Stopped yesterday at my H.T.USA. Third time in a year. The only thing thar’s been restocked is the cork roadbed.Same old useless crap he had on the shelves a year ago. A few BB cabooses, some cheap Bach RTR cars. MP and and LL crappy looking buildings. I asked the owner if was going to get more Atlas 83 flex in. He said I don’t order that anymore. I have to buy a box of 100 and I’d never sell that many. I said you had a new box of 100 6 months ago when I was here and now your sold out. He said Yea, It just doesn’t sell.[%-)][%-)]. People just don’t buy train stuff anymore.
In the half hour I was talking to him, about 6 or 7 people walked in to look at trains, saw that he really didn’t have anything to offer, turned around and walked out. I didn’t see a single person walk over to look at the RC cars and planes, models, or war games stuff that he had WAY,WAY more $$$ tied up in.
I asked him his price on a case of 83. (He tried to push MP 100 on me saying it was about the same thing???) Took him almost 20 minutes to look it up on his computer. He said $348/case. Oh, no, Wait! I forgot to add my 25% mark up on that…$435…I almost laughed in the guys face. I bought 10 peices of cork @ $1.50 each just so I could finish my mainline, and a 1oz bottle of Polly S@$5.79. (I can get a case of 83 on the internet for $219.) How come he can’t do that and mark it up 25%???
And people say support your LHS???Not me, Not this shop.[V][V][V]
We have same problem in Las Vegas area there are two shops here,neither one offers much in HO mostly RC cars and games,I buy paint only if they have what I am looking for,other than that I shop online.
Tom,
Since Hobbytown is a national chain, I don’t consider it a “real” LHS. Your HT pretty much describes the one in my area: Overpriced items and not much selection. An LHS to me is just that: A Local Hobby Shop - i.e. one that is independently owned and operated, has a good selection of items, and specialzes in “something”.
Like a neighborhood hardware store vs. Home Depot or Lowe’s, I like to support the smaller businesses. They have both their purpose and niche. If I want help on a specific issue on my house, I go to Dunn Hardware store 5 miles away - even though Home Depot is closer. Why? Because I know I’m going to get the answers to my questions and the specific product I need for the job. Is it a little more? Usually. Is it worth it to me to pay that extra? Yes. Otherwise, the larger and impersonal businesses end up taking over.
It’s the same with my LHS. I can go their with a specific question and talk to Jim, and he can come up with ideas how to remedy the issue. I was just in there last week peppering Jim with questions about how fix a problem on a kit that I was superdetailing. We must of chatted for 10 minutes about it (course, it helped that no other customer’s were around) and I came away with a few more ideas to try. And Jim is also fun to talk to.
While I was there, I also ordered more 1 x 8 to finish up the product. And, since I ordered through my LHS, I don’t have to pay for shipping. [:)] These are some of the reasons why I spend 80-90% of my MRRing at my LHS. There are certain things that you just can’t put a price tag on.
Sorry, Tom. I think I got off on a tangent to what you were actually writing about. I do agree with you about Hobbytown. I’d rather give my money to another business.
Tom
There was a story on the news of Rhino Records closing in Los Angeles because they can’t compete with downloading songs from the internet.
That is probably going to be the eventual fate of all LHSs. Hobbytown has to buy through Horizon and has to pay Hobbytown USA their franchise fee. I don’t think they could buy from another source, even if they wanted to and it was cheaper. I’m surprised they can stay open at all. I think the younger kids without credit cards to buy on the “net” help them to stay afloat.
Our local Hobbytown will match internet prices on more expensive stuf ($200 and up) and the sales tax offsets the shipping, so at least check with the store to see if they will do the same.
We all want the cheapest price we can get, and the internet is going to win out in the end. This double edge sword means it will be harder to find anything local anywhere, but what we do buy will be cheaper…for awhile.
The nearest Hobbytown to me is in College Station about 45 miles away. They don’t stock a lot of train items either. I’ve just about given up on those places, and now stick more to actual train shops that specialize in model railroading supplies like the Houston Roundhouse, Papa Ben’s Train Place or Spring Crossing.
TL
In my town, we have a Hobbyland chain and my guess is these are locally owned franchises. I’m also guessing the same is true for Hobbytown. There is a vast difference in selection from one Hobbyland to another. Some have a lot of MR equipment, while others have little more than a few trainsets and scenery materials. Each Hobbyland seems to emphasis certain hobbies (radio controlled planes, model cars, ships, etc.). I guess it depends on who the franshisee wants to cater to. I do most of my buying at my LHS which is exclusively trains. I only go to the Hobbyland stores when it is convenient.
My whole point is, if I can buy it for $219 on line ,why can’t he? He wasn’t using HTUSA software, he was surfing a couple of sites like we do. I tried to talk to the guy and say you could go here or there for a better price and I got that blank stare your dog gives you somtimes. If the folks I saw in the train section bought $25 each worth of stuff, he would have had a $200 sales hour just on train stuff!
The REALLY funny thing is while I was in there, he had his two boys with him in the store.(maybe 7 and 14) They weren’t playing with the cars, or rockets, or planes, or war game stuff, They were playing with the trains??? How can you be THAT stupid and still save enough ca***o open a hobby shop???
I’m starting to think the DUMB *SSES shall inherit the Earth.[banghead][banghead][%-)][%-)][%-)]
PS- He had 1 peice of 83 flex left. I asked him how much? He said $2.79. How can he sell 1 peice for $2.79 when he wants to charge over $400 for a whole case???
You know, the Hobbytown around here is one of the best places to go. It’s large and well stocked. The floor space is close to 1200 sq. ft. just for the train department. The people there are very knowledgable too. Hobby Lobby on the other hand, stinks. Not one thing directly related to trains, and there never has been, at either of the two stores. Hobbytown will transfer things fropm other stores, special order stuff (and if they do that I get 10% off), or anything.
I guess Indianapolis must be a whole different country or something.
loathar
In my post I explained that he probably cannot buy like you suggested, because his franchise contract with HTUSA says he can’t. He can only buy through their approved distributors, mostly likely Horizon.
The individual owner probably gets most of his or her supplies through Horizon, and if they can’t order in large numbers, then they aren’t going to get a price that’s competitive with the big e-stores.
I’ve been to Two Hobbytown Stores in the DFW Area(Mansfield),one in Arlington and one in Fort Worth.They have an okay selection of Model RR Stuff,but the three best Hobby Shops in the Fort Worth Area are (A):Hobby World in Westcreek Plaza in Fort Worth;(B)Model Train Crossing in Hurst and (C)Angelo Hobbies in Haltom City.Theyr’e small but have a good selection;theyr’e helpful but not pushy and friendly and folksy.
My local Hobbytown has an OK selection of railroad products, but’s it’s still NOTHING compared to my LHS: Norge Station (Williamsburg, VA). At least there the people know what your talking about when you ask for a Code 83 No.8 Turnout. The people at my Hobbytown know nothing. Yet still, my parents take me there instead. Is it a Railroad conspiracy?
I am just 5 mins away from the Hobbytown in College Station. The only things I get from there is evergreen plastics and occasional tracks, cork roadbed and couplers. They have a few HO locomotives; an Atlas UP Dash-8, P2k UP PA-1 and SD9, and some other cheaper toyish locomotives. That was about it. If I had the money I would get their Dash-8, but for now it is eBay for me.
I had them order an halftrack set from Walthers. In the catalog it goes for about $19 and I paid it and it arrived about 5 months later. I think the problem was on Walthers end since the only Walthers HO catalog they had was 2004. Although I order some plastic strips from them, it arrived in less than a week.
our LHS here isn’t that grea for trains either, not terrible, he is very nice, just dosn’t have that much stuff, and what he has isn’t what i’m looking for (most of the time) but he will order SOME things in for me, he dosen’t even deal with walterhs wich sucks. But now nad then i’l buy one of his remaining athearn BB kits, just today i got a athearn 40’s C&O pulpwood flat car.
I’ve found it varies from store to store in the HobbyTown franchise. There’s one in the metro Atlanta area that has an mring dept that is bigger than the entire local store here. But, the Atlanta store has a vast population to draw from, not so here.
My local Hobbytown has closed down the shop
MA.
K
I talked to the owner of my local HOBBYTOWN USA and he basically said “it’s what the market can bear”. He has a good sales from R/C items and styrene products. Most of his styrene sales are to architects. And model train sales jump in december. He will order any MR product i need with in reasonable time and i save on S/H.My biggest problem with this store is you hardly ever see the same employees, they don’t last long. And here in Charleston SC, the amount of model railroaders in this area is about the same as the amount of “surf board shops” in Wyoming.
In my town we have Hobbietown and a Frederick Junction (Model railroad store) The Hobbytown has much better selection and there prices also much better. If I order something they have it in a week. I’ve tried to order from the train store and it takes 6 months or more. (he has to wait to get a big enough order) I’ve tried supporting the train store but it has been 3 years and it has shown no improvement. The Hobbytown on the other hand has doubled it’s train selection.
Hi neighbor…
One thing I will say for the College Station Hobbytown is that they do have a pretty good selection of odd and hard to find plastic model kits if that’s what a person is into.
TL
I agree Hobbytown USA is crap! Alot of shops I go into are the same way when it comes to N scale.[V] At times its very hard to find a good shop, some are just a joke[(-D].
Thom
SP9811-This jerk actually has some good N scale stuff and a whole 027 section. NONE of it sells! It’s the same stuff that’s been there for a year.The people walk in,look at the HO section, shake their heads and leave.How can you be that dumb to NOT SEE business walking out your door.He sits there like a bump on a log and won’t get up to say HI!, can I help you find anything??? He has over 200 gallons of RC car fuel that he can’t sell. (they make me buy it in bulk…) This is one dude that deservse to go under.
Simple folk…the common clay of the Earth…You know…MORONS!!!