Why Hobby Lobby Still Doesn‘t Use Barcodes in 2024

With over 940 stores and $6 billion in annual sales, Hobby Lobby is undeniably one of the country‘s most successful arts and crafts retailers. Yet defying industry norms, Hobby Lobby famously refuses to use barcodes and scanner systems for tracking inventory and checkout. Instead, they rely on time-consuming manual processes decades behind the times.

The Checkout Headache

To understand Hobby Lobby‘s barcode defiance, you must witness the chaos yourself. Over 11 million transactions pass through Hobby Lobby tills each month. Cashiers memorize pricing guides matching SKUs to each product, then manually enter codes for every single item. Checking out a cart full of scrapbook supplies and floral wreaths becomes a migraine-inducing affair.

Molly Thompson, who worked as a cashier back in 2015 recalled the experience:

"When things got busy, I just wanted to cry looking at the endless lineups. You‘re frantically trying to punch in codes as fast as you can while customers are glaring at you."

Meanwhile, rivals like Michael‘s breeze customers through checkout by simply zapping barcodes. So why does Hobby Lobby voluntarily create this customer service nightmare?

By the Numbers: Hobby Lobby‘s Manual Inventory Tracking

Hobby Lobby stores stock over 70,000 unique products. Without barcodes, stores track inventory through handwritten notes and counts. So when a customer grabs an item off the shelf, no system automatically logs that product as sold.

With over 940 locations nationwide, that‘s 65.8 million products inventoried manually across Hobby Lobby stores. Employees must vigilantly update written inventory logs to prevent stock-outs. It‘s an enormously labor-intensive and risky approach as human error can easily throw counts off.

If Hobby Lobby adopted a typical barcode scanning system, radiofrequency tracking could automatically update their inventory database on every product sold. For a company with over 43,000 employees, barcode scanning could allow massive workforce reductions in inventory management and checkout.

Doing Things the Hobby Lobby Way

In his book More Than A Hobby, CEO David Green insisted that refusing technology preserves jobs and customer service. Green says that removing humans from inventory and salestracking creates an "unacceptable cost" in job losses.

Is Green right that preserving redundant human tasks outweighs barcode efficiencies? Hobby Lobby enjoys strong customer loyalty and steady growth, suggesting many fans don‘t mind the checkout headaches. The company has balancing religious values along with business priorities for 50 years now.

But with rising labor costs, barcode systems decreasing 20% annually, and younger customers demanding speedy digital experiences, how long can Hobby Lobby‘s outdated ways sustain? Competitor Michael‘s more than tripled its locations since implementing barcode scanners in the 90s.

While loyalty remains high for devoted crafters, barcode-expecting millennials and Gen Z grow increasingly impatient with long lines. Some former employees have alleged inventory discrepancies from human errors that could cost Hobby Lobby millions. Lawsuits around artifact smuggling hint at potential use of vague inventory records in acquiring controversial pieces.

For now, Hobby Lobby remains defiant – prioritizing religious culture and good-paying jobs over operational efficiency. But as society digitizes further, and younger patrons take over the crafts market, Hobby Lobby must evolve its inventory philosophy, or risk becoming just a quaint relic of the past.