From the San Jose (CA) Mercury News 12/8/05. Front page of the local section with photos.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/13357094.htm
Pretty sad news letter. It is only going to get worse as the years go by, Ebay, online shopping, and other factors all play a roll in keeping our LHS alive. But what does one do, im guiltty as allot of other MR about using Ebay and online shopping, trying to get a good deal. I’ve seen 3 shops that had to go to mail order, and carry allot of different items in different hobbies to make a go of it.
The problem most people don’t seem to realize about online shopping- You need to know EXACTLY what you want and make sure that’s what you’re getting.
Yep, it’s sad. But I guess I’ve done my share of contributing to the problem because probably 90% of my train items were bought off the web… It’s just so much easier than driving 40 or 50 miles without being sure if they’re going to have what I want when I get there. And it does no good to call ahead and ask because if they’ve got it they’ll say they don’t because they can’t find it right then, or they’ll say they do have it when in fact they don’t because they “think” they saw it somewhere the other day.
One of the train shops I do business with could be doing better if the guy would sale things on-line, but he’s stubborn and says it’s too much hassle. Oh well. I’ll miss the place when it closes…
Tracklayer
The smart ones are exploiting it: my LHS has a website, and they sell brass and supplies online.
very sad indeed.i can’t work now but when i did i very seldom bought loco’s from the hobby shop.although i could afford them back then,i generally used mail order and i did save a lot of money buying my loco’s and track that way.not being able to work and being retired i have to go either through m/order and or ebay now.i have a friend who orders through a hobby shop and the prices he pays…well ,it would be impossible for me to spend big bucks like that anymore.and the hobby shop isn’t giving him any discount! i guess some people who do have some money don’t mind spending and paying top dollar for their hobby.i just can’t do it that way anymore.
Yep, the savvy business people change with the times.
I know one hobby shop owner who opened up an online website and it was such a runaway success that he’s shut the doors on the hobby shop completely.
I miss having the shop to visit, but the guy’s now making more money online than he ever did with his brick and mortar operation.
Yep, times change … and if you want your business to flourish, you must change with the times. Ironically, that’s one of the main reasons I believe MR isn’t the magazine it was in the 60s … and if you want to blame anything, blame the times, not the staff at MR. They’re trying to follow the changing times, as best they can, appears to me.
How sad it is. Mebbe we should all move to Waukesha, Wisconsin, and build a train lovers village. How amusing that would be.
We have decided to keep our kids off the video game systems. I refuse to buy one. I do allow them to play educational games on the PC, but they are definately not allowed to sit there all day. Hopefully my son or daughter will pick up model railroading. They like to come down to the basement with me and watch what is going on sometimes, and they always enjoy a trip to the LHS. I just see too many fat and lazy kids anymore with no grip on reality because of these game consoles; well actually I guess it is the parents fault.
The same thing happened here ( Edmonton, AB) a few years ago the original owner was retiring and the son couldn’t afford to keep it open due to the online and volume discount operations undercutting their prices. So it it’s the same north of the border. The current hobby shops that survive often are a “side” business for the owner or are volume discount type of stores, the smaller hobby only operators are squeeking by with online websites and older regular customers.
Did anybody read the article???
How sad it is. Mebbe we should all move to Waukesha, Wisconsin, and build a train lovers village. How amusing that would be.
Could we have our village someplace warmer, Less money on oil more for the trains[:D]
bill
In a way, I can see how this could be a problem. Today, it seems like there is some kind of software to simulate anything of interest. It all starts with the XBox and other video games. Then it is continued on with computers. Kids are more than not left to sit in front of the TV or computer screen and learn on their own. Digital reality has taken over the material world. Why build a huge layout by hand when all you have to do is plop Jr. in front of a computer and let him build it himself in a simulated sandbox? Even at my age, I find being able to “build” a simulated railroad on the computer and run it as a very enjoyable experience.
Shame though really. No amount of 1’s and 0’s will ever replace the satisfaction of building something with raw materials, from the ground up. Working with your own two hands, learning skills(other than typing on a keyboard), and even human interaction seem to have fallen by the wayside, so to speak. Where is this hobby headed? Good question and only time will tell.
Yes, I read the article. It’s too bad that they’re closing. However, San Antonio Hobbies tried to be all things to all people. I shopped there on occasion, but most of my purchases are done at The Train Shop in Santa Clara. Interestingly enough, TTS wasn’t mentioned in the paragraph about other hobby shops. Of course, TTS isn’t a general purpose hobby shop. It’s trains only and the owners know the business backwards and forwards.
While San Antonio Hobbies would put things on sale, they generally priced things at or close to MSRP and they were also in a high rent mall. My guess is that their overhead was pretty high. They certainly weren’t in the easiest to find location in the mall.
Andre
The only reason I asked is that this whole thing was becoming internet based v physical hobby shop.
Yep… Completely though, twice and I wanted to do that before responding to this thread (and I may still not have some of it right [:I])…
What I got from the article is that he is closing due to health problems as well as compitition from Electronic gadgets… 40 years is a long time to stay in business in an after the bills are paid type niche business, like a hobby shop… Like Vultures to a dead carcus, people flock though the doors when closing time comes hoping for great bargains… If he were younger, in better health, and actually Wanted to stay in business, it would be possible for him to do so… electronically… I think it’s been Well proven over the last 10 or so years that people Do want the stuff, but want it at a perceivevd discount… I don’t think I’m very far off the mark when I say that MSRPs are inflated in order to Offer the discounts, either online, mail order catalogs, etc… Admittedly, I don’t know the ins and outs of keeping a retail business going but it seems to me, if they want to compete, they have to offer something that makes it worthwhile to walk through the door… The ones that survive, in my guestimate, will be the ones that adapt… It doesn’t take very much effort to get an online business going. I know several in my area who have done it, closed the doors to the public, and are making money hand over fist, selling specialty items…
Let me pre-qualify this statement by saying this… I’ve never been there, didn’t know it existed before I read the article, and certainly now, won’t ever be there. I think if he were interested and able to stay in the hobby business, he could… Perhaps not in a 15000 sq foot mall space, at probably what, $100k-$200K per year?? With the utils, insurance, advertising, etc lumped on top of that??
My 3x[2c]
Jeff
I guess I’m lucky, one of the larger mail order large scale shops is also open for walk in business (in a crappy part of town) but their prices are the same as their mail order and I can save the shipping costs with a 30 min drive. But if the LHS (HO and N mostly) ever folded I’d be in sorry trouble for kitbashing materials.
I guess you’ve never seen kids out there building their own computers, then.
Endlessly fine tuning them for the best performance they can get for the money. They may spend their free time playing games, but they’re anything but lazy and stupid. They feel the same way about an out-of-the-box Gateway or Dell as we do about old tycho engines, and for similar reasons. They’re learning electronics, hacking registrys, drilling, cutting, and etching aluminum cases, installing sophisticated water-cooling systems (where one mistake can fry $1k plus of electronics) and doing things to computers that rival the best work of any scratchbuilder.
And for what it’s worth, I’ve seen plenty of fat and lazy “model railroaders” at train shows. People who were even too lazy to take a bath before going out in public. Nobody’s perfect, least of all middle aged men with axes to grind.
That’s a real bummer. I have fond memories of my older brother and me riding our bikes to the san antonio shopping center as kids (pausing after we carried our bikes over the SP tracks to watch the trains for a bit) so he could spend his paper route money on a new athern car kit or an atlas switch or whaterver. This shop is what got me into the hobby as a kid. Sad to see it go.
Hi all
Its happening all over the world
it wont be long before we are all [censored] when we want a low pressure
helpful service that only the local hobby shop can provide.
on line shopping is a pain in the [censored].
You cannot try before you buy
Get warranty jobs done easy
Get helpful advice and a much needed coffee
Or just plain good old fashioned helpful service
The online stores make money because no store no staff and high through put stock.
The mongrels don’t’ even have full catalogues of what they have most of the time
so if you want a slower moving model you will very shortly not be able to get it
added to which they don’t like doing it mail order it has to be on line and that being the case they will never get my business.
The human face is going out of everything and that is not a good thing
regards John