[:(] “Trains On Tracks” in Amherst, NH sold the property to a bank and is closing VERY SOON. A 50% off clearance sale has just about cleaned out the store except for some G and HO stuff and Fastrack. Bummer. Another nice Pop and Son store gone! No place to browse or talk or get repairs without driving forever. Good thing we have this forum!
Qqqman
Sad indeed. Hope my local stores can hang in there.
Another NH store to close is Seacoast Hobbies on Central Avenue in Dover, NH. Very sad as Ron was very helpful to me during the last five years. Brentwood Antiques is the only Lionel dealer left if we don’t want to drive to Charles RO.
There’s also Mountain Trains in Manchester . Where’s Brentwood Antiques? Salem? There’s a store in Salem but I forget the name. It won’t be the same driving more than 10 min to the local store.
I’m so sorry to hear that news. I’ve done a fair amount of business with TOT over the past couple of years and have found them to be very nice to do business with. They were very prompt with all orders placed even from all the way out here in California. I’ll miss 'em.
The Bog’ [:(]
The Train Shop at Brentwood Antiques is on Rt. 1 in Hampton. The also carry MTH and some HO things as well. I have been very happy with them over the past couple of years.
My experiences with mail orders from Trains on Tracks was the same. It is a shame. I checked their web site and it is down. I was hoping the internet side might remain.
I live in a three city area, industrial, of about 300,000 people with an additional 100,000, rural to semi-rural, driving in to shop on payday through the weekend, plus a state university. We are 90 miles or so from Houston. The closest thing to a true hobbyshop are the few isles devoted to models and such in Hobby Lobby. I’ve often felt this area needed a a hobby shop like were here when I was growing up. I even made initial contact with Hobby Town USA. I just don’t believe it would make it, guess thats why the shops I new as a kid are gone. I was talking to the manager of an up scale hobby store in Houston and was told it was the fastest way he new to go broke. Guess I’ll have to keep being an engineer for a chemical plant a few years longer.
steve
my local store in Maple Shade, NJ closed just before last xmas. I was disappointed because it was close to my house and they were very reliable especially when i needed some service. I also must have missed the store closing sale in which i would have picked up numerous things
Treasured Toys is the shop in Salem, NH. Great place to buy and run by a very nice family. Big selection of items. Give them a visit. You’ll be glad you did.
Jim
Thats a shame about ToT.
I remember when they were still in Chelmsford, MA a few years ago. I use to go in there all the time when I was a kid.
I second Treasured Toys though, I’m up there at least once a week buying something.
Many train shops have closed over here as well, most of them were Marklin / Fleischmann HO focussed. There is one shop in Holland that claims to sell Lionel on their website: Big Train world in Friesland.
Last Friday, I had to work in Friesland, so I made a small detour to this shop and found out that they stopped with Lionel. They had some leftovers, but 99.9% of their shop was filled with LGB. They continue with garden railways and LGB, because apparently people are willing to pay for that over here and not for Lionel. So, that was the last Lionel shop in Holland…
smcrawford,
You might want to try Pappa Ben’s near Rice U and 59. For the best O and MTH selection you can drive south of Houston to Riverview Trains. Plains and Trains has alot of Lionel but no MTH. There is also a Hobby Shop north of Bush airport on 59. When in Houston come visit the HTOS (Houston Tinplace Operators Society) layout in the Memorial City Mall (Beltway 8 and I10). We usually run on Tuesday evenings and 1-5 on Saturdays. This weekend we will be gone to San Antonio for TCA.
Jim H
My feeling is that some small hobby stores close b/c they don’t take advantage of mail order and putting up Web sites. Of course there are other factors like marketing, people skills, competitive prices, word of mouth pass-alongs and your base.
On a related note, the owner of Battlefield Station, one of two decent LTSes in Springfield, MO, was stricken with a heart attack and died early this week. His widow apparently intends to keep the store open, but that intention may not pan out.
I think you are 100% correct, David. To rely on a few hundred people in a local area to support a store is a pipe dream. The web opens a store of any kind, large or small, to countless thousands of potential new customers. Mail order is a huge part of consumer purchasing these days, and will only grow. So why not take advantage of it?
Make no mistake, the other factors you mention are also vital to a store’s survival. Especially customer service. That’s number 1 in my book, above even price.
Jim
Unfortunately, a lot of small shops only rely on walk in business. In this day and age you need to do more than that to suceed.
Jim H,
Those are all fine stores in Houston. Planes and Trains is the upscale store I refered to in my post. I did not realize HTOS had moved in to Memorial City Mall. I thought y’all were still located in the Town and Country Mall but it has been awhile since I dropped into your groups web site.
Thanks,
Steve
Another small shop,B&G Hobbies in Concord, NH closed [:(] around the first of the year. He had some strange ideas about the internet. In short he hated it (afraid is a better term). He had a couple of less than happy experiences with some internet folks, nothing major though and that sealed it. The internet / ebay were terrible in his eyes. The shop closing probably took a lot of stress off him but it was sad to see him close. Another factor was his lack of friendliness towards those who were putting the beans on his table. On occasion, I would hear him say Thank you. He was always belittling Mountian Trains in Manchester.
In the end the world just didn’t come through with the living it owed him.
Leslie
Leslie,
I’ve personally seen this time and time again. Whenever I travel out of state I make it a point to stop by as many toy train hobby shops as possible. In many occasions where there are 2 or more shops in a city, I will hear bad words about other hobby shops and/or unfriendliness towards customers and an irritation when questions are asked.
To be sure, there are many great hobby shops with great people; but for some strange reason, toy train hobby shops or outlets seem to have far more of their share of sour pickles.