I walked into my local hobby shop tonight for the first time in about 8 weeks, and I left in a state of shock.
The Right Track Hobby Shop, located at 6421 W 127th St in Palos Heights Illinois, is closing its doors on September 30th after 20+ years in the business of model railroading.
The owner, Roger, is retiring and his sidekick, Howard, has already left for a new job. These two guys were extremely knowledgeable and a tremendous source of expertise on all aspects of the hobby.
For anyone interested, all merchandise is being sold at a 25% discount. They mostly carry HO scale rolling stock and have a pretty good selection of Atlas Blue Box freight cars. Lots of stuff including landscaping supplies, etc.
The hardest part of this scenario is the loss of the knowledge base!!
richhotrain wrote:
“These two guys were extremely knowledgeable and a tremendous source of expertise on all aspects of the hobby.”
Yup, I can buy a “hooch-a ma-cooch” or a “wig-a-ma-gig” at the big box store and perhaps save a few dollors, but nobody knows anything about it (other than the price),regarding how to service it, install it, or trouble shoot the bloody thing when it doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do because it is beyond the scope of their knowledge base.
A sad situation in deed and all the more reason to support the LHS. Although it may not have had an effect in this scenario, with the fellow retiring (I hope to do that some day too), but it’s hard for the LHS to compete with the “big boys”…
So we need to do our part too, by giving them as much business as we can!
Enough said!
Just a thought. There are many DCC dealers who have joined together to create a group, The DCC Dealers Assiciation, for supporting DCC and as a group they advertise and give advice. They make more bussiness for themselves by freely sharing information.
Would a similar group work for model train or hobby shops. Think about it for a moment, when a large corporation has to share better practices and administer new policies they have meatings where many ideas are shared. If there were some kind of support for this kind of activity such as from the manufacturers, magazines, and really any hobby organization, they could share how to better succeed in the bussiness and maybe even join together interested parties that would keep a shop open instead of closing for retirement.
This is such a specialized market that competition for a store front is almost non-existant, at least around here. They could share accounting practices, inventory practices, knowledge of product, share in advertizing. Think about it, when a company has a new product they could be present at one of these meetings to discuss the product features. Kind of like when you get into management at many companies they have siminars to help you succeed in relationships with everyone around you, but now you would learn and be able to share with customers and if you don’t know the answer you may know who to direct you to.
I hate to say it but I have been to shops that will not mention the guy in the next city for fear of loosing your bussiness in the future. The problem is we model railroaders, like any body else, are determined to find honesty and integrity and if a shop does not have an answer but tells me where to get it they just won my loyaty. We will buy many more items if we could just get past the current step we are stuck on because we don’t have the answer.
I believe they said he retired. It is almost impossible to sell a train hobby shop in this era because the Profit and loss statements do not justify loan money.
Why? Some free advice doesn’t warrant paying full price…Also…This should be a two way street after all the customer just might know more.I have known hobby shop owners give out some very bad advice or blatantly lie about what can and can not be fixed just in order to sell a new item…
Thankfully the majority of the hobby shop owners I know are honest and upfront and tries to give a discount.
Now,the hobby dollars I save on a high dollar items and large orders is better in my hobby budget then it is in some hobby shop owner’s cash box.
And heres why…
After its all said and done they do as they please when it comes to closing their shop regardless if we are one of their big spenders,small time spender or casual customer.
So,why should we concern ourselves if they take us for granted after spending hundreds or thousands of dollars in their shop?
Well Larry my family ran a business for over thirty years and guess what some customers just think they know more. We ran a grocery not a hobby shop but heard the same old garbage all the time. WalMmart, Kroger, Winn-Dixie they were all cheaper. Guess what now I shop at Wal-Mart, Kroger and I worked at Winn-Dixie for 15 months and guess what they were not cheaper, but some of the junk they sell is. Let me tell you the person that said “The custome is always right” was a customer and he was wrong then too. As for me it is either a 25 or 60 mile drive to my hobby shop and the main thing I use online shopping for is deciding what I need for a project or things that the LHS doesn’t carry.
The hobby shops do have an association. I don’t know if this one was part of it. Some shops sold tickets to the Rosemont Hobby Show, in return for a listing in the show book. Some shops took part in the store there. In practice, you could get a better deal by visiting the shops another time. The good ones provided directions to find them.
This website includes a hobbyshop finder. It must be a difficult project to keep it up to date.
Hey, the guy retired. More power to 'um. It’s hard running a retail store these days. I dont think to many ma and pa hobby shops are stealing away vast quantities of dough.Wish him the best before he locks up for good.
I have to drive 35 to 65 miles to my LHS and Im getting to the point I dont care if they close or not
One shop is at full price, never has a sale and wont get into DCC because it takes up to much of this employees time, has a nice selection of all products. I have spent approx 40 percent of my layout there and 350 in engines.
The furtherest shop sold me a turnout that someone sodered and took it back in for another, I opened it a month later when I needed it and being it was a month old, my loss. So I call in an order of stryene to be sent by mail and some was backordered, I call in another order a few days later and they got so darn confused they double billed me, being one was back ordered and on another billing cycle it was like pulling teeth trying to get it squared away and just said to heck with it and ate a few bucks, being that this hobby is funded by disposable income. This was a few years ago and havent been there much
The internet…bought my last two engines there and saved a bundle, shipping was less then I would have paid on the Ca tax. Sorry about your LHS, I would mis them too…Mine are a different story…John.
It is a sad day when a business that you like to use comes to an end. 20 years as a MRR retailer and now the doors are closing.
It is not unusual for a lease expiration to prompt the decision to retire for small retailers. Do you know if something like that prompted the closure in this case? Did the owner try and sell the business as an on-going concern?
Well as I mention before I was a part time Train Show dealer and would take orders from my follow club members…I aways treated my customers with respect.
I am sorry but,your CUSTOMERS are always right after all YOU as a business owner needs them FAR MORE then they need YOU!
I can tell you horror stories on some of the self righteous hobby shop owners I met over the years.
As I also mention I simply will not pay full price except for some low price items like paint,decals,detail parts etc even though I have included such items in my on line orders.
If you want to support your full price hobby shop after driving 25 or 60 miles then by all means enjoy but,don’t expect me to do such when I can get what I need delivered within 4-7 days and save money to boot.After all a Atlas engine for $99.00 is no different then the same Atlas engine for $64.99 except the cash saved stays in my hobby budget.
BTW I have 2 full price hobby shops 26 miles from where I live…I spend less then $150.00 a year in the better shop while the other shop sees me once a blue moon…Both are full price shops.
Thanks for the note. I happened to be in Chicago over the weekend and stopped in. Very nice guy and a retired railroad engineer to boot. He said he wanted to sell the store but has not been able to get a buyer with real money. I got a few items at 25% off. He said business is booming since he announced his retirement. Another person in the store said this was posted on the Atlas websitetoo.