I was just wondering what happened to National Hobby Supply. There has been no mention that I know of. They always had a 4 page ad in the Model railroader. Just Curious.
Tony
Hello Tony,
National Hobby Supply folded its tent in mid-summer/early fall last year. I don’t know all the details, but it was something we at MR could see coming by mid-spring 2002.
Regards,
Paul Schmidt
Contributing Editor
Trains.com
Another one bites the dust. I do not like the trend, fellows, I do NOT like the trend.
Dave Nelson
Thanks for the info. I wonder why?. I hate to see shops closing.
Just a word about National, they were owned by
people who had a history of less than stellar
management. Running a hobby shop is never easy and
the profit margin is very small.
Is it really a trend, Dave?
I’ve been watching the big-time, multi-page discount MR advertisers come on the scene, then disappear, for decades now.
Remember America’s Hobby Center,[50’s-80’s],
Hobby People [60’s], Hobbies For Men [70’s].
Even the fairly conservative 1 & 2 page ones like MRPO disappeared.[I dealt with all of those listed above, at least twice each].
Now you see the big multi-pagers cutting back to 1 & 2 pages, [ Long’s, Standard]…maybe it’s just not profitable to be in the discount train business over the long haul, regardless how many sales you take away from the LHS???
regards / Mike
Some long gone companies used to put multi-page ads in MR just to get our money and disappear.
Joseph; I don’t know which one[s] you are referring to…there have been many, but all the ones I recall were around for at least 2 or 3 years. [se my post above ].
Mike
MANY OF THESE SHOPS OFFER EXCELLENT PRICES ON CERTAIN ITEMS TO DRAW YOUR BUSINESS AT CUT RATE OR EVEN “LOSS LEADER” PRICES HOPING YOU’LL ORDER AN ARRAY OF GOODS ALL AT THE SAME TIME. THEY END UP SELLING MOSTLY CUT RATE ITEMS ON THE SLIMMEST OF MARGINS WHILE THE CONSUMER SHOPS 3-4 DIFFERENT SHOPS FOR THEIR “ARRAY” OF GOODS. MEANWHILE MANY LOCAL HOBBY SHOPS WILL CLEARANCE OUT THE LEFT OVER NEW RELEASES AT REASONABLY CLOSE PRICES TO THE DISCOUNTERS…THE COMPETITION IS STIFF AND MARGINS ARE LOW…GREG
I had heard one of the principals in National was also one of the principals in Hobbies for Men (remember them-back in the 1980’s?) and maybe other shops in the greater Atlant area. HFM started in Beacon, NY as I recall, and then opened another store in Smyrna, GA (Atlanta).
There were lots of complaints againt HFM, but i never had any problems with them and dealt with them maybe 20 times over a couple year period.