Globalization of almost everything is contributing to this phenomenum; and everything is becoming a commodity including intangibles like service. How many telephone support services (aka 1-800) are actually performed by employees of the businesses advertising the service or even in the country of the business? It’s even hard to tell what country some of these businesses are in.
Everyone wants everything faster and cheaper. Providing “services” face-to-face and "good"s in a physical environment is becoming too costly.
For “service”, no one has the time, or given overhead costs, employees don’t have the knowledge; they’re referred to as “associates”. It takes experience to provide good service. You have to know the products you sell and you have to analyze the customer to really understand what they are looking for or want. So, that “service” is now being passed on to us; the end customer. Do your own research on the web, ask your own questions in some forum; get your own answers on your own time. Heck, my bank charges me $3 if I go in the bank and make a transaction with the teller, sorry - associate, on my money in my account. It’s “free” (is it?) if I do it via the web.
For the “physical”, the shop, storefront whatever, it costs $'s to carry inventory, you pay taxes on it etc. Why not let the supper “walmarts” of the world request, organize and control all that inventory and then ship directly to the end-user.
It’s in most businesses where a physical or human presence is; here today - gone tomorrow [V].
It’s competition. There is always someone, somewhere who can do it not necessarily faster or even better; but they can do it cheaper. The buck rules.
PS. I personnally know someone who’s job it is to advise potential customers on what kind of car will really suit their needs, from all aspects of the purchase; safety requirements, where to get it at the best price, how to arrange the best financing, insurance; all for a fee.
For anyone that doesn’t play video games all I can say is your missing out. I have a Sony PS2 and play Gran Tourismo 4 all the time. Its about as realistic as you can get for a car racing game. I’m not into the blood and gore type games but any type of racing game I probably have it. I built models as a kid and I still do now at the age of 40 but I can really see the appeal these games have on kids. They are very realistic and really get your heart pumping.
Try reading the original post again. I don’t mind them on the PC. It is the video game consoles that I don’t like. There isn’t much you can do with a console other than play games. There are a few tweaks, but that is it. I am in the network business so no need to preach to me about the virtue of children’s interest in computers.
It’s not all doom and gloom. As mentioned a number of online businesses are actually hobbyshops that have “adapted” to the modern market.
My LHS is still going pretty strong as their is a solid group of customers that patronize it regularly and the atmosphere is sort of like “Cheers”, where you can sit on stools and chat. As much as some don’t like to hear it, DCC has also helped boost sales as well.
A hobby shop owner that fails to keep up in the business world is doom to fail or have a very tough time.I know a shop locally that went from full price to 15% discount and after swearing he would never join Horizon is once again carrying Athearn…I am told his business is starting to pickup again since he started selling at discount…
Right on!!! I also have a PS2 and GT4. One of my other hobbies has been rebuilding a real VW Karmann Ghia, so when I saw an advertisement for GT4 that showed a Ghia, I went out and bought a PS2 just to run GT4 with a Ghia (I had to wait several months for the game to be actually released). After taking a real Ghia aprt and put it back together again, I think I know every curve and nut and bolt on it, and I have to say that I would have a hard time telling a picture of the virtual Ghia on PS2 from a photo of a real one. BTW, my virtual garage has a few dozen other cars in it, and you’re right, it does get your heart pumping (perhaps more than model RRing but I get much satisfaction from Model RR in other ways). It would be great if there was a train operating game for PS2 with the same detail as GT4. (BTW, I’m 56)
There is really only one hobby store in town that has any amount of trains, but even then not a large selection. He will order anything for me, but if I do that, how is that different than buying online? At least online the stuff is delivered right to my front door and I don’t have to make two 30 mile round trips.
Then make supporting any GOOD LHS in your area a priority. I shop online for terrific deals on locomoitves but I still do 90% of my business through my LHS(es) for things like supplies and rolling stock. There’s a knowledge base there that I just can’t get anywhere else…
So does getting on my treadmill or shoveling snow. Video games are okay to a point. That’s why I like MRRing. You can actually touch and feel what you are working on.
And most video games and TV suck the imagination and thinking right out of people’s heads. That’s why they call it, “amusement” - (a = no, muse = thinking.) Hmm…
My experiences with hobby shops make me go “ho-hum” about the passing of this shop and no I’ve never been there. Living in a 75,000 pop. town in the mid-west with one small shop has sort of soured me. Hey, very little is stocked there. I might was well be ordering on-line as all the Owner does is that. “Oh, a missing part? Well gee… that’s the way we got it.” Time changes things no doubt. Operating any large space in a mall has got to require a good profit. If you can only make that profit charging MSRP why not relocate and help everyone? Being a train lover I am sorry to see any train related business suffer but hobby shops are often about being everything to everybody with limited successful results…
Any hobby shop that does not offer “service” is doomed to fail. Even mail order and online shops have service departments. The LHS I use has now started online ordering with their inventory online. I don’t make the 100+ mile (one-way) trip just for my trains, I have to be going to that town for other things before I make the LHS stop. They will ship items to me if they have to order them. They also give discounts to match mail order and online prices. If their inventory is any gauge of how they are doing, then they are surviving.
I agree Joe. That in itself was probably one of the reasons for the 4x8 layout everyone is screamin about. You can get a 4x8 up an running real quick. At least they would be playing with trains instead of an XBox.
If it weren’t for the 'net, all I’d have is the trains I had as a kid. There is no LOCAL hobby shop (“local” is operationally defined as < 100 miles). And very few hobby shops in the entire world carry the kind of product I need, as most of it was last made decades ago, sometimes 3/4 of a century.
A good friend of mine owns a hobby shop. He just got a very good job and is about to sell or close his hobby shop. I asked him why he was closing. He said that if folks don’t want to pay MSRP at an LHS then there was no profit in running a hobby shop and he would be much…much… better off working for wages. I asked him why he didn’t he go the e-commerce route and close his store front or perhaps become a discount store. He said “Why would I want to do that when it is so much easier to work for a large corporation with great benefits?”. In addition he said, " What makes you think that my income would be greater from an e-commerce site or a discount shop?" I said, “Well everyone on the forum seems to think that’s the best thing for you to do if you were smart” “Yeah”, he said, “but I’ll bet none of them would be willing to bet their paychecks on it. The sure thing is to close or sell the store and get a good job, and that is just what I am doing.”
thats pretty sad its closing, sounds like a cool place.
well im proud to say ALL, and i mean ALL of my hobby purchases for any of my hobbies has come frome either my local hobbytown u.s.a, or Trainmaster models( most of my stuff comes from there) i love going to hobbyshops, espesially trainmaster because they have a layout and a huge selection of stuff to browse and buy.
another note, i am a teen, and i like playing xbox and goin on the computer. but thats not my parents fault so dont blame them, its just cause i’m interested in technology. infact i might even choose videogame programming as a career because it supossedly pays good and looks like a fun job.
but, i also really like models and trains and stuff too.
i also would really like someday too open a hobbyshop because i love going to them and i could sit in them for hours if i was allowed. but there is a good chance i wont because the internet will have probably advanced so much making shops obselite by the time im older and able to open one. im hopefully goin to get a job at my local hobbytown when i turn 15.
just wanted to put it in perspective from not only a young person, but someone who enjoys both tech. and regular hobbies
I didn’t read all of the posts so if I repeat this Im sorry. Around my area a week ago they had a news story about how kids no longer collect baseball cards like they used to. I still have tons of mine (Some 30+ years old). They said that the kids that do collect them, immediatly sell them for a quick buck. Then they end up being at trade shows or other events way over priced.
Its a shame I remember when I could buy a pack of baseball cards for roughly $1 a package (and get a free hard or broken piece of gum). Now packs of cards can run anywhere from $3 - $80. Same with model railroading. When will parents learn to buy their kids model trains or model kits. I still think with these hobbies I had when I was younger (Still have my trains though ) have made a difference in my life and probably kept me from doing stupid things (IE: Drugs, Criminal Record, etc).
As Andre said above, the San Antonio Hobby shop, near Palo Alto, was trying to be “All things to all people” with anything modelling you might be interested in buying. Their prices were at or near MSRP and they seamed to cator to people with deep pockets. Their stock was OK but not great. I bought some items from them over the years but it wasn’t my primary LHS. I do most of my train purchases from The Train Shop, as Andre mentioned. There is another shop, D & J Hobbies in Campbell, that has a fair amount of train stuff and they do Online business also.
The Train Shop discounts everything and their prices are not too far off from some Online shops. I buy from them because they are usually well stocked, very knowledgable, REASONABLY priced and very friendly to their many valued customers. This is the reason we should support our LHSs so they don’t go the way of the San Antonio Hobbie store.
I was in the San Antonio Hobbie today and it was sad to see them closing after 40 years of business. There was a large “Going Out Of Business - 40% Off” sign out front. There was a camera crew from Ch 2 TV doing an interview with the Train Department person as I walked in. The first I heard of them closing was in the San Jose News Paper. I was in the store a couple a months ago and nothing was being discussed about the state of the business or going out of business. The place was already well picked over and not much to buy. I did get a Genesis SD-70 with the basic DCC chip (no sound) for $65, some backdrop scenery and one building. Almost all HO stuff was gone already and O & G were all gone.
I buy a few small items from my LHS, but sorry guys, I’m hard pressed to pay $139 for a loco that I can buy all over the web for $82. My LHS even has some items marked higher than MSRP, Even if I get a dud, it only costs me about $7 to send it back for a replacement, and I’m still money ahead of the game.
) have made a difference in my life and probably kept me from doing stupid things (IE: Drugs, Criminal Record, etc).