Loganville Hobby Lobby expected to open early next month

It was early in 2016 that Loganville residents first heard rumblings of a Hobby Lobby possibly opening up in the city and now it is finally almost ready to become a reality. According to Janice Tribble, chairperson for the Loganville Planning Commission, officials at Hobby Lobby have set a tentative opening date for the Loganville location of early January 2018.

“They won’t be open by Christmas, but they have given Jan. 8 as a tentative opening date,” Tribble said at Friday’s TRIAD meeting at Southern Plantation.

Hobby Lobby has been constructed on 6.2 acres on the Gwinnett County side of the City, next to Hill’s Ace Hardware on Highway 78. A Panera Bread Company is also being constructed on an outparcel at that same location.

According to the Hobby Lobby official website, what started on a $600 loan by David and Barbara Green to make miniature picture frames out of their home has now grown to a major retail chain with more than 750 stores, Loganville about to become the most recent. It is the largest privately owned arts-and-crafts retailer in the world with about 32,000 employees. Its product line includes “hobbies, picture framing, jewelry making, fabrics, floral and wedding supplies, cards and party ware, baskets, wearable art, home accents and holiday merchandise.”