Hobby Lobby closes stores in response to Ohio AG cease and desist

UPDATED: Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has issued a cease and desist to Hobby Lobby in response to its refusal to close stores in state amid COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.

»COMPLETE COVERAGE: CORONAVIRUS

Hobby Lobby responded within the issuance of the letter.

“I received a phone call within the hour from the general counsel of Hobby Lobby, informing us they were closing their stores tonight in Ohio in compliance with our cease-and-desist letter,” Yost tweeted.

Original story:

Hobby Lobby has reopened in several states where strict stay-at-home orders have been issued to stem the spread of the coronavirus, and in at least two cases police were called to force the company's stores to close, according to a report by Business Insider.

The arts-and-crafts retailer had previously closed the locations in Ohio and Wisconsin for a week to comply with the mandates put in place March 24 but have since resumed business at many locations, defying the orders.

Police forced one of the stores in Wisconsin to close after it briefly opened Monday, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 

An employee at the store told Business Insider the store was closed but that some workers had showed up to work on projects.

In Jeffersonville, Indiana, authorities forced a store to close after it was open for one hour Monday morning, the CBS-affiliated news outlet WLKY reported, according to Business Insider.

Business Insider confirmed that all 19 Hobby Lobby locations in Ohio were open as of Monday afternoon, as were 17 of 20 stores in Wisconsin that were listed on Google as being “temporarily closed.”

Locations around metro Atlanta remained open as of Wednesday.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Wednesday announced a statewide shelter-in-place order that is scheduled to go into effect Friday.

Mandates for businesses to shutter are in place in at least 32 states, but Hobby Lobby is one of the few chain retailers to remain open in states where the coronavirus outbreak has not yet closed non-essential business.

Several Hobby Lobby employees in three states told Business Insider they were getting conflicting instructions whether to remain open.

Business Insider reported that Hobby Lobby had told some employees in Colorado and North Carolina that they are “essential” because the store sells educational materials and products for home-based businesses, although the company does not sell essential items such as food, toiletries, medicine and cleaning products.

Craft stores are not on the list of essential business, nor are they included in guidance issued by the Department of Homeland Security.

“They are not exempt,” Conor Cahill, press secretary for Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, told The Denver Post regarding Hobby Lobby on Monday.

Previously 

Randy Betts, the vice president of store operations for Hobby Lobby, wrote March 23 that the company “is going to make every effort to continue working the employees,” Business Insider reported.

That day, Betts also informed employees the company would not offer paid sick leave for its employees during the prolonged economic crisis.

Betts stated in the memo that sick workers would either need to exhaust all paid time off and vacation time, or take an “unpaid leave of absence until further notice,” according to Business Insider.

The communication to staff came days after the arts-and-crafts company’s founder David Green sent a letter to reassure employees, saying God “will guide us through this storm.”

The memo also said if local or federal governments forced a particular store to close, employees would be required to use “all available paid time off benefits” and become eligible for 75% of regular pay after that. Further, the memo said, the emergency pay would be determined by “average hours” worked during the previous six weeks, rather than an employee’s full schedule of regular work shifts, Business Insider reported.

A report by The Daily Mail points to the company’s benefits package, which states that only salaried employees are eligible for sick leave.

The company’s website assures customers that it is safe to keep shopping, and that it’s taking measures such as “enhanced cleaning” to prevent any spread of the virus at its stores.

“If an employee is suspected of having COVID-19 based on symptoms and/or known direct or indirect exposure, we will send that employee for medical care and to self-isolate at home, and will promptly coordinate with public health officials,” the company said in its “Notice Regarding COVID-19 Virus” on its website.

The Business Insider report quoted one of the store’s district managers, who said in an email that he felt “very anxious about this whole situation.” “Our management has doubled down on the work stance, and the district manager has said that our stores will remain open until the National Guard comes in and physically shuts the buildings down,” the employee wrote on condition of anonymity, Business Insider reported.

Hobby Lobby has about 43,000 employees at 900 stores in 46 states. CBS News reported the chain had closed some locations around the country to adhere to legally required closures, but many remained open for business.

Green’s letter to employees dated March 19 said his wife, Barbara, had received a message from God telling the chain to stay open.

“We serve a God who will Guide us through this storm, who will Guard us as we travel to places never seen before, and who, as a result of this experience, will Groom us to be better than we could have ever thought possible before now,” according to The Christian Post.

“We may all have to ‘tighten our belts’ over the near future,” he said. The Daily Mail reported many store employees interpreted Green’s message to mean they would have divine protection from the virus.

The Oklahoma-based retailer won a 2014 U.S. Supreme Court ruling exempting the company from providing certain contraceptive coverage for employees.

Locations in metro Atlanta are open in Alpharetta, Atlanta, Austell, Canton, Cartersville, Douglasville, Duluth, Dunwoody, Hiram and Kennesaw.

Hobby Lobby’s hours are from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturdays. The store is closed Sundays.