The 40% off coupon is still making the store money. They figure a person will buy other items at full price as the coupon only covers one item. Even if you don’t purchase other things they still are making 60% on the item if it was marked up 100% over their cost, probably more.
Nobody is selling anything for that kind of markup.
Except Best Buy and their cables.
The hobby lobby near me never had and thing for trains. Lucky me i have a hobby town usa near me. Plus a couple of little hobby shops That have Model train stuff[:D]
I was thrilled at my local Hobby Lobby today. I cut off the wire for a Tortoise switch machine too short and needed some replacement .025" stiff wire. We don’t have a real train shop in my city. I thought a n RC car and plane shop might have wire they use for control and servo connections. No. They suggested floral wire at Michael’s. That was too flexible soft. Hobby Lobby still has a rack of metal wire, tubing and strips- whih turned out to have just the .025" music wire I needed.
And I got the Tortoise fixed.
FYI ACE and TrueValue Hardware stores also carry piano wire.
If you’re lucky enough to live in or very near a major city, find an art supply store that deals with architects. They still make models. you know. I’ve seen places that sell Evergreen, Plastruct, and K&S products, to that end.
None of the nearby hobby shops (out of the four that are within 45 minutes) sell a NWSL Chopper. Utrecht does.
Ok, this seems like a good thread to bump to add this rather political Hobby Lobby update:
Hobby shop chain faces backlash for stance against ObamaCare (FoxNews, sorry).
“A Christian-owned chain of hobby shops is facing a bitter backlash after suing the Obama administration over new requirements to provide insured employees with contraceptive and abortion coverage.
Hobby Lobby is believed to be the first non-Catholic company to file an objection to the healthcare mandate.”
A hearsay quote from that article: “I’ve been to two Hobby Lobby parking lots today and they were fairly empty. I used to have trouble finding a parking spot!” read one posting from the administrator of the Boycott page. “I think the boycott is catching on! I do not think they are getting the reaction they hoped for.”
I have no further info than that, and wish to stay out of the politicial meaning, but can anyone verify if this boycott is having any effect on their sales - meaning, is it successful or ineffective?
Don’t think anyone but far leftists will be boycotting a store for expressing their freedom of religion rights. If anything, I would expect Hobby Lobby business to increase ala’ the Chick Fil A controversy recently.
I probably fall into the “far leftist” camp about as much as anyone here and I couldn’t care less about any boycott. I understand the owners have their point of view – and I have mine.
I do respect HL’s decision to close on Sundays. There are very, very few folks who put their beliefs where their wallet is, and despite lots of moral and political posturing, most owners go do their thing on Sunday – but expect their workers to work Sunday like it’s just another day, without extra pay.
Frankly, whether you’re religious or not and use the time to go to church, I think we’d all be better off as a society if things still mostly closed up on Sunday. If for no other reason, that’ll give us more time to model.[:D] And we should steer this discussion back on-topic toward model railroading and away from something we’ll probably just argue over.
Absolutely.
I was in Hobby Lobby again recently looking through their floral department trying to find something to make a thatched roof for an scale Polynesian or Tiki-style nightclub pier.
I could not find what I wanted, but I noticed that their floral department had what we used to call Norwegian lichen, sold as the universal model tree material in 1950s and 60s, but their call it Reindeer Moss. Not the best or only tree material these days, but I noted it due to the scarcity of hobby shops of any sort in my town.
As a west coast modeler, I would have to guess that Hobby Lobby is a back east thing?
Same here and I could care less about the owners personal beliefs. He can worship Xenu for all I care. I rarely shop there because other than RC they have a lousy selection of most things, and I only go there when I cannot get to another train store. I only get paint, CA glue, basswood etc. but aside from an occasional model kit, forget it, its a desert .
Its called Hobby People out here on the left coast.
Don’t ever remember seeing a "Hobby People " or “Hobby Lobby” in all the years I lived in So. Cal. The Hobby Lobby in Lufkin, Texas near me leaves alot to be desired.