While driving up to the LHS here, we pull up and its closed [:O] ,It said liquadation sale on Thursday the 7th, Store closing, everything must go.
Well after the one in my mall closed, that didn’t matter to me, but this one it does, it was the first hobby shop where i bought most of my layout items, and it had great service, and was about 5 mins away from my house. But on the door was a inviatation to the sale starting on thursday, till the 13th, this part of the sale is private, and on the 14th open to the public. Everything will be half pirce and I’m going to pick up some athearn BB kits, WS stuff, and maybe some frieght cars and kits.
You had a decent train hobby shop within 5 minutes of your house? The jealousy… One I went to in Sylvania OH just closed (they didn’t have that much train stuff anyway so I never made a huge deal of going to them) and the other one I visit that actually has train stuff and knows about trains is over 100 miles north of my location. It’s a shame that the internet world is killing them all, but what are you going to do?
Well, there is another shop 30 mins away and i go there sometimes, where i bought my DCC for the layout, plus MB Klein is 30 mins away also so i have plenty of options. The owner was having health issues and the co owner is retiring.
With the cost of living going through the roof along with fuel, food, taxes, medical cost etc. we are going to see many more LHS’s bite the dust I fear. The margins are just far too small for any owner to eek out a descent living. Larger hobby stores, that own their own store, or, have a great lease arrangement, and are located in a great area with a large population within 30 to 45 minutes driving time, will survive quite possibly.
I sure hope the ones around me survive, because I enjoy visiting the stores, talking with owners and other hobbyists, touching and feeling the equipment, seeing locos run, and taking it home THAT DAY.
What’s the shop’s name? One of the best shops in the mid-atlantic region is Mainline Hobbies in Blue Ridge Summit, PA. I’m in central VA and if I need something, I have to go to Richmond.
That’s small business for you. Even if a hobby shop is a successful economic enterprise providing the owner a living and a decent return on her investment, owners die, get sick, retire, or move on with their lives. Appreciate the good shops while you can. I’ve got a great train shop (Just Trains in Concord, CA) less than three miles away, but I wonder what the future holds over the next 10 to 20 years. Hopefully, someone else will “take up the baton.”
Mark
PS – Consider not “Walmarting” the small busninessman unless every dollar saved is critical to your quality of life, particularly when you are given the opportunity to build a positive personal relationship with the business. Also, there’s no need to fight megastores, just don’t shop there if you don’t like 'em.
You know, LHSs (and darn good ones at that) were going out of business 30 and more years ago too, way before the Internet and way before WalMart. Except for some unusual cases such as Caboose Hobbies, the dedicated train store by necessity is likely going to have to be a small place so the revenues can pay the rent. But the irony is, the hobby is such that only a very large store will please large numbers of modelers. As soon as you say “small” you are also saying “there is stuff they don’t sell.” Some places focus on one or two gauges, some focus on RTR, some go for low end trains – whatever they do, there are vast numbers of us that they disappoint or annoy, etc., without wanting to or intending to. Just one modest example. Back when Walthers, Champ, Max Gray, Herald King and some others all offered decals, there was hardly a shop anywhere that could stock them all – the shelf space to revenue ratio would be totally out of balance. So they’d stock some. But that meant a predictable number of shoppers would be disappointed. And that’s just one product. What could they do to make those shoppers happy yet still make money off of them?
And now that decals are a much smaller part of the market, even now most stores do not stock everything that is produced in the way of decals. Some stock none.
It was very interesting a few years ago when a totally train dedicated LHS, one run by and for serious modelers, went out of business. Even at 70% off, on their very last day, after having had weeks of going out of business sales at increasingly higher % off, the shelves still bulged with Intermountain kits, an almost complete collection of all the top lines of quality detail parts for diesels, decals, floquil paints, airbrushs and compressors, rail for handlaying track, and DCC decoders. All the stuff we say that a LHS has to have to be
I agree alot with Brakie. I do alot of my buying from 2 hobby stores near me. One is about 5 minutes away and the other about 20mins. I buy form them both alot but I don’t see a discount coming my way. At the one 5 mins away… the lady lets me go behind the desk and look and has even left the store and had me watch it (just for a few minutes). Her hobby store store deals in rare money (coins, dollar bills, as well as other hobbys), and no discount. Plus I’m not the one who steals from people.
The other hobby store, is where I get all of my cars from. No discount. I don’t get mad about it, cause they need money for the business. BUT, you should at least let your good buyers get a cut here and there.
Hobby shops, like every other business exists not for your benefit but for that of the owners. The fact that you benefit from having one locally that will answer questions and do all kinds of things to keep customer’s happy is a plus for you but not necessarily for the owner who still needs to make enough money from operating that store to pay his bills, rent, utilities, insurance for the business and to provide enough of an income after that to pay his personal expenses and feed his family. If he or she can’t do that, he or she will move on to something else that can.
That said, most hobby shops are mom and pop operations and thus can’t afford to stock every single item manufactured or advertised just because their customers might need it. They. like every other business person will only stock what sells. Of course most will special order many things for their customers. But even this has problems because most manufacturers or wholesalers won’t sell one of many things these days. They may require the hobby shop owner to buy 6 or a dozen. So if all they can sell is one, you can bet they’ll tell you that they can’t get it. Now if you’re willi
While not as close as my old (and late) LHS in the '90s, I still have two within reasonable driving distance. (Note that “reasonable” driving distance has come down in this day and age of high fuel prices) I just got back from a half-day “trip” to the closest one to pick up a Walthers special order, a sale item ordered via Walthers.com and delivered to this store (a “W” dealer). It was nice to be able to shop online, yet see the merchandise at the dealer prior to purchase in case there were any problems.
Tom carries a full-line - i.e. multiple hobbies and crafts - hobby store, but with a decent train section. Not as good, mind you, as my old, late LHS but still OK. It was nice ro browse a bit before heading to the counter to pick up my order - an HO International Bay Window “shoving platform” in Walthers’ Platinum Line - and even better to get the sale price. Even with sales tax it was still cheaper than standard shipping for only one item, as I was in the area for other reasons.
I hope he - and the other LHS on the other side of town - stay in business for many years. Tom runs a craft/hobby distributorship in the back and the latter store sells a lot of RC so I think they will be around for a while. IMO the greater risk is they shrink their train departments in the future and selection declines further.
I wouldn’t say it was a train store just a general hobby store that had alot of HO scale stuff, paint, airbrush parts, athearn, atlas, lionel, WS. THe owner had health problems of some sort, he is in his late 50’s. I’m just going to buy as much cheap stuff as i can Tomorrow and get stuff I’ve kept my eye on in the private sale.
There was one by me (three blocks away from home) that just relocated miles away.
The last two times I went in, I was looking for an Atlas turnout. They were out the first time, and out the second time. That second time was the final time. If you don’t stock the basics, you will lose customer. I will never look in at the new location.
They said they fly off the shelves and they could order them for me. Why order? There is another shop a short drive away that has the merchandise. What the heck? If an order of twenty sells in a day, order thirty next time.
Jesus, where the heck was I when that sale was going on?
Question: If a LHS can sell an airbrush at 70% off for liquidation, does that mean the ‘regular’ price is a 233% mark up? ($100 regular price at 70% off is $30. $100-$30=$70. $70 divided by $30 is 233.33%)
A couple years ago I was shopping for a new high-end digital camera. The local camera store (not a chain) had it for $1200 plus sales tax. B&H Photo had it for $800 no sales tax, plus shipping. I said to the guy "Dude, I believe in supporting local businesses, but I can justify paying 50% more to do it. His reply was “our customers are local doctors, lawyers, and BMW-driving soccer moms who will pay full price.” Six month later they were out fo business.
10 years ago there was, believe it or not, a small hobby shop in Greayslake Illinios (I lived near there at
Question: If a LHS can sell an airbrush at 70% off for liquidation, does that mean the ‘regular’ price is a 233% mark up? ($100 regular price at 70% off is $30. $100-$30=$70. $70 divided by $30 is 233.33%)
No, it most likely means that the LHS is willing to lose around 30 dollars on the airbrush sale,
and take the 30 dollars in cash and buy something that might sell.
In this particular case they were essentially liquidating for cash and out of necessity were undoubtedly taking a loss on everything once they got beyond 40% off, but were still getting more for it than the pennies on a dollar that a commercial liquidation firm would give them.
A different LHS went out of business and after two days of a 40% off sale, an auction firm came in one Saturday and auctioned off everything – the kicker was, they auctioned off entire aisles at a time! So two guys bid and got an entire aisles worth of Athearn blue box kits, hundreds of them. Another guy bid on an entire aisle of Lionel track.
I bid on an end of aisle display, so for $75 bid I got an estimated $450 worth of Walthers modulars, Plastruct plastic sheets and strips, some rather nice toy cranes that happened to be there, and other assorted odds and ends. A guy who bid on an entire showcase just to get the gothic games also got the K&S metal display on top – I intended on tracking him down but time got away from me.
My point is, once you are talking liquidation the amount you pay has nothing to do with the wholesale price of the stuff.
Add one more to the blame list - Us the Consumer!.
How many times have we heard on the various forums that someone visits the local shop to see the newest latest and greatest and the price then, leave the store and search the internet to find the item for cheaper price. It’s not just the hobby shops it’s all small businesses. We have a decent sized Ace Hardware in town that is struggling because of the Home Depots and Lowes that have moved in 10 to 12 miles away. He cannot compete with their pricing. The office where I used to work passed two Home Depots and a Lowes. To save gas and time I would make my purchases on the way home from these two. On the weekends if I needed something I would stop at Ace in Town.
All the blame to’s on the list are valid points. We’ve all been to shops where it appears the owner couldn’t give a hoot that you walked in the door. But the good ones will engage in conversation. In my area MRPO in West Milford is a great shop. It’s a little out of the way but I make sure to stop in when I’m in the area. When visiting my inlaws in NY I stop by the O&W shop in Tappan and Husdson Shores in Blauvelt - both excellent shops. Why - because the owner’s engage in conversation and show an interest in the person walking in the door! Stopped in this morning at the O&W shop and picked up a box car after talking to the owner for 15 minutes or so. He had some photos of the stations in Piermont, South Nyack and the surrounding area. I was looking at the photos when he came out and commented on them. He came out from around the counter and started telling me about these photos and a little history of the rr. Made me feel welcome and I got a little history lesson for free.
I have also seen first hand how some will bully the shop owner into trying to knock off 10% or 15% off because they think they are entitled to it. You