A Popular Retailer Among Many Texas Moms Removes All Hanukkah Items from Shelves

Hobby Lobby stores in Dallas, TX and across the country are no longer selling Hanukkah merchandise. This is one of those online stories that seems fake, but it's absolutely true. However there may be less to this story than some people want to understand.

So, first we should point out that this was not a spur of the moment decision, it's not even something the store decided on this year. This follows the decision from Hobby Lobby to cancel selling both Mardi Gras and Halloween merchandise as well.

And while some are up in arms, and believe that the reason behind dropping these holidays is due to the company's religious beliefs, if you want to take the company at face value then that's not the case.

The company released a statement describing their reasoning was due to limited space and sales.

Due to the need to find additional space for some of our stronger categories as well as our newer ones, the decision was made over the last couple of years to discontinue several seasonal product lines, including Mardi Gras, Halloween and Hanukkah.

I'm not in on their business meetings, and I understand the volatile times we're in, but in this situation I'm inclined to take the statement from Hobby Lobby at face value, as is The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish hate watchdog.

According to News Week, they previously accepted their apology, writing in a statement that Hobby Lobby "assured us in unequivocal terms that their company has a zero-tolerance policy for discrimination and that decisions on the merchandise they carry are based on consumer demand, not out of a lack of respect for other faiths."

Let us know what you think.