Accually the reason all the hobby shops left was the price of real estate, even if you owned the building the land value is massive. Monthly rent in the downtown area where I lived before moving accross the bay is $6 a square foot now, used to be more. Reason Woolworths went out of buisness is they owned none of their spaces and were on 40 year leases, once the leases were up they were gone.
[quote user=“rrebell”]
ATLANTIC CENTRAL
richhotrain
rrebell
Do miss hanging out at train shops
One thing that always amused me about “train shops” were the number of old guys sitting on the window sill at the front of the shop, shooting the breeze, so to speak. LOL.
Rich
And it is not just model train guys. In the shops I worked in model airplane guys would do the same thing.
Those shops you had in your area, part of the reason they are gone, you cannot make a living in this business selling at 20% off unless you are buying most of what you sell direct from the manufacturers at “distributor” prices.
Wholesale and distributor pricing has changed some, but contrary to what some think, there is not a big margin in this stuff in any case.
Sheldon
Accually the reason all the hobby shops left was the price of real estate, even if you owned the building the land value is massive. Monthly rent in the downtown area where I lived before moving accross the bay is $6 a square foot now, used to be more. Reason Woolworths went out of buisness is they owned none of their spaces and were on 40 year leases, once the
Back in the day, when Walthers had a lock on everything and everyone, my favorite LHS bought everything from Walthers.
Rich
The monthly rent did in all three of my LHS, and in short order. All three were there one day and gone the next, or so it seemed. All three closed in the same year.
Rich
As the Internet became the go-to place for model railroading supply, I used to encourage my guys to establish an Internet presence to move some of the inventory. But all three LHS were intimidated at the thought of it. Often, I would be the only shopper on the store. Not good.
Rich
For the post part, the manufacturers will sell at the nearly lowest price to anyone with a retail business licence, but they require a minimum volume and generally require ordering in case lots which are typically 12 units, sometimes 24 for small items and often only 6 for things like locomotives. This has changed some in these days of preorders.
So the shops that can move that much product, by internet or otherwise, can buy direct and then can sell at 20% or more below MSRP.
The shop in Annapolis that has good prices on Bachmann, does some mail order business, by phone, their web page does not have a cart. Mainly they have the store and they go
Again, the rent did them in because 20% is not enough margin to run a retail store - even Walmart works on a higher total gorass margin than that - about 30%.
Sheldon.
? Walthers did not have a lock on everyone? Yes they bought up a lot of small companies and controlled those products.
So buying only from them was a big mistake because Walthers has never been the best place for a dealer to buy non Walthers merchandise. Other regional distributors have always had deeper inventory, better pricing, better terms and faster delivery than Walthers.
When I managed a train department we mainly used Walthers for their own products and some “fill in” stuff. Athearn, Atlas, Bachmann, Roundhouse, LifeLike, Campbell, and two dozen more brands were better bought from regional distributors near us, who used their own trucks for delivery, offered special terms in the fall for the “big season”, and had deeper more complete inventories of those brands.
Sheldon
In my opinion, today, Walthers is only still a “distributor” of other brands because they still manage to be a “retail mail order” source for some customers, so they want to offer products from other brands.
There are several reasons why Athearn quickly went to self distribution when Horizon took over - Walthers was one of those reasons. Athearn had been the single largest rolling stock line for decades, but in the late 70’s Walthers bought TrainsMinature and rapidly expanded their presence in the plastic freight car kit business.
From that moment on, Walthers gave Athearn a position of “second fiddle” in their catalog - which then was an important tool for all brands to market their products.
Walthers has always been best at being a manufacturer, with being a distributor or retailer of other brands taking second chair.
Horizon also went to self distribution simply because they could, they already had the infrastructure in place. And it allowed them to “clean house” get rid of less than ligit “basement dealers”, stablize pricing and provide better service to ligit businesses.
Today, Athearn is still one of the big players dispite all the naysayers when Horizon took over.
Sheldon
I was last at mb Klein’s about 6 maybe 5 years ago. The retail side of the shop considerably downsized. And while I try not to speak I’ll of people, the owner was quite cranky like his heart wasn’t in it any more. We didn’t feel like welcome customers. But he was older so he might have just decided it was time to retire
Whoever you delt with was not the owner. Ted Klein retired from day to day operations before they even moved to Cockeysville.
And Ted passed away in 2020.
Yes, these recent changes reflect a desire of the family to sell the business.
Sheldon
A new post on the website says they’re not taking orders while they’re reorganizing. Sounds like one hand doesn’t know what the other is doing.
Uncle Bob saw the older message. I posted about that earlier.
Rich
I saw the other post, Sheldon. I thought there may have been a new development in this soap opera.
Sheldon,
I’m going to assume you and I are in the same age group (lets say vintage) and we had quite a few choices when it came to hobby shops. Marconi’s in Brooklyn (Baltimore) was within walking distance as a boy. Later in life Pro Custom Hobbies and Kleins were my preferred shops. Sadly, as we all know, the area around Kleins suffered from crime and other urban issues. I remember city work crews power washing the area under the JFX to remove the unfortunate smell. Also on a bright Saturday morning I walked into the store and not 5 minutes later a older gentleman walked in who had just been beaten and robbed. At that time I was younger and stronger so I guess they chose a more vulnerable target. That being said, shopping at the brick and mortar Kliens was always enjoyable. Selection was good, prices were good and sometimes Ted was there and you could watch him do old fashioned math calculating your purchase. After the move I never made it to the new store. TTH offered similar prices, similar shipping, and at the time no MD sales tax was collected. I will always have fond memories of browsing the aisles and looking at that huge glass case where the locomotives were displayed. Sorry for being long winded, i got a little nostalgic.
No sweat: n-o-s-t-a-l-g-i-c is how model railroading is spelled. [(-D]
In the very early 60’s my uncle, Freddy Stroh had a shop in Glen Burnie. I knew the Marconi’s well and stayed in touch with Jackie almost up to her passing in 2018.
Yes, Pro Custom, City Wide, I even remember Lloyd’s before they closed.
My father took me to all the old shops when I was young.
At age 14 I was working in the Depot Hobby Shop in Severna Park. After they left town I got a job at a place that had just opened, Glen Burnie Hobby World. Worked there until about 1980, managed the train department. Long retired, the owner is still one of my dearest friends.
Ted Klein knew my Uncle and father and would as
I checked their website the other day, they said that they’re closing after 111 years. What a shame. Apparently Hattons, the parent company closed for some reason and they took Kleins down with them.
Obviously you did not read any of the other posts in thread?
I thought this thread was locked the other day?
Sheldon