Hauff Hobbies made the front page of the local newspaper. After 15 years in downtown Glenview, IL he is closing shop. Just a mile from my house, it was a nice little hobby shop that you could pick-up little odds and ends for any hobby project. I think the last time I was in there I bought some motor brushes for a pre-war flyer engine, an oddball item that he had on hand as he specialized in old train repair. In the newspaper article, Rob the owner, noted video games were what kids are into, not building models and trains. Also stated was the fact that the downtown area was going to be rebuilt and the shop was slated to come down in the near future. Another one bites the dust.
My sister-in-law (in Highland Park) had an old American Flyer train repaired at Hauff several years ago. She commented on how helpful the owner was. Too bad. Where will you go now?
Regards,
John
Rats, Paul. I’ve been there on some of my semi-annual ‘grand-tour-of-all-northeast-Illinois-hobby-shops.’ That same thing happened here when our little downtown was redeveloped - nothing still in that spot.
I have this sinking feeling that with the economy going as it is this will not be the end of the lhs closing.
I just retired and with fuel at 3.00 a gallon and fuel oil the same if not more, there will be no more 1000.00 steamers in my budget.
Its going to be hard to just stay the status quo with prices going the way they are.
With food and fuel costs increasing, it does leave less money for discretionary spending like hobbies. Leveling charming old buildings to make way for more prefab Starbucks coffee shops and Walgreen drug stores just like the ones two miles away doesn’t help either. Rents go up, and it’s expensive to pick up and move a business. Often it’s safer to just close, rather than go to the expense of relocating when the difference between income and expenses is already such a small number.
But he still sells at the train show in Wheaton. Never bought anything off of him though as it mainly broke junk.
Another one bites the dust. Too bad. Lucky to have plenty of train stores up here.
With the economy the way it is lots of businesses are hurting. As far as the LHSs go, it’ll be the ones in the middle who get hurt the most. The big stores will survive, and the “one man band” stores with low overhead will survive.
It’s nothing to do with the economy. People have been lamenting higher prices for most of the last 50 years. If you can pay $379 online with 5-6 bucks for shipping and no sales tax, why would you buy from a LHS and pay $40-50 more and sales tax. The internet did not exist during the time we call the good old days, with a well stocked LHS down the street.
Until we are willing to pay the price of a LHS to stay in business, they will continue to go under.
[soapbox]
gvdobler has it right for the most part. Yes, the economy has changed over the past 50 years. I know in my neck of the woods, the good paying manufacturing jobs that were once very common are not as plentiful. And those blue collar workers lucky enough to still have one of those better jobs, do not have the perks and benefits they once did. Outside of a 401K, retirement benefits are a thing of the past. And no one can afford the rapidly rising health care costs, not employees on their own nor their employers.
Other variables such as high fuel costs, the housing market etc. can cause the consumer to feel a little more cautious about big ticket purchases.
This absolutely effects the local smaller neighborhood train shop, who relies more on “impulse” sales, as do many brick-and-mortar retailers. And as someone with experience in the retail end of this train hobby, I can tell you with all accuracy that the little guy gets a raw deal on wholesale prices when compared to the bigger mailorder/internet retailers. Some of the big mailorder businesses are also wholesalers, which gives them an added advantage.
Believe me, there have been prices advertised in the train magazines from the big places that beat the wholesale price for the small dealer. And this may be the biggest obstacle the small dealer faces. Especially given that we, the consumers, want and expect low prices. Nevermind the mind boggling array of products available today. The small dealer either has to really know his market, or know the direction he believes he can succeed with, because no small dealer can possibly stock everything available.
And when the big guys get the blow outs, that sends a message to both the train companies and the small dealers: The train companies won’t be in a hurry to make that exact product again, and the small dealer will think twice about stocking something he is losing money on as it sits unsold on his shelves. Yes, the longer unsold products sit on a dealers shelves, the mor
Paul, do you know what date he’s closing? I’d like to stop in one more time.
don
Don,
I think at the end of the month, not positive though.
We have three large and strong hobby shops within 120 miles, two of them within 30 miles. The most successful one is diversified with RC airplanes/cars/helicopters and boats, plus O gauge and HO. Just outside is a wonderful dirt track for the RC cars and it’s always busy from spring until snow. I’ve talked with the owner and he says that he needs all the diversity to keep the doors open and that does make sense. Fall & winter are big in the train dept., spring & summer are big with the RC folks. What I like is that he has experts in each dept., they have been open a LONG time and are now in a new building. The other shop in Cedar Falls is dedicated to trains, mostly O (Doug–are you listening?) and and quite a bit of HO. The third store in Boone is big with O and lots of plastic car kits (Nascar) and he does a big mail order business. He’s also extremely knowledgable and will take your wish list to York twice a year if you want.
I feel fortunate, living in a small state, that I have these resources.
We have over 20 train shops within a 20 mile radius, and over 50 withing a fifty mile radius. Didn’t research how many are within 100 miles. Not concerned about local shops drying up here.