Hobby shops are certainly not alone in having this problem.
A local restaurant has a table with 12 or 14 chairs set aside for a morning coffee klatch that goes on from the time they open until lunch, and it’s the closest table to the front door so other customers have to maneuver around it.
The bigger problem where I live is that the nearest thing that could be called a “local” hobby shop is a 70 mile drive one way. And it’s the only one closer than a 250 mile drive one way so most of us let UPS, FedEx, or USPS do the driving.
Tracklayer, does your store have a website too, like my “LHS” does? If not, strongly suggest to them, with a letter of like-minded individuals’ signatures to do so. That way you CAN support them and spend only what you like.
Also, my LHS is about 45 mins/45 miles ONE WAY {70 round trip} to go to. but I go as I need to. Rest I order from them online at wholesaletrains.com . I have absolutely NO other reason to go that way in general, but if/when we DO go that way, we stop and see what they have got on the shelves.
If they don’t have a website, and complain it is “too expensive to do”, then maybe they deserve to close.
Businesses that: 1} don’t make a profit, and 2} don’t keep up with the times and modern era, will have a sign that reads 1} Closed 2} Out of Business. My business Math college professor taught us that long ago. How many buggy whip and wagon shops do you see around? If they got into horseless carrriages they might be!
The business Prof also taught us " It takes $$$ to Make $$$ and showed us some ways of borrowing and managing it.
Now that I think about it the people who hung out there were all members of the same MRR club. I am even a member there. The owner was the club president. He gave a discount to anyone who was a club member. They were there everytime I went. Other then the hobbie shop the only other place were they got together was operating night every Friday at the club. I haven’t been there for years (MRR CLUB). When I had my heart attack & stroke they presented me with a Lifetime Membership.
I look at my LHS as another business competing for my money. Fortunately, I have an outstanding one devoted exclusively to trains and they get the bulk of my hobby dollars because they have earned them. I do buy online as well and sometimes on ebay. With every purchase, I weigh price, convenience, service etc. in deciding where to buy any given product. I don’t support my LHS because I feel a need to keep them in business. I support them because I get good value for my money. As long as I feel that, that will continue to get the lion’s share of my business.
I don’t necessarily agree that the LHS is going away. Many said the same thing about the Ma and Pa grocery store and the corner pharmacy. Most have been displace by the chains but I know one Ma and Pa a few blocks from where I use to live that found a niche between the large supermarkets and convenience stores. It is a more convenient than the chain stores and has better prices and selection than the convenience stores. It has a loyal customer base and seems to be thriving despite a generational change in ownership. I know of a couple pharmacies that also are competing. One is techincally a chain in that they have a store in each of two nearby towns, but they certainly aren’t a Walgreen’s or a Revco.
It is difficult for the small businesses to compete against the big box stores and the etailers, but there are always going to be the exceptions that defy the odds.
I have a hobby shop (The Train Shop in Santa Clara, California) 1/2 hour away from where I live. Very well stocked, very reasonable prices. I shop there for everything I can get there. I ONLY go to online stores when I can not get something at the store.
I think normally, it costs no more except for car mileage, which is paid back in spades by the nicer browsing experience for myself and kids. I look at this as a totally discretionary expense, so I will buy less if I have to, but I really value the hobby shop experience.
Sorry guys, but I’m not paying $125.00 for an N scale Spectrum steam loco at the train shop that I have to drive over 100 miles round trip into the city to get when I can buy it on-line for $75.00 and not even have to leave the house… Let’s face it. The day of the walk-in train shop is pretty much over and the internet is soon going to be the only game in town when it comes to buying train items. What can I say, progress isn’t always a good thing…
Tracklayer
Tracklayer, does your store have a website too, like my “LHS” does? If not, strongly suggest to them, with a letter of like-minded individuals’ signatures to do so. That way you CAN support them and spend only what you like.
Also, my LHS is about 45 mins/45 miles ONE WAY {70 round trip} to go to. but I go as I need to. Rest I order from them online at wholesaletrains.com . I have absolutely NO other reason to go that way in general, but if/when we DO go that way, we stop and see what they have got on the shelves.
If they don’t have a website, and complain it is “too expensive to do”, then maybe they deserve to close.
Businesses that: 1} don’t make a profit, and 2} don’t keep up with the times and modern era, will have a sign that reads 1} Closed 2} Out of Business. My business Math college professor taught us that long ago. How many buggy whip and wagon shops do you see around? If they got into horseless carrriages they might be!
The business Prof also taught us " It takes $$$ to Make $$$ and showed us some ways of borrowing and managing it.
At 60 years young, i remember my LHS’s. My dad would have to drive me there when i saved up enough money, could talk to the employees about trains and they had an amesome HO scale layout in the store and people would hang around to watch it run. It was just like dad’s local auto parts stores, when you walked in people were hanging around talking cars. Now, my LHS is Hobbytown MSRP. They have a decent mr section but mainly cater to RC stuff. I go there about once a month for glues,paints and styrene stuff and the reduced price left over HO stuff. We also hade a slot car racing store when i was growing up, they had two tracks and you rented a lane by the half hour and they had people their talking slot cars…them days are gone,but fond memories for me.
That is a bummer Tracklayer. If he would do some things like my LHS does, he might be better off. My LHS does sales every saturday. locomotives and rolling stock one weekend, scenery and structures the next, track one weekend and dcc the last weekend of the month. If you are an NMRA member or a member of our local club, you will get a discount as well. He will also throw in free-bee’s if you are a regular customer. I bought one of my BLI Y6b’s from him, and threw in 2 55 ton bowser N&W hopper car kits. The online guys make me a bit cautious, especially when it comes to locomotives. Some club members bought ‘new’ locomotives from Spring Creek and a few other online stores that were heavly used but advertised as new. These had worn out wheels, broken gears, missing or burnt out lights, broken parts and my favorite few that I witnessed were locomotives that have DCC and sound from the factory show up, and the sound cards and speakers are missing, on suposedly new locomotives. I will go online only if it is rolling stock and it is something my LHS can not get (out of production) because of those troubles my fellow club members have had.
Like Willy6, all I have left is Hobbytown, but- as a kitbasher and “restorer” of swap meet-purchased old BB’s and such, I do try to be a regular actual customer and buy some of my detailing needs from him every visit- Plastruct styrene materials, K&S brass or other metal items, etc. I was always an “actual customer” at the old model railroad LHS we used to have. When I went in there in a Saturday morning, I always bought a car or decal sheet or other supplies, so that my visit was beneficial to him- but, nonetheless, he closed several years ago. So much for my good graces as a customer…
The Saturday koffee klatsch is now an internet forum, as we have here…
Perhaps advanced virtual reality may bring us a “synthetic” Saturday morning experience some day- should I live to see it!
Be that has it may the cold faceless internet will never replace the joys of Saturday bull sessions at the shop. The friendships,layout tours,seeing the newest locomotive(s) cars,greeting by name by the shop owner,the credit extended to trusted customers,the surprise birthday party for the owner etc.A bygone era for sure.
My Dad’s generation of modelers would visit the shop on Saturday buy maybe a Varny,Penn-Line or Mantua locomotive kit or pick up parts needed for the on going scratchbuilt locomotive project.
I miss my LHS, every time I picked up something unique and in SP&S I’d show it and talk with them right before buying stuff, mostly train cars. Best money I’d ever spent there was on this precious gem.
I live in the UK and so use Model Junction in Slough to order all my NYC, PRR and US structures and model railroad stuff. They are 70 miles or so away but they are the most helpful and friendly store and they deserve to be successful so I support them by ordering as much as I possibly can with them, including anything I want from Walthers.
I do, however, have a model store only about 4 miles away (they do not sell HO American railroad only British). I could buy Woodland scenics, scenery, plastruct and general hobby stuff etc from there but I choose not to because the store is very ‘cliquey’. It’s like a private club and I feel as if I am intruding into a private conversation every time I go in. Subsequently, they are not very helpful. Subsequently I don’t shop there unless I have to.
So, like everything in this world, if you are good to your customers they will support you and will be loyal. If you can’t be bothered, then neither will your customers.
But if they are good… support them by buying! (Even if it costs a few cents more.)
Given that Model Junction appears to cater exclusively to the modeler oriented towards North America, I can understand your enthusiasm. As for the “cliquey” British oriented shop, has it ever occurred to you that the people in the shop are not being cliquish, but merely talking about that for which they have considerable knowledge?
You want the appearance of cliquish, try walking into a US hobby shop and start dropping terms like “Black Five”, “Jinty”, “footplate”, “9F”, “regulator”… Need I go on? Nobody’s going to know what you’re
I like to support my LHS for most items new on the market since I can look at them and run the item before talking it home. They discount most items about 15% to 20% and this helps with my purchases since most online discount shops need to include shipping. Shipping on one locomotive can use up the savings from New York unless it is a blowout sale!
