I see alot of whining on here about the demise of the local hobby shop on here and many of the reasons have been discused before but it seems to always end up with people trashing others found memories. I too have some fond memories but I don’t wear rose colored glasses (an analogy for I can see the good as well as the bad). The local hobby shop had its time in the sun and now is going the way of the Dodo, they will still exist but not as a true business venture (meaning a way to make a profit that takes into account the hours put in). The reasons are clear (to me) why this is occuring. One that I have not seen discused is that our hobby has grown in product and diverity so that a hobby shop would have to be a very large warehouse to offer a reasonable amount of the items out there and the list is growing daily. I know alot of online people who started online companys and built them, espesialy in the field of scale buildings.
I know.
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I don’t want to mention any specific names, but some formerly great ones are really in a state of decline.
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The same is happening with wargaming centered and R/C centered hobby shops.
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It breaks my heart. Sorry, my response is emotional. I love hobby shops. So much of my youth was involved with hobby shops.
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-Kevin
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My former LHS folded because the owner was past retirement age, and his shop’s landlord jacked up the rent. The last I looked, the shop was still vacant.
He could get most stuff I wanted, but I might have to wait a while because his in-stock inventory was small, but I was seldom in a hurry so that was fine with me.
There is a hobby shop in my city that has existed for many years. The original owner sold it back around the 1980’s I think.
The new owner has done quite well but it is very slowly shrinking in size. I have noticed it over the years.
Other issues affect the shop. Cost are always going up. Unless you have ever operated a hobby shop you will have no idea of what it is like. I have talked with the owner a few times. It is mind boggling.
I saw how many times he had to move.
Model railroading is popular in my area. I know may model railroaders and there is probably the biggest show once a year for two day. Online sales. Seems to be one issue.
They handle all scales, planes, cars, other hobbies. A retired fellow takes care of a couple layouts.
Rich
Another issue mentioned often is that some manufacturers require preordering certain models.
What small independent hobby shop can afford to preorder all the models that customers may buy?
It is sad to see such I great tradition go. It truth LHSs are still a cheap way to get trains if you think about it. If you add the shipping many online suppliers charge for the LHS is usunalloyed cheaper. My grandpa often order’s from hobby shops a few hours away (they are the closest) in order to give them buisness, and also because they can’t almost anything after a quick phone call.
In the West Michigan Area, were I used to live, there still is a nice LHS within walking distance from my old house. Their stock it small compared to online places, but they often have stuff for western railroads that sell out quickly in places they are more popular.
There is also a used hobby shop in that are. I love it, it’s like a train show open every day (okay, not Sunday). I can’t see used train stores going online, EBay is the closest thing, and nowhere near close to used train shops! It’s nice to see something like a LHS May stick around a while!
I also have many, many fond memories of hobby shops from my youth. Hauling a gallon of Missle Mist fuel home for my model airplnes on my Mustang bike that was five miles away was just one of many adventures I had.
I have become friendly with this kid that bought a good sized MRR shop a few years ago. I wasn’t sure whether that was a good idea or not. He took the name and inventory and moved it into his parents three car garage at home. It is strictly mailorder now and he is making a killing. He has way more inventory than the shop ever did and offers good discounts when asked for.
Shipping charges are a good deal if one really has a grasp on what the true cost to move the metal monster down the road is.
I am fortunate enough to have PWRS not far away and can get my browsing fix there if need be. I don’t miss anything about retail store shoppings demise, we get just about everthing we buy brought right to the house the same or next day, gotta like that.
Honestly, I think LHS are dying because all retail is dying. Online retail is gaining more and more market share, and as with all brick-and-mortar stores LHS are getting squeezed out. The convenience of online shopping is too much to compete with, even when taking the personal relationships of LHS into account. We’ll still have LHS around, but I think we’ll see them consolidate from a cluster of small neighborhood ventures into a handful of regional one-stop-shops.
These are some truly GREAT hobby shops I have visited that are no longer with us. Maybe this will bring back some memories of the days gone by.
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Bobbie Hall’s Hobbies, Dallas, Texas (unknown)
Chattanooga Depot, Chattanooga, Tennessee (owner retired)
Chester Holley, Tampa, Florida (owner retired)
Dan’s Train Depot, Ocala, Florida (went to on-line only)
Hawkins Rail Service, Lafayette, Indiana (owner retired)
Gandy Dancers, Atlanta, Georgia (unknown)
Happy Hobo, Tampa, Florida (owner sold store, new owner closed store)
Orange Blossom Hobbies, Miami, Florida (unknown, very old store)
Warrick Custom Hobbie, Fort Lauderdale, Florida (unknown, very old store)
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Great hobby shops near me that are still hanging on. Many of these are past the peak of their glory now.
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Colonial Photo and Hobby, Orlando, Florida
Discount Trains, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Gulf Coast Model Railroading, Sarasota, Florida
Ready To Roll, Miami, Florida
Riverdale Station, Atlanta, Georgia
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New stores are opening, but they are nothing like the old stores.
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-Kevin
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Not only has the retail market changed, the hobby shop has changed as well.
When I started some 48 years ago, it was common to have a freelance model railroad. So any locomotive could be used - you bought a 4-6-0 or 2-8-2 and lettered it for your road. Scales were pretty much N, HO, O, HOn3, Sn3, On3.
Now everyone wants a model specific to their prototype road. Manufacturers try to supply that, but only the big online guys can really buy them all AND sell them all. Many at a discount. Plus the hobby has so many fragments - Z, N, HO, S, O, #1, 3 rail O, hirail S, Nn3, HOn30, HOn3, Sn2, Sn3, Sn42, On30, On3, all the different Large Scales - that a LHS can’t possible cover them all completely.
As an example, last week I was at a fairly good size store in Pennsylvania looking for some AF fastrack straight pieces. They only had the 10" and 5" so I had to mail order the smaller sizes from an online store.
Paul
Accually you are wrong. The problem is that things like malls were way overbuilt. Then you add the leveraged buyouts (sears, toys-r-us and others) and throw in higher rents and wages. What most people don’t know is that in malls, the anchors have a say in the rents of the other spaces and sometimes other voting rights, it is not allways the mall that sets these things. The last nail is the new minmulist culture (whatch the coming glut in storage rentals, already they are diversifying). Last thing I would like to bring up is places like Amazon (the gorilla in the place) has never made a dime in retail, like never.
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There is a newer and very nice strip center mall in Daytona that the only tenant is a Dollar Tree. You can see the signs for an HH Gregg, Sears Hometrends, Toys-R-Us, and a Babies-R-Us.
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There is so much empty retail space right now that it is staggering.
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-Kevin
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Lets see, HH Gregg (bankrupt) over expanding into markets they should not have been in. Sears (leveraged buyout and missmanagment), Toys-R-Us along wirh Babies-R-Us(same reason). You would not beleive how badly these chains (and other) have been mismanaged and I can give you a why story of why Sears is dying and took down at least 1/2 dozen with it (maybe that is why the COO is heading to court along with his investment firm).
True and i like it but when something comes broke it has to go back.If i get it from the LHS i can check it out their.
We have returned very little over the last few years. They make it very easy to do. They E-mail you a lable that you print off and tape to the box, you leave the box on the step and it gets picked up. What could be easier?
It is interesting if you go back to say a 70’s model railroader you would see a lot of shops that were gone by say 1990 or 2000. There were shops that closed and others opened. A lot of what has happened is that owners have retired. It doesn’t seem like most transitioned to new owners. I can think of one that survived two ownership changes but that is it- Train Central in Indianapolis. It was Varry Trains originally and was sold the next owner passed away and Wayne had bought it. That shop is generally the exception. Indianapolis lost three shops that I can think of due to retirement. Our local shop here in Danville VA closed here about three years ago- it was combined with a gift store. The owner retired. Any new things opening seem to be online.
LHS’s are dying because they are single owner stores and owner retires. They aren’t being replaced as fast as they are disappearing. Online sales are taking over to fill the gap.
The guy above was not entirely wrong, retail has indeed been shifting in a big way to online sales. This is fact. Any existing or new hobby shop is more likely to succeed if they have a strong online presence. MB Klein’s has shifted their b&m store so it is 1/3rd it’s previous size to repurpose space to the online sales side. It is not nearly as nice to visit in person since the change but that is where there business is.
Sure I have a few nostagic memories but that’s all in the past and gone. I prefer to focus my nostalgia on model trains rathers than hobby shops of your, which didn’t have nearly as nice products as we have today. They don’t call them rose colored glasses for no reason.
Heck, I’m presently building an Amtrak San Francisco Zephyr which will be pretty close to typical of the mid 1970s. I never would have been able to do that in “the good ol days”.
Yeah Jim but,it took us to where we are at today…
As I often stated we begged for detailed locomotives starting in the 60’s because brass steam engines was better detail then brass or plastic diesels. Recall there was many road specific detailing artices in MR and RMC back then so,there was a demand.
As you know it just didn’t happen overnight and every manufacturer was caught flat footed by Life Like’s P2K line. Still a lot of today’s older and still popular manufacturers dragged their feet into the dawning of a new era.
Now,some manufacturers has introduce a eccomy line.
What a maddening business it must be.
Kevin,
I think Bobbie Hall’s closed whe she died. My memory is going in there on a St. Patrick’s day with a green shirt on and Bobbye declaring to one and all “The man with the green shirt gets a 10 percent discount and 20 per cent if the item has green on it!” My wallet bled green that day but it was fun.
It is sad to know the Happy Hobo in Tampa closed. They had a good shop with a wide range of kits. Well like so many shops, their time runs out. When I was kid we had three good hobby shops within walking distance of each other in downtown Boston. There was Eric Fuchs at 28 Tremont Street. Hobbytown of Boston was at 46 Boylston Street. John Chapper produced those famous Hobbytown of Boston locomotives down in the basement. Finally, my favorite was the Boston Model Railroad Company at 665 Atlantic Avenue, right across the street from South Station. This was a good place to meet railroaders who were also railfans and modelers. All of them are long gone. No one would be able to afford the rents in downtown Boston now.
I was recently in a Hobbytown USA that I don’t expect to see this coming Christmas season. Their inventory is about two thirds of what is normally on the shelves. What there is has been spread out to do something about the empty space but, thin discises nothing.
The fact that there is so much available to warrant a shop devoted to HO alone, is part of the demise of the LHS who did OK when it was Athearn, Mantua, and Varney. Today. No way buddy. I do all my buying over the www. The nearest place that even calls itself a hobby shop is a 170 mile drive, ONE WAY. If I’m in the area I stop in and buy what’s available that I want. Otherwise, why turn down up to a 20 per cent discount, free shipping over $100, and a live&
I respectfully disagree with the op.
Where I live there are great train stores that are still going, arguably as strong as ever! The sales staff is as knowledgeable, kind and courteous as any could ever hope for at The Station, in New Cumberland, PA (only minutes outside Harrisburg). The coffee is free, and they are trying to provide good quality coffee to their customers, also free sodas and snacks. The regular clientele brings in plenty of snacks that are freely shared with customers. They may not be a big store but a variety of items are crammed in the space they do have, and they will order anything the customer wants. On Saturdays, the “usual suspects” can often be found hanging out.
English’s Model RR Supply in Montoursville, PA, is another great train store. They have expanded the actual retail area in recent years and they have a great in-stock inventory, including a section for new releases that is off limits to picking for internet/mail orders so that the locals or other walk-in customers can be assured of being able to obtain newly released items that maybe they had not pre-ordered or otherwise somehow “missed” (since not everybody is breathlessly tracking the new announcements or arrivals online). They most often pre-order one of at least every road number of whatever engines are coming, to have for the retail store customers. That in itself is quite an achievement, these days.
Shipping charges are rising and I’m switching my buying away from Ebay and online retailers back toward those train stores that remain. That means I’m doing more pre-orders than previously, and am splitting them between the stores. It is better (more economical) for me to show up in person and scour through the store inventory than to pay high prices and high shipping charges for the occasional single item on Ebay. At these stores, I can always find something to want.
Also there is Mainline Hobby