MARLBORO, N.J. -- It can be a fine line between business and
bias.
The latest example of that fragile boundary is occurring
here, where one of the town's newest merchants, Hobby Lobby, found itself
embroiled in a public clash over religious expression and its place in
commerce.
The Oklahoma City-based behemoth of bric-a-brac carries just
about everything, from burlap lamp shades to mustache stamp sets, but Marlboro
residents learned late last week that the retailer, founded by devout Christian
David Green, does not sell anything related to the Jewish faith.
In Marlboro, where roughly a quarter of the population is
Jewish, this omission of merchandise amounts to some as religious bias.
But is it?
Experts say businesses are well within their legal rights to
choose what merchandise they do and do not want on their shelves. That doesn't
mean it's good business, however.
"To not offer what your customer wants is problematic
from a purely business perspective," said Ann Buchholtz, professor of
leadership and ethics at Rutgers Business School.
Segregation questions
But from a social perspective, it raises more troubling
questions that hark back to the era of racial segregation, said John
Pawlikowski, the director of the Catholic-Jewish studies program at the
Catholic Theological Union in Illinois.
"Well, did Woolworth's have the right to say, 'No,
blacks can't sit at our counter?'" Pawlikowski said. He added, "This
one, it seems to be kind of a discrimination based on a theological outlook and
history's cultural anti-Semitism."
Some in the area's large Jewish community have seen it that
way since a viral blog post last Friday by resident Ken Berwitz revealed that
the store does not offer Jewish-themed items. Online comments have lit up with
vows to boycott the store and a fierce debate over the responsibility of a
store to offer varied religious items.
Berwitz, 67, who is Jewish, said he was told over the phone
by an employee that the store does not stock Jewish-themed items for Passover
or Hanukkah because of Green's Christian values.
Berwitz translates it as "a national decision: We don't
sell Jewish stuff to Jews."
But walk through certain communities on a Saturday, the
Jewish sabbath, and try finding an open shop, let alone a Christmas card. So
what's the difference between that and Hobby Lobby's decision not to stock
dreidels and "Happy Hanukkah" banners?
The market.
Marlboro is a diverse area with a sizable Jewish population,
so it would make sense to carry Jewish-themed items, Buchholtz said.
In a statement on Thursday, Hobby Lobby President Steve
Green said the chain "previously carried merchandise in our stores related
to Jewish holidays. We select the items we sell in our stores based on customer
demand."
Customer research
Basic market research would show customer demand in the
Marlboro area for Jewish-themed items, but Buchholtz said it wouldn't be
surprising to learn that a company did not cover that basic step of learning
the demographic of a new store location.
"My definition of marketing is 'Find out what people
want, and give it to them,'" Daniel M. Ladik, associate professor of
marketing at Seton Hall University, said in an email.
Hobby Lobby purports to operate on a different business
model. All of the company's 561 locations nationwide are closed on Sunday
"to allow employees time for family and worship," according to a sign
posted on the Marlboro store's entrance. Its founder, Green, has proudly voiced
and written about his company's Christian principles, including "to focus
on people more than money." Last year, Hobby Lobby sued the federal
government over its mandate that employers provide coverage for contraceptives.
In 2012, Forbes ranked Hobby Lobby No.147 on its list of
largest privately held companies, with revenue of $3 billion.
Hobby Lobby is the latest in the marketplace to wade into
the choppy current of social issues. Chick-Fil-A, also closed on Sundays, has
become a lightning rod twice: Last year, when its president, Dan Cathy, said he
supported a "traditional family," and then this past June when he
tweeted that it was a "sad day" when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in
favor of same-sex marriage.
And just last week, the local Italian market Joe Leone's
waged a boycott against Barilla, the world's largest pasta producer, after
Barilla's president said he would "never" show gay families in
company advertisements.
Hobby Lobby declined a telephone interview with the Asbury
Park Press and did not respond to questions via email.
However, it did deposit apologies all over its Facebook page
to commenters who expressed concern over its policy of excluding Jewish items
from its stores — and, allegedly, an intolerant comment by a store employee in
Marlboro last week, also reported by Berwitz on his blog, Hopelessly Partisan.
At Temple Rodeph Torah, Rabbi Donald A. Weber is stressing
to congregants to recognize the distinction between discrimination and business
practice, he said, because "freedom is messy."
"If I walk into a Honda dealership and they don't have
Ford parts, OK," Weber said.
But, he added, once a company makes its personal beliefs
known, it is susceptible to being held to those beliefs, for good or bad.
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