No Barcodes at Hobby Lobby?

There’s no shortage of misinformation on the internet, and from time to time, you hear something that just sounds too odd to be true. That has been the reaction of many people when watching recent videos on social media that purport to show a Hobby Lobby shopping hack:

Not all (identical) items have the same price.

“Ok, so I’ve seen the TikTok where the same items have different prices in Hobby Lobby… I thought it wasn’t true, but I had to return some things, so I wanted to check for myself,” a video by a user called bowhuntress begins. She then went to check the price tags on identical items, and sure enough, she found many instances of price discrepancies. A sign could be $39.99 or $49.99, depending on which one you happen to grab. “Check those prices before you buy the most expensive one,” she says.

This isn’t the only video like this, and cashiers who work at Hobby Lobby have confirmed – there really are price discrepancies in the store.

The natural next question is this: Since Hobby Lobby is a well-run, national chain that has been operating for over five decades, how could something like this happen?

And why?

Barcodes and the Beast

In the 70s and 80s, when widespread adoption of barcode technology was first happening, a rather silly theory spread around Christian circles that the barcode was the mark of the beast spoken of in Revelation 13. Never mind that the barcodes don’t typically say “666,” the passage from the Bible says that the number 666 is the “number of a man” (and not the mark of the beast), and no one gets a barcode tattooed on their forehead or hand… there was a little bit of hysteria for a while. Even today, this idea comes up from time to time, and a rumor has spread for years that this is the reason why Hobby Lobby doesn’t use barcodes.

Spoiler alert – that’s not the reason.

It is well known that Hobby Lobby Founder David Green is a conservative Christian, and because of that, Hobby Lobby’s conspicuous lack of barcodes seemed to fit the narrative, but, aside from a Snopes article debunking this rumor, David Green has actually written about why he doesn’t use barcodes in his stores. This is his list of reasons, printed in his 2005 book More than a Hobby:…

A new consumer price index report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics hit last week, causing the stock market to (at least momentarily) halt its unprecedented rally. Energy costs, which have been trending downward for most of the year, saved the overall CPI from looking even worse, but even still, investors were given pause. The food index rose 0.4% in January, energy services increased 1.4% (despite energy itself decreasing 0.9%), and piped gas services saw the greatest increase, at 2% for the month. Other services were up 0.7%, including shelter costs increasing 0.6%, transportation costs increasing 1%, and medical services increasing 0.7% last month…

Just two months ago, Forbes declared that superhero movies, once a guaranteed slam-dunk investment, were no longer a sure thing. That appears to have been an understatement. Last week, the newest installment in Sony’s Spiderman franchise, a movie starring Dakota Johnson called Madame Web, set the record for the worst opening in the franchise’s history, at just $25.8 million in its six-day opening across two holidays – Valentine’s Day and Presidents’ Day Weekend…

Depending on which survey results you listen to, Gen Z is either just barely hanging onto a Christian majority or is officially majority atheist/agnostic/no religion in particular. What seems undisputed is the rise of the “nones,” those who claim no religious affiliation or label whatsoever (26% among Gen X, 31% of Millennials, and 34% of Gen Z). Among the U.S. population as a whole, fully 28% are now religiously unaffiliated…

Your weekly chance to test your Bible knowledge! The answer to today’s question may surprise you:

Q: In Mark 12, when the Sadducees question Jesus about the 7 brothers who keep marrying the same woman and dying, what 2nd Temple text are they referencing?

Answer at the bottom

TIPS & TRICKS

7 Building Blocks – Why the 4 Ps of Marketing Are not Enough

Most businesspeople are familiar with the famous “Marketing Mix,” a conception of selling formulated in the 1950s by Harvard Professor Neil Borden. This was further refined by E. Jerome McCarthy into what we now know of as the “4 Ps of Marketing.” These 4 Ps are:

Product: What you are selling is, invariably, part of the marketing. How does it look and perform? What kinds of problems does it solve? What kind of quality are we talking about here?

Price: It has been said that price is the first bit of branding a product gets. When a customer who is unfamiliar with your products or organization sees your product on a shelf in Walmart, they are naturally going to assume that it is a value, money-saving brand if it’s priced lower than comparable products around it. They are going to assume that it is a high quality or aspirational brand if it is the highest priced. How much you charge for something influences the commercial message and the consumer experience.

Place: Distribution is a crucial part of the marketing mix for more than one reason. The first is practical – if you don’t have a method of distribution, people will be unable to buy your product. The second is a branding issue – people are going to make assumptions about your offering depending on where they encounter it. In other words, “place” sheds associations to the products found therein. If a watchmaker sells his or her product in a TJ Maxx, a retail discount store, the average consumer is going to think of it very differently than if he saw it in a Gucci Outlet. Where your product is becomes part of the message and identity.

Promotion: This one should be obvious – We have to get the word out. The content of our messaging, the media that we choose to employ, the slogans, the endorsements, and the discounts all make up a crucial aspect of our marketing. Additionally, who is doing the promotion can be just as important. A grassroots, customer-led promotion may be deemed more reliable than a heavily ad-supported promotion push, but there are pros and cons to each approach.

It is a helpful model for understanding the 4 Ps and deciding how to employ them as part of your broader selling strategy. Unfortunately, it leaves out some key concepts big enough to make the difference between success and failure.

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