Arts and crafts giant Hobby Lobby to open store in West Mifflin
Arts and crafts giant Hobby Lobby is opening a store in West Mifflin that will create up to 50 jobs, a company spokesman said Thursday.
Borough manager Brian Kamauf said the store is a welcomed addition to Century Square Shopping Center off Mountain View Drive. The shopping center, which has been under redevelopment, has added a Lowe's home improvement store and Century Square Luxury Cinemas in the past year.
“As always, we are happy to have a new business,” Kamauf said.
An opening date has not been set, said Bob Miller, a spokesman for the Oklahoma City-based company. The store will be in a building formerly occupied by Roomful Express, borough officials said.
Jobs will pay $15.70 an hour for full-time employees and $10.45 an hour for part-time associates, Miller said.
Hobby Lobby is the nation's largest privately owned arts and crafts chain with 765 stores, including 12 in Pennsylvania, Miller said.
Hobby Lobby, whose devout Christian owners won a landmark Supreme Court ruling on religious freedom in 2014, became entangled in an antiquities-smuggling scandal, according to The Associated Press.
The business agreed to pay a $3 million fine in early July over its role in what federal prosecutors said was the smuggling into the United States of ancient clay tablets, seals and other Iraqi archaeological objects that might have been looted from the war-torn country. Hobby Lobby, whose president, Steve Green, has been collecting ancient artifacts since 2009 and is building an $800 million Bible museum in Washington, D.C., pleaded naivete in doing business with dealers in the Middle East.
Owners of the company also made headlines in 2014 when they successfully argued before the Supreme Court that because of their religious beliefs, Hobby Lobby shouldn't have to supply birth control to employees under the Affordable Care Act.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. Mary Ann Thomas is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at 724-226-4691, mthomas@tribweb.com or via Twitter @MaThomas_Trib.
