFY searched for “Hanukkah,” on the store’s website, and only two results came back, both of which are for calendars unrelated to the Jewish holiday.
Other searches related to Judaism or Hanukkah returned little to no results. A search for “menorah” redirected to generic candles. A search for “Star of David” returned only one relevant item: a pair of charms. Hobby Lobby’s website generated no results when VERIFY searched for “dreidel.”
A VERIFY reporter visited a Hobby Lobby store in Woodbridge, Virginia, and found items for Christmas and New Year's, but not Hanukkah. An associate at the store said they don’t sell any Hanukkah-themed products.
Using the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, we searched archived versions of the Hobby Lobby online store and found that Hobby Lobby had Hannukah-themed products available leading into the 2021 holiday season.
On Oct. 28, 2021, Hobby Lobby’s Hannukah product page included 23 items, including a mini Menorah, Hanukkah gift wrap, wooden dreidels and other themed decor. Those items were still available as of Jan. 1, 2022. However, there were no items listed on the page by Sep. 24, 2022, and have not been added since.
The site previously had an active Hanukkah product category as far back as 2015, according to archived versions of the Hobby Lobby website.
A Hobby Lobby spokesperson did not respond to VERIFY’s request for comment by the time of publication.
Hobby Lobby has previously been the subject of controversy surrounding Jewish holidays and celebrations. In 2013, Hobby Lobby president Steve Green publicly apologized for offensive comments a Hobby Lobby employee made to a Jewish customer who asked if the store sold bar mitzvah cards, according to articles posted by the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre and the Presbyterian Church USA.
“We select the items we sell in our stores based on customer demand,” Green’s Oct. 4, 2013 statement, which was published by the Anti-Defamation League, said. “We are working with our buyers to re-evaluate our holiday items and what we will carry in the future.”
The Business and Human Rights Resource Centre reported that Hobby Lobby agreed to begin carrying Jewish-themed items in New York and New Jersey by early November 2013 “to test the market.” The company later advertised some of its Hanukkah-themed products in a November 2017 Facebook post.
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