A viral post is making the rounds again — this time claiming Hobby Lobby is shutting down all its stores. People are sharing it, panicking, and searching for answers. But here’s the short version: it’s not true.
Hobby Lobby currently operates over 1,000 locations across the country and has been adding stores, not cutting them. This article breaks down where the rumors come from, what the real numbers show, and how to tell the difference between a rumor and an actual retail collapse.
Hobby Lobby Is Not Going Out of Business
Let’s get straight to the point. As of 2025, Hobby Lobby operates 1,057 stores across 48 states. That’s up from 1,001 stores in prior years. A chain that’s going out of business doesn’t add dozens of new locations.
The company has also addressed this directly. Hobby Lobby’s own newsroom published a post specifically calling the “Hobby Lobby is closing” story a false social media rumor. They described the company as being in a period of “tremendous growth” — not contraction.
There are no bankruptcy filings, no liquidation announcements, and no credible news reports of mass store closures. Because Hobby Lobby is privately held, it doesn’t release quarterly earnings like a public company. But store count is publicly documented, and the numbers tell a clear story: the business is growing.
Where the “Hobby Lobby Is Closing” Rumor Actually Comes From
These rumors don’t come from news reports or financial disclosures. They come from social media — usually Facebook or TikTok posts with no source attached, shared by well-meaning people who took them at face value.
This isn’t a new problem. Hobby Lobby’s newsroom had to address one major wave of these rumors when the company was actually in the middle of opening 50 new stores in a single year (2017). The rumor was spreading at the exact same time the company was expanding.
A few other factors keep the rumor alive:
- Controversy keeps the brand in the news. Hobby Lobby has been involved in high-profile legal and cultural debates, including a Supreme Court case over contraception coverage. When a brand is frequently in the headlines for non-business reasons, people sometimes assume something is wrong with the business itself.
- General retail anxiety. Plenty of well-known chains have genuinely closed hundreds of stores or gone bankrupt in recent years. That creates a kind of background fear — people are more willing to believe closure rumors because they’ve seen it happen elsewhere.
- Old headlines still show up in searches. More on this in the next section.
The COVID-19 Closures Were Temporary, Not a Shutdown
This is probably the biggest source of genuine confusion. In spring 2020, Hobby Lobby made national news — twice. First, for keeping some stores open despite stay-at-home orders. Then, after public backlash and local enforcement actions, for closing all U.S. stores and furloughing employees.
Headlines from that period read things like “Hobby Lobby closes all stores.” Those headlines are still searchable today. If someone stumbles across them without reading the full context, it’s easy to misread them as evidence of a permanent shutdown.
But those closures were explicitly tied to pandemic restrictions. They were temporary by design. The company reopened its stores after restrictions lifted and continued expanding afterward. The COVID closures were not a sign of financial collapse — they were a direct response to a public health emergency that affected nearly every non-essential retailer in the country.
How Hobby Lobby Compares to Retailers That Actually Struggled
It helps to put Hobby Lobby’s situation in context. Some well-known department stores and specialty retailers have filed for bankruptcy, closed hundreds of locations, or disappeared entirely over the past several years. That’s a real trend, and it’s reasonable to wonder if other brick-and-mortar chains are next.
But Hobby Lobby’s numbers move in the opposite direction. Store count has increased over time, not decreased. The company reported over $5 billion in sales volume in 2018, and while current figures aren’t publicly disclosed, ongoing store expansion generally reflects a business that’s generating enough revenue to support growth.
The arts-and-crafts and home décor niche also has some natural protection against e-commerce pressure. Customers often want to see fabric, compare frame sizes, or browse seasonal décor in person before buying. That keeps foot traffic relevant in a way that some other retail categories can’t rely on.
None of this means Hobby Lobby is immune to long-term retail pressures — rising costs, shifting shopping habits, and economic slowdowns affect everyone. But facing headwinds is very different from going out of business. Plenty of retailers deal with sector-wide challenges without collapsing.
A Single Store Closing Is Not the Same as a Chain Collapse
If you’ve seen your local Hobby Lobby close recently, that’s understandably alarming. But individual store closures happen at every large retail chain, for all kinds of reasons — a lease that wasn’t renewed, a location that underperformed, a decision to consolidate or relocate nearby.
The question isn’t whether any individual store ever closes. The question is whether the overall chain is contracting. In Hobby Lobby’s case, the overall store count has been going up, not down. That means new stores are being opened faster than old ones are being closed.
Think of it this way: a tree losing a branch doesn’t mean the tree is dying. The real warning signs would be if the whole tree were in trouble — bankruptcy filings, mass liquidation sales, major announcements to employees and investors. None of those signs exist for Hobby Lobby right now.
What an Actual Retail Collapse Looks Like
If Hobby Lobby — or any major retailer — were genuinely going out of business, you’d see specific, hard-to-miss signals:
- A formal bankruptcy filing (Chapter 7 or Chapter 11), which is a matter of public record
- Announced store closure lists with specific locations and dates
- Liquidation sales with steep discounts across all merchandise
- Coverage from mainstream business and retail news outlets
- Official statements to employees about layoffs or severance
None of these are present for Hobby Lobby in any recent reporting. A social media post with no source is not the same as a verified business announcement. If a chain with over 1,000 locations were actually shutting down, it would be front-page business news — not just a shared Facebook post with no link attached.
How to Fact-Check “Store Closing” Claims Yourself
You don’t need to wait for someone else to debunk these rumors. Here’s a simple process that takes about two minutes:
- Check the company’s newsroom or press releases. Hobby Lobby’s newsroom already published a direct denial. Most large retailers will address significant business changes officially.
- Look at the store locator on their website. If hundreds of locations were closing, you’d see it reflected there.
- Search recent news from credible outlets. Business closures at this scale get covered by Reuters, the Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, and similar publications. If you can’t find it there, it probably didn’t happen.
- Check if the social media post has a source. Most hoax closure posts don’t link to anything. That alone is a red flag.
For broader context on how to read retail business news and separate real trends from noise, BusinessWise covers these kinds of topics regularly.
The Bottom Line
Hobby Lobby is not going out of business. It operates 1,057 stores as of 2025, has been growing its store count for years, and has explicitly called the closure rumor false. The COVID-19 closures in 2020 were temporary and tied to pandemic orders — not a sign of financial failure.
The rumors persist because social media posts spread fast, old headlines stay searchable, and real retail closures elsewhere make people nervous about every chain. That’s understandable. But nervousness isn’t evidence.
If you’re a business owner or manager, there’s also a practical takeaway here: store-count growth, ongoing expansion investment, and the absence of bankruptcy filings are meaningful indicators of a retailer’s health. When those signals are positive, one viral post shouldn’t override them.
Read Also:
