I was visiting family in another part of the country, and since I’d have half a day or so for railfanning, I went on the web to find out what to see in that area. A site said, “when you visit Wampus Yard, be sure to stop by Big Stan’s Hobby in Ragweed Grove, a great traditional train store.” But when I stopped by, Big Stan’s Hobby was three empty storefronts, for rent. So much for another traditional brick and mortar store.
My nearby local hobby shop is another large, traditional brick and mortar store. It caters to the high end, with a lot of brass. Over the past several years, it’s been going downhill – there used to be helpful and knowledgeable staff; now not so much. I recognized they couldn’t stock everything, so I ordered through them, especially via Walthers sale items, which allowed them to profit from matching discount prices. But as quality of staff declined, they screwed up my orders more. On top of that, even though this is a major store, they apparently suffered from Walthers credit limits, so if they were over their limit, my orders from Walthers would be held up.
Then I decided to convert to DCC. Almost nobody on the staff knew anything about it. I wanted to order big ticket items like boosters throuigh them, but the increasingly un-knowledgeable staff would screw the orders up. A couple months ago, I remonstrated with the manager, trying to explain that if they’d stock DCC items, they’d make a lot of money through me alone. He answered “Well, if you talk to me when I’m here on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, I can make sure we order the right stuff.” I replied that I didn’t want to have to fit my schedule to his so the store could make money – I wanted to get stuff when I needed it. In addition, even if he got the order right, there was still the issue of whether Walthers or another distributor would hold the order up over credit. And the unhelpful other staff didn’t want anything to do with DCC, and sort of resen
Dying out and gone. Unless the whole business changes, it is not reasonable to expect any store to stay open much longer. Unless you are in the very largest markets, or also have a large internet presence attached with your store, or you simply don’t really need to make an income off of the store… perhaps those can remain open. Everything is stacked against you these days.
I owned and operated a model train shop by myself for 16 years. Closed it down last year. Should’ve closed it down five years ago, but ever the optimist… just kept hoping things would get better. They have not, and will not, get better.
Depends on where you are I think. Within 1.5 hours of my home (Palmer, MA), I have 9 (off the top of my head) that have a decent or better railroad-related supply, 5 of which are dedicated train stores. Although I could probably find what Im looking for online, they all have opportunities to find something, and I place orders with the 2 closest frequently. All have varing stock, and can supply different things. One right in town is good for parts and cheap finds, while one in Springfield is good for paint, styrene, and other supplies.
I would also imagine larger stores, such as Caboose in Denver and Des Plaines near Chicago (both of which I’ve visited) do well because they double as internet stores, not just as brick-and-mortar.
In Maine, it is more of the same. Hobby shop owners are aging out of the business, they want to retire, but no one wants the business or has the money to purchase their stock. Or the building owner raises the rent to a level that the owner can not make sufficient profit to live on, while getting squeezed from the other end from on-line discount retailers who can easily undercut their pricing.
In the past couple of years 3 or 4 good shops closed and none opened
Does anyone watch the cable TV series Bar Rescue? A big premise of that show is that lots of bars go out of business, but it’s possible to change owners’ and employees’ attitudes and turn them into moneymakers. Whether it’s possible to do that with train stores, I can’t say, although it simply doesn’t help to have a big store with guys behind the counter who don’t know what an F7 is (no joke, and this isn’t Toys R Us, this is a serious train store). And they resent it when you tell them they ought to know what an F7 is!!
In certain geographical areas, the brick & mortar store will always live on. I lived in Gettysburg PA for 10 years and there was a large enough population to support 3 shops. One mostly railroad, the other two only railroad. Now that I am back home in central Maine, there just isn’t enough of us here to support a shop. The closest to me now is over 3 hours drive. And to be blunt, while it’s a nice shop, it’s not nice enough for that much travel. Some places the local store will never die, some places it’s been dead for decades.
Until recently we had three Hobby Shops in the Greenville-Spartanburg area Great Escape of Greenville, Great Escape of Spartanburg and Blue Ridge Hobbies. The just a few months ago, the teo Great Escapes consolidated operations into their Greenville store. Blue Ridge has a great selection but keeps very odd hours. In fact, Blue Ridge has opened an attraction called thr Minature World of Trains in Downtown Greenville and plans to merge the hobby shop into it.
One thing working against hobby shops today is the lack of product availability. Most model manufacturers have gone the “We’ll make it if we get nough pre-orders” business model we all know and love. Combine that with things like the Atlas track shortage and you have a seius problem. Empty shelves and nothing to fill them with.
When I look at very old issues of MR or RMC that have the lists of hobby shops by city, I am often surprised by the number of shops that were around in 1955 in Milwaukee that were gone by 1965. Indeed a case can be made that maybe the biggest die off of shops was in that decade, but each decade since has seen shops come and go, mostly go. And the big change from 1955 to 1965 was the sheer increase in the amount of model railroad merchandise that was available. It may have been possible in 1955 to almost literally have a “complete” shop. That was not so by 1965 and I think it has gotten less and less so every decade since. Most hobby shops occupy a space that would be totally filled if all they did was concentrate on carrying only structure kits for example, there are so many out there in the popular scales.
I can remember two Milwaukee shops that by the 1970s were almost like museums. They had detail parts for sale that came from an era when there wasn’t much detail, but there they were, selling at a full list price that frankly was never going to be paid, and thus valuable shelf space was dedicated to more or less unsalable goods. Most of their other inventory was pretty old too – lots of the old Walthers stamped metal passenger car kits including a few so old it was before Walthers added rivet detail which I think was maybe 1948! I think there were many shops that were run with that kind of attitude towards inventory (sell it until it’s sold) and keeping up with the times that were hit right in the gut by the “sudden” advent of DCC as well as the “sudden” preference for more accuracy and less tolerance for pizza cutter flanges and generic diesels in generic paint schemes. Those two shops never really accepted N scale as a major scale either. Both were run by crusty geezers.
I also remember a wonderful shop in Milwaukee that was trains only, run
Hobby shops are dying. I’ve watched the number decline in Northern Virginia for over 40 years. The train oriented ones that are left are mostly 3-rail O gauge. There are a few general hobby shops such as Hobby Town around, but they too are decreasing. I think the future is hobby shows and Internet shops plus a few very large shops in areas with lots of hobbyists.
There used to be six train-related hobby shops in Tucson, Arizona years ago – now there’s only one. All the others closed up shop when the owners wanted to retire and no one would purchase the business, so they sold off everything and locked the doors.
A member of our model railroad club who moved here from the Chicago area a few years ago still has frequent contact with hobby shop owners that he used to patronize. Some of them said they no longer sell trains, but have switched to radio control aircraft. They say people are continually crashing their planes and coming in to buy parts or complete new planes, but when a model train crashes nothing is so damaged that it has to be replaced, so they can make a lot more profit off of model planes.
Why would I wait until Saturday to drive from Alexandria to Fairfax, Chantilly, or Manassass and then find out they don’t have what I discovered I need on Monday when I can order Monday night from MB Klein and have it on Friday?
Where I live there’s two hobby shops that I can choose from that are both within 20 minutes of my house. There’s B & G Train World which is trains only and there is Hobbytown USA.
I think B & G Train World is able to hold on because the Chicago area has a dense enough population of model railroaders. From B & G it’s only a 30 or so minute drive to the Great Midwest Train Show, the largest monthly train show in the USA.
I believe, however, that your Hobbytown USA type store is more the future of where hobby shops are headed. The key for Hobbytown is that they diversify. My Hobbytown has a decent sized model railroad department. The selection could be better, but there are all the essentials there and more. They recently added a whole new dedicated section to Woodland Scenics products within the last month.
Hobbytown has something for everyone: trains, RC Cars, Planes, puzzles, toys and more. I think they’re able to make a better profit than a trains-only store so they have a better chance at survival.
Even though they have diversification, there are still people there who specialize. There’s one gentleman there who knows about model railroading and there’s another guy who knows about the RC planes. Even though it’s more of a general store you can still find someone who knows what they are talking about for model railroading.
There is one across the river in West Springfield that use to be more of a train shop many years ago in Northampton and moved to Springfield. No idea if there is one in Springfield anymore. The below shop had to move out of Springfield some years ago when the basket ball hall of fame expanded. Two different cities.
Today, a shop has to have all kinds of hobbies to survive.
Many are not aware how much business experience and capital is needed to buy a shop where the owner is retiring.
Here in Detroit, I can remember going to the hobby shop with my grandfather. It was take a number and wait. The place was crowded with kids and grown men. A 1/2 hour wait was not unusual for a Saturday in the winter, even with half a dozen guys working the counter. Lionel was the king but HO was coming on.
Later as I started a family, I took my son to the same hobby shop, not quite as busy but still going pretty good. HO was now the dominate scale.
We had at least 15 full line train shops. All gone except for 4. Trains were once sold in every department and discount store. No more. We had at least 5 magazines primarily devoted to HO, now only one is left. Train shows were every few weeks. Now down to 3-4 a year.
The reason is pretty simple for those willing to believe what their eyes are telling them. The hobby is just not as popular as it once was. Unless children somehow tire of texting and video games and discover that trains are cool, it never will.
Unfortunately, the best place to get kids interested, the LHS are gone or will be. And it really is a shame.
I would LOVE to support my local hobby shop more. Heck its located a mere 3 miles from where I live! But they don’t stock what I mostly need. Now, I do buy some things from them such as paints, glues, putty/filler, evergreen strip, and brass tubing. But theres only so much of that type of material/supplies that I need. The scenery material(s) and rolling stock I need (for example) they don’t carry and won’t stock. They have offered to order it for me, but its generally more expensive and I can do it myself for cheaper. This isn’t a knock on the brick and mortar hobby shop. I understand they can’t cater to me and my needs exclusively. But the internet can. I have a global hobby shop open to me 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and the majority of what I need is always in stock, and generally delivered to my doorstep within 5 business days (give or take). Bottom line (and sadly I suppose) traditional hobby shops have competition from not only other local hobby shops, but shops from around the world. As much and all as I would truly love to fully support my local hobby shop, if I can save money by going elsewhere…I will.
I am more than lucky to have 3 trustworthy hobby shops in my state of Minnesota. I honestly would rather go to a shop, find a locomotive I like, look at it, then buy it. You just can’t do that on the internet. Prices of items can affect whether I buy online or in store though. I just cant buy a locomotive that is 269.99 with sound in a store when I can find it at 199.99 on an online store. Scale model supplies is my favorite shop in Minnesota, due to all of its old stock and locomotives, that are hard to come by nowadays. They also have lots of military models, airplanes, and a large slot car track open on certain days.