Living in an area without a train shop,I sometimes travel 150 miles one way to shop.I often used “1st Place Hobbies”,does anyone know what happened to them ? I try to support the regular shops when in the LA area,but the gas sure adds to the cost.
I don´t know what happened to them in particular, but it seems to be normal that those Mom & Pop businesses close down these days. Owe it to the Internet and our thrive for bargains.Discounts of 40 % or even more kill our beloved LHS.
Thankfully, I have three good ones that are all within a 1/2 hour drive from my house and I try to patronize them as much as I can. And each has it’s pluses and minuses.
Tom
There is only one hobby shop near me (and it’s in the next town over), but he is 70% 3 rail O gauge with a smattering of G, HO, and N. No S scale and very little scratch building stuff. The 2 shops beyond that are also 3 rail O gauge.
The last several years I have done 95% of my buying at train shows and internet orders, split about equally. I have accumulated enough stuff that I’m now just filling in a couple of spots. I have enough freight cars and engines and just need a couple of passenger cars. Some track and scenery items will take care of most of the layout. I have most of the structure kits I can use and scratch building stuff for the rest.
While I still enjoy browsing a good hobby shop, they are harder and harder to find. But the bigger train shows make up for it.
Enjoy
Paul
Closest hobby shop to me is in Alexandria, a 120 mile round trip. Needless to say I don’t go there often. The gas costs more than anything I could get there.
Welcome to my world! For 38 years I have lived without a local hobby shop. One of my online hobby suppliers was 1st Place hobbies and I liked how they did business for 15 years; or, so. I’d heard that they simply had to close-up shop. My current suppliers are Caboose hobbies in Denver and M.B.Klein DBA ModelTrainStuff. Closest Hobby Shop to me is a 170 mile round trip, in Fargo N.D… Closest really good Model Railroad Hobby Shop is Carr’s in Duluth MN and a 360 mile round trip. Both get visited maybe once every two years. I do visit Bakers Hobbies, in St. Cloud MN, two to three times a year, as my son lives there and we go down to see the grand kids.
Not living near a hobby shop does cause the modeler to think ahead, buy in bulk and stock-up on the nessessities. You also become pretty self sufficient and many times are forced to make as opposed to buy. It’s not all bad!
Not in this case…
1st Place Hobbies was a internet store in fact one that I use for parts and other odds and ends…
IIRC it was due to the expenses was getting more then the income.They had good prices but,there was better prices elsewhere.
On-line businesses of all types come and go on a daily basis. In the case of 1st Place Hobbies, it could have been for any of the following reasons:
- Office/warehouse space rental increase.
- Increased shipping costs.
- Increased utility costs.
- Increased labor costs.
- Owner retirement.
- Owner health issues.
- Weather damage not covered by insurance.
or all of the above.
Most of the hobby shops that have closed in my area in the past 10 or 15 years have done so because the owner was getting older, wanted to retire, but could not find anyone inerested in buying his business including stock and fixtures.
blitz hobbies isn’t too far from the college campus so I could easily walk there after class but they carry no N scale locomotives, not many buildings, not much atlas track(even though I’ve done the track laying), and atlas rolling stock from anywhere between 2-10 years ago that sill carries it’s original price.