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 Posted - January 18 2010 : 6:20:53 PM
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Stopped by the local hobby shop, which is a chain of stores, Hungates. I was going to get a few pieces of balsa wood. The place is closing. The last of 14 stores. Everything in the store 50% off.
All the HO train stuff was already sold. There were some N scale diesels but, even at half off I couldn't afford to buy them. I think they were retailing at $48 to $56 dollars, so half that. When I got to the counter, the lady at the register said, "all the paints must go, the manager doesn't want to deal with it later. Fill up one of these shopping baskets with ANY of the paints and you can have it all for $5.oo." I left there toting about 25 lbs of paints-glass bottles and spray cans.
I remember one of their stores at another shopping mall, over 30 years ago. (Time is zipping by). The store was huge. Both sides of one aisle, filled with plastic models. 5 shelves on each side. Next aisle over was the train stuff. Lots of arts and craft stuff, elsewhere. That store, after moving around to 3 different malls, closed this past December. It was just a hollow reminder of it's former self when I visited it back in October. No more.
Unspoken expectations are premeditated failures.
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Posted - January 18 2010 : 9:01:44 PM
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That's pretty sad to hear. I'm not aware of any hobby shops in my area that have closed recently, but then again, it's not like there were very many to begin with. Most of the shops near me are more RC and figurine oriented. There's one hobby shop in the Canadian Capital that has a decent selection of trains. Sad huh?
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Posted - January 18 2010 : 9:51:38 PM
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Sad news, but familiar. The only thing left around here are the Hobby Lobby chain stores, which specialize in overpriced Bachmann merchandise. Our local train/hobby shop went out in the 90's. I was young and stupid enough to think the "clearance sales" were the greatest thing ever. I didn't realize what I was about to lose.
BIG HINT: For those who don't know....never pay full price at Hobby Lobby stores. Their web site, hobbylobby.com, has a weekly coupon. Every 2-3 weeks the coupon is for 40% off any one item. You can just print them out as much as you want. Of course, you can only use one a day for that week....theoretically.
Even if I drive to the bigger city the shops focus on r/c cars and planes. Every time I go in one there's a bunch of guys hanging around talking r/c cars. Trains are an afterthought.
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Posted - January 19 2010 : 02:43:44 AM
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We had a nice antique toy & hobby store close in Columbus, Ohio a while back. The owner told me that he credited Ebay as the link that shut him down. I really miss it.
I know people don't want to pay really steep prices for hobby item's (or anything else)when they can shop online and get the same thing for less. It used to be these stores could pull a good price for things because it was likely the only place close who may have what was once a hard to find item. Now people go to auction sites and there are several of what was considered "hard to find" at their finger tips, and they can get it without leaving home..
Walt
Luck, usually comes dressed in work clothes...
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Posted - January 19 2010 : 06:42:07 AM
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| we had lots of train stores here,but sadly all but one gone,most are internet only,with a few that handle usa ho,so prices are high,which when you think about what they save on a retail shop rent and rates makes no sense other than greed,ken
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Posted - January 19 2010 : 3:00:03 PM
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 I know how you all feel Hate seeing hobby stores going out & now I gotta go 200 miles to Denver to go to one Oh well will find one when I go there on Feb 20th 
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Posted - January 19 2010 : 4:49:01 PM
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Hey Microbusss, where are you located? Anywhere near New Mexico? We still have a dedicated "train store" in Albuquerque. Trains West deals ONLY in model railroading. No R/C. No arts and crafts. No plastics, (bummer!). Just trains!
We also lost a good hobby shop the week BEFORE Christmas. Seems the owner went loco and kicked everyone out. He locked up the store and walked away. Shop was bare selves by the weekend.
The store was going down hill fast for the past year and a half though. The previous owner had it running well and it was the best hobby shop in the state. He sold everything slightly below MSRP and also offered extra discounts to model club members. He would special order anything and not charge extra for it. But after 30 years, it was time to retire.
The new owner ran the place into the ground! He jacked all prices back to MSRP and dropped all club discounts. He wouldn't special order anything without charging a "handling" fee. It wasn't websites/auctions that killed him, it was stupidity. He ran off all the customers. He charged more and offered less! Great plan.
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Posted - January 19 2010 : 6:03:54 PM
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There are two old time hobby shops , both are about 50 miles from my house.
Hayes in Fayetteville,NC. Antigue Barn in Wilson,NC
Hayes is family run for the past 44 years. When you ask a question about something, you get a definitive answer. I asked for an 0-2 skymaster model. He didn't have it and directed me to another store in town that did. The prices are slightly high. But, I'd rather deal with a person in person.
Besides, I like browsing the aisles and looking at all the model airplanes hanging from the ceiling.
And that knowledge base is a plus. Hayes has trains. Antique Barn is almost all trains. Upstairs is a huge,operating HO train layout. Again, there is a large knowledge base there. I dislike going to the chain hobby stores and ask a question and getting a dumbfounded look from the sales clerk.
Both stores have special ordered items for me at no extra charge.
My brother and I travel here and there. We try to visit the local hobby shop in the town we are visiting (if it has one). We have a rule, that we each buy at least one item.
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Posted - January 19 2010 : 7:44:03 PM
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I am in Cheyenne, Wyoming (for now), and Caboose Hobbies would probably be the place Microbusss is talkin' bout in Denver.
In Cheyenne, we have one Hobby Lobby, One Michael's, and THAT IS IT.
It's the Big Retail 3: Woodland Scenics, Bachmann and Life Like. Then you are SOL.
My brother-in-law and I are talking about opening a very small old-school hobby shop (less than 1000 sq. ft.) here in Cheyenne, as there is NOTHING here. The closest is Ft. Collins, then Denver. We'd cater to the two Class I's, some fallen flags of the area, and plenty of niche...and all the things the big boxes won't ever carry.
We have two major Class I's intersecting here for some kick-a@@ railfannin.' BNSF runnin' north/south, and the Union Pacific runnin' east & west. Trains upon trains...24/7.
Not to mention Sherman Hill and Moffatt Tunnel...all within an hour or two's drive.
When I was living in Dallas, we had Discount Model Trains, located in Addison. They had about 10,000 sq ft of just trains, with 1000 sq. ft dedicated to just superdetailing parts (Details West, etc.), as well as half the Walthers catalog on the shelves, in quantity. Superb selection.
Caboose has been there since the late '30's, and has PHENOMENAL customer service. Not many places left like that 'ol girl.
Edited by - theoldreliable on January 19 2010 7:46:10 PM
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Posted - January 19 2010 : 8:04:48 PM
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| Do any of the Michael's stores sell trains? Mine doesn't, but I've seen things online that make me think others do.
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Posted - January 19 2010 : 9:08:02 PM
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| I think it depends on the market/demographics. MJDesigns and Michaels BOTH sold trains in the Dallas/Ft Worth area year 'round. Michael's here in Cheyenne has two shelves with plastic model kits, one shelf for paint and adhesives, and one with Woodland Scenics stuff (mainly for science class projects, etc.), and that is IT. Hobby Lobby has one aisle devoted to trains year 'round here in Wyoming, and also in Texas. The Hobby Lobby plan-o-grams for trains and platic kits are identical in Dallas and Cheyenne.
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Posted - January 20 2010 : 01:28:54 AM
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| That description of the Cheyenne Michaels sounds like the one near here. In fact, they've scaled the woodland scenics section back to nearly nothing. Both the Hobby Lobbys I've been to are the same as you described as well, although back around 1997ish it seemed like they were trying to improve the train department with better quality merchandise. Then they seemed to sell Model Power exclusively for a couple years, now it's all Bachmann. I got some great deals on the last of the Model Power buildings last summer when they went on clearance.
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Posted - January 20 2010 : 12:19:23 PM
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The writing has been on the wall for years, and will only get worse. I'd love nothing more that to run my own full-service hobby shop with a healthy helping of trains, but it would be a fool's errand.
10 years ago I used to travel extensively, and made a habit of looking up hobby shops where I went. These days my travels are more limited but where I do go, there's little to choose from. Where I've returned to, old shops have closed - or should have.
When I moved to / near Lexington KY in 1999, there were actually 5 hobby shops, including 2 dedicated train stores. Now the only thing left is Hobbytown USA - which doesn't do many people many favors outside of the RC world.
Even in Chicago, where railroads still rule, a number of shops have closed, and even my old favorite has been having a rough go in the last few years. And it's not for lack of service, or selection, or even attractive pricing.
FWIW I don't consider Michael's, "Hobby" Lobby, et al to be hobby shops in any shape or form. They are actually and primarily "craft / decorating" stores, mostly the domain of women, and places which specialize in fabrics, florals, framing, seasonal/wedding and useless decorative imported garbage. Sure there can be useful materials there, but a modeler can find useful things anywhere. A token aisle or two of Testor's paints and full-markup kits, rung up by disinterested associates, does not a traditional "hobby shop" make. An island of last resort is more like it.
But then mass-market retailers have given up. Few years back, Wal-Mart and Meijer could be counted on to have a few decent sets around Christmastime, maybe even all year. Now there's nothing - Walmart doesn't even have model kits or supplies of any sort anymore. And I wonder how much longer Target will be in the business of giving things away after Christmas before bailing out completely. Nobody buys at full price beforehand, why should they carry it at all?
For all the wonderful things this hobby has to offer, face it: there are too many barriers to entry. A train set at face value is simply BORING: it goes around in a circle a few times. There is no longer anything novel or interesting about electricity itself, in this age of i-this and mobile-that. Even if a discounter sells an inexpensive but nice "train set", where on earth does the newbie find anything to make it really neat - Buildings? Operating Accessories (who even makes those anymore)? Scenery? Extra cars? Do they go to Hobby Lobby and get sticker shock from Woodland Scenics' overpriced convenience, or pay $30 for an ancient outdated Plasticville building that should have been 10, but came preassembled in China to save you time for your extra Jackson (and costs almost as much by itself as that entire discount set from Target did)?
Say nothing of the stereotypical "train guys" at the hobby shop: crabby oldsters arguing about details and minutiae, in the name of justifying stuff that costs even MORE than the glorified toys at Hobby Lobby. "Sorry, we don't have a caboose that's cost-appropriate to add to that set you bought for your kid, but these $30 Walthers ones are nice, and hey check out all the pipes on the bottom of this Rapido..."
And finally, why on earth would anyone foster any love or mystique to WANT to model a train in the first place, these days? Railroads have pulled up from thousands of communities, have become invisible elsewhere, and even where you have an active RR situation, it's courtesy of a faceless corporate monolith running bland rolling stock with tiny acronyms on the side: nothing that invites today's ADD-afflicted persons to imagine or dream or yearn or wonder. But let's say you are intrigued: if you dare venture toward the property for a closer look, you're a terrorist. Or a "foamer" trying to make the engineer crash with a text message. Oops.
RC cars and planes are exciting. They're even "Ready to Roll models" in their own right. They run in multiple dimensions, not confined to circles on a table. You can take them with you and use them anywhere. They're colorful and (get this!) not expected to have every last invisible pipe accounted for. They're loud and sound "real" without expensive incompatible static DCC systems. They look like what you see in races on TV and historical documentaries on cable on a daily basis. They're expensive up-front, but not nearly any more so than a completed, respectable layout. They're customizable and repairable and personalizable. I can see why they're eating the RR hobby for lunch. Model Railroading is about to become the shipbuilding, dollhousing, and stamp collecting of our time - a niche hobby with dedicated members, but as much as we might laugh at those "fuddy dud" hobbies I just mentioned, well there we go.
Sigh. This is a very cynical rant, but it's no fun seeing something you love die a slow painful death.
Edited by - GoingInCirclez on January 20 2010 2:20:30 PM
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Posted - January 20 2010 : 2:33:17 PM
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quote:| Hey Microbusss, where are you located? Anywhere near New Mexico? |
nope sorry Hypoponera I in West Nebraska
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Posted - January 20 2010 : 4:57:15 PM
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Hey GIC,
No, seriously.... tell us what you really think. Actually I agree with your rant! But what gives with the underside piping complaints? I like all that detail. But would happily give it up entirely if that would drop the price down to where I could actually afford to buy a new car! Needless to say, I don't have a single "high end" car with underside detailing beyond what comes on the old Athearn blue box cars.
Your complaints in the past regarding the detailing can be applied to locos as well. I don't own a single Atlas or Stewart loco due to their cost. I have a pair of L.L. P2Ks only because Romcat gave me a killer deal! Otherwise I am limited to nothing "better" then the ol' blue boxes and bangers I get at shows and ebay. I can not cought up $100+ for what I see as nothing more then a kid's toy!!
By the way, I went to Trains West today. They are actually stocking some of those "new" Model Power GP20s. They are $47.99 each!?!?!? Talk about pricing the kids out of the hobby! Nothing wrong with the loco mind you. But is a re-pop of an old loco really worth nearly $50??? $25-$30 maybe, but even that is too high to get new hobbiest especially in this economy.
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Posted - January 20 2010 : 7:40:13 PM
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I agree with you as well GiC. The biggest problem is almost certainly the high cost of trains these days, combined with the lack of train dedicated hobby shops. In the model companies' struggles to get the most detailed and smoothest running trains, they seem to have forgotten to make a "budget line". Something as simple as Tyco's Transformers boxcar (a box with 4 wheels) would probably be sufficient.
If you look at any successful companies (in any market), they all have different levels of their product.
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Posted - January 20 2010 : 8:29:30 PM
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Many places near me have shut down just in the past few years. I remember a huge trains-only shop that closed back in 2001, but back then I had no interest in trains. Of course now I wish it were still around.
I was fortunate enough to find a NEW shop in my neighbourhood as some of you probably know, and I was very recently contacted by the owner. He is thinking of exapnding his basic plastic kit selection to include model trains, and I guess he is looking for some suggestions regarding manufacturers, different products, etc.
Things are getting better all the time around here, and I feel very fortunate to be a part of it. 
    
- Matt -
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Posted - January 20 2010 : 8:41:17 PM
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Wow, GIC...nice rant. I always worry about being too negative or always "bumming people out" but you said everything I think of when we have discussions like this. It's even worse when you have to deal with teenagers all day and see the weird, often disturbing directions they are heading. Now I sound like an old man. By the way, I love stamp collecting!
Oh, one last quick story about the stereotypical train store type: I was at a small show a while back and talked to a guy operating the HO layout about the lack of hobby shops in the area. He remembered all the good old ones, and talked about some local collectors I might look up. He was very nice, and even had a Thomas train making laps around the layout for the kids. But as soon as I was done talking to him, he and another guy went to a vendor's table with a photo album and literally started counting rivets on some of the rolling stock and complaining about it not matching his photo.
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Posted - January 20 2010 : 8:55:28 PM
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GIC, as always, has hit the nail on the head. :^)
We never had many "hobby" shops in my area even when I was a kid. Stores like Sears and JC Penny and even True Value Hardware had a lot of HO and Lionel on their shelves in their toy sections. I think, back in the 70s, we had 1 Hobby Shop in the area which was 50% dedicated to trains. Mainly because the owner (who actually wasn't very nice) bought up estate train collections cheap from people who didn't know what they had ... broke up the collections ... and sold the items individually. The owner of that shop actually trolled the obituaries ... and made a mint doing it. That shop closed in the early 90s when the owner himself died.
Anyhow ... now we have 5 private hobby shops in the 60 mile radius and 1 Hobbytown USA chain store (which, for trains, is pretty useless since they only stock, talk, and order R/C).
The problem I have is that none of these shops honor sales prices from places like Walthers ... even when *they* place the order for you from the Walthers monthly sales flyers so you can take advantage of no shipping charges. Something about that they're not a partner with Walthers or Horizon Hobby or Lionel and place their orders through another wholesale distributor who doesn't honor sale prices. Seriously, even with shipping, dealing directly with Walthers, Horizon, Lionel, or Bachmann, etc. is more cost effective than going through the hobby shop. I mean - Walthers offers a kit for $27 and the hobby shop wants $39.00 for the same item ... it's pretty obvious which one to buy.
I like caffeine and a chainsaw ...
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Posted - January 20 2010 : 11:46:02 PM
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Agreed, Tony.
At this point, opening a hobby shop in this economy is just "wouldn't it be cool if..." My brother-in-law has recently acquired a permit to sell firearms, and we were talking about combining interests...even so far as to sell quads and motocross dirt bikes, fishing and hunting stuff...a real "man cave" kinda place. It is all just hillarious dreaming on our part.
I will add this tidbit, though, and I am sure Tony will have a nugget or two to offer:
When it comes to preservation, Model Railroader magazine has done NOTHING for this hobby, but reap profits from manufacturers' adverts. And don't hand me that "World's Greatest Hobby" stuff, either. Please.
It's an "Old Boys' Network" of the highest order, perhaps the Skull and Crossbones of model railroading, whereby the same handful of Puritanical lodge-brothers are having their layouts featured over...and over...and over...and over....
"Oh look! Tony Koester added another Nickel Plate car to his roster...time for a feature spread!"
Edited by - theoldreliable on January 20 2010 11:47:21 PM
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Posted - January 21 2010 : 12:12:30 AM
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quote:Agreed, Tony.
When it comes to preservation, Model Railroader magazine has done NOTHING for this hobby ... the same handful of Puritanical lodge-brothers are having their layouts featured over...and over...and over...and over....
Originally posted by theoldreliable-January 20 2010
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Heh heh - yeah. Just how many covers can Eric Brooman's "Utah Belt" and Pelle Soeberg's "Daneville & Donner River" grace ... seems like MR has a love affair with those two layouts. I'd be more interested in seeing the "Working Man's" layouts - layouts like the ones our forum's members have. The ones where many vehicles parked on streets are older Matchbox cars and trucks; where a Heljan Operating Container Crane shares the same rail spur as a TYCO operating Piggyback Unloader; where Horn Hooks and Kadees live in relative harmony. I want to see THOSE layouts. :^)
I like caffeine and a chainsaw ...
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Posted - January 21 2010 : 12:28:45 AM
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quote:Agreed, Tony.
At this point, opening a hobby shop in this economy is just "wouldn't it be cool if..." My brother-in-law has recently acquired a permit to sell firearms, and we were talking about combining interests...even so far as to sell quads and motocross dirt bikes, fishing and hunting stuff...a real "man cave" kinda place. It is all just hillarious dreaming on our part.
I will add this tidbit, though, and I am sure Tony will have a nugget or two to offer:
When it comes to preservation, Model Railroader magazine has done NOTHING for this hobby, but reap profits from manufacturers' adverts. And don't hand me that "World's Greatest Hobby" stuff, either. Please.
It's an "Old Boys' Network" of the highest order, perhaps the Skull and Crossbones of model railroading, whereby the same handful of Puritanical lodge-brothers are having their layouts featured over...and over...and over...and over....
"Oh look! Tony Koester added another Nickel Plate car to his roster...time for a feature spread!"
Originally posted by theoldreliable-January 20 2010: 11:46:02 PM
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Again, you hit the nail on the head. I get sick of "celebrity" layouts with their complete realism. Let's just run some trains!
We need a new magazine: "Multi-Scale Out of Scale Monthly" which chronicles, catalogs, contains and celebrates people who just like to play with toy trains.
Edited by - burlington77 on January 21 2010 12:42:58 AM
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 Posted - January 21 2010 : 04:27:52 AM
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I like caffeine and a chainsaw ...
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Posted - January 21 2010 : 09:54:26 AM
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I'll buy a copy of THAT magazine!
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Posted - January 21 2010 : 8:57:37 PM
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quote: The biggest problem is almost certainly the high cost of trains these days, combined with the lack of train dedicated hobby shops. In the model companies' struggles.... they seem to have forgotten to make a "budget line". Something as simple as Tyco's Transformers boxcar (a box with 4 wheels) would probably be sufficient.
If you look at any successful companies (in any market), they all have different levels of their product.
Originally posted by DaCheez-January 20 2010: 7:40:13 PM
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Just about every one of my train club members these days runs expensive engines ( $50+ and up ), rather than cheaper - why? The cheap stuff is JUNK! Anything from the 70's and 80's on up is mostly cheap motors and thin wires which burn up and run noisily, and hard to convert to R/C. I'm not sure about the cheaper modern stuff yet, either
Then you get the cheap train buyers, who almost immediately complain of the lack of realism, the erratic motions, the noisy motors. But they won't pay to get the nicer stuff. And there's no middle ground - anything priced in between either isn't good enough for the quality train guys, or is "too much" for the cheap train buyer. Can't win in that department.
Here in northern Virginia, in the last couple years alone, we lost 3 quality train hobby shops. Most of the problems are that people want selection and "deals", and can find them online. But try to find technical assistance online when you need it! Most of the now-gone hobby shops offered discounts to club members and would order you stuff online and for a reasonable price. But for some club members , "cheap" online discounts meant more, and because of that, those 3 shops went under because they had so much inventory and so few buyers to support them. But now that they're gone, who's complaining the loudest? The ONLINE buyers, because now they have nowhere to go for detail parts, or technical help, or anywhere to browse! They saved a few bucks, but now there's nowhere to go to just browse or look at things. SAd. I personally bought very little at them, due to my economic status, I just can't afford the really nice stuff, so I"m buying deals at train shows. Ie, middle-of-the-road stuff, good enough quality to last a decent amount of time. You have to be dedicated to be a train enthusiast, and luckily the shows are constant around here, one every few months, so there's places and people to buy from still. Yes, I buy used stuff on Ebay. Yes, I buy at shows. If I had the money, I'd plunk down $400 for a realistic 2-10-0 with a sound chip and things. I don't have that kind of money to throw around. I have to settle for "bargain box" stuff, needs-repair, or just a dealer " I have too many of these and need to sell them for cost" type of deals. I like older stuff to tinker with, but I have nicer engines and rolling stock for club functions.
Bottom line, Train hobby shops need to expand some, offer services like detailing and such to keep things interesting, and not just be an outlet for train "stuff", but also for services and modeling skill training. And STOP being open from 9-5...what the hell, don't they know people WORK for a living? Why can't they be open 12 noon to 9 PM? Only retired farts can make 9-5 hours, otherwise people can only come on weekends ( and some of those shops here weren't open long on Sat-Sun either ). Some of the wounds are self-inflicted, I think, due to the hours of operation, and lack of creative thinking. Hell, open 3 PM, 12 midnight, that'd guarantee at least 6 hours of being open to the non-working public. Sorry it's a hobby business, not a necessity business, so you need to operate like you care about people's hours. I can shop online 24/7, if I'm limited to some Hobby shop's limited hours, guess where I WON'T Be spending my time? ( or money ). Offer me more to support, and I'll do it.
Ok, rant off. I miss one of those shops for it's variety and knowledge, but they had limited hours and weren't conveniently located for me, either. Oh well. Maybe someone will change the dynamics and a successful business model will emerge for us train lovers. We can only hope.
Jerry
" When life throws you bananas...it's easy to slip up"
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Posted - January 21 2010 : 9:03:17 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by HOScale Model Railroader-January 21 2010: 04:27:52 AM
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That's awesome! Where do I subscribe? You know, I just had a really, really bad day...but that made it a lot better.
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Posted - January 21 2010 : 10:22:19 PM
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AMC_Gremlin_GT,
I hear ya. Even though I am just tinkering around with opening a shop, I went ahead and began preparing a prospectus for investors to have, should I gain enough capital to forge ahead in the future. While I have the same concerns in mind about odd hours, no service or repair in 90% of shops, and a few other things...I have found out a few things on my own, while doing target market surveys and some light research.
1. Most hobby shop inventory ships UPS. UPS doesn't usually deliver past 4PM, especially if it is a "vein" non-residential stop (meaning; 10 or more packages a day, and more than 2-3x a week). Very seldom will a business accept any merchandise beyond lunch hours. While
I agree with the odd hours, most inventory receiving and stocking is done during the normal business day.
2. Most repairs and upgrades are "outsourced" to local guys to fix; NMRA MMR's, etc. Those who are behind the counter in a brick and mortar are usually retirees, making no more than $10 an hour. Even at $10 bucks an hour, that is a stretch for most hobby shops to cover, beyond a salary and a few employees/clerks.
3. While I do support the belief that eBay/Amazon has taken a substantial chunk out of these old brick and mortar shops, I also feel that the shops themselves are partially to blame, too...as they have chosen to remain Draconian by not "getting with the times," nor even attempting to embrace available technology to go up against their digital online competition. Notice that the successful shops left standing (save for a very scant few) have a large, accomodating online presence to back up their brick and mortar, including eBay auctions running simultaneously.
So...yes, I wholeheartedly agree...a new business model IS needed. One that can address the concerns of flesh and blood customers, combining service, hours, shared knowledge, new and used items, simultaneous auctions, tables at shows (advertizing), repairs, upgrades...and one that can also embrace online based customers that are on the wire, 24/7, looking for those "deals."
...Or is it too little, too late?
Edited by - theoldreliable on January 21 2010 10:26:59 PM
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Posted - January 22 2010 : 07:44:47 AM
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Only time it's too late is when there's no pulse!
If your child is learning to walk and and say he/she is 18 months old would you say, well thats that they haven't gotten it they'll have to crawl the rest of their lives. Course not.
As to the delivery issue; well that can be worked on. One day every week I work very late starting at before 8am and working till 10ish or later. What I'd suggest is a 10am opening and 7pm closing except for two days week where you closed at 9pm. Close all day on Monday. Have your best part-timer pull the duty shift on Sunday so you can be with family/friends...
Run courses/seminars on a regular recurring schedule, and even "host" a couple of clubs in a basememnt meeting room.
Make a modular display layout and take it to every local activity you can....
Online is fine. I buy from ebay and the like primarily to find vintage stuff that isn't on the shelf at the LHS. New stuff mostly comes from them.
my two sense! ;-)
-Gareth
"A is A"
-Aristotle
Law of Identification
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Posted - January 22 2010 : 10:28:14 AM
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"Run courses/seminars on a regular recurring schedule"
A good piece of advice is to get in good with a local model club. Not necissarily a model railroad club, mind you. I am a member of a local, general-type, modeling club. Our club does FREE demo/instruction in the last remaining shops. We cover all asorted general modeling skills like:
"how to airbrush"
"how to resin cast"
"how to use washes and drybrush"
"how to build and scenic a diorama"
All these are skills that I've used in armour modeling as well as model railroading. Then you just need to have a model railroad club do specific topics like:
"DCC and You"
"Remotoring/regearing for the weekend mechanic"
"Foam fields and puff ball trees"
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Posted - January 22 2010 : 5:28:43 PM
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Good suggestions, Gareth & others!
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Posted - January 22 2010 : 5:32:23 PM
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quote:"Run courses/seminars on a regular recurring schedule"
Originally posted by Hypoponera-January 22 2010
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That's how one of the surviving hobby shops near me stays alive. The owner holds a lot of Free and Pay seminars on just about all aspects of Model Railroading (and he's good, people drive an hour or so away to take his classes). The other hobby shops refer customers to his classes. The interesting thing about the surviving hobby shops in my area is that they do not carry what the other one carries and refer customers to each other. Kind of like an "unofficial" hobby shop monopoly. :^) But it's good ... they each specialize in some aspect and, between all of them, you have just about everything you want from the toy trains (Thomas) to LGB and everything in between ... new and used. And yeah, we even have one of the "piles and boxes" hobby shops were you have to dig around to find long discontinued treasures at reasonable "1970s/80s" prices.
I like caffeine and a chainsaw ...
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Posted - January 22 2010 : 6:41:34 PM
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I'd like to second AMC's comment about Hobby Shop hours. When I mentioned the two remaining shops about 50 miles away, it completely slipped my mind about 2 others about 12 miles away. Why?
They close at 6:oo p.m. on weekdays. I just cannot get off work in time before they close.
I could go Saturday but, thats usually my day to work around the house. One place, Tom's, is exclusively trains. MSRP. Once in a great while, a used item will show up. The other, Toy Town,
has a couple of train things, caters to R/C cars. But, they do have a decent selection of modelers tools, (number drill bits, Dremel, etc.) The former Hungates keep mall hours 9 to 9.
As for Model Railroader, I agree with y'all. It's nice to look at the South Manchester layout. But,
wouldn't it be nice if they recognized the "World's Greatest Hobby" is such because it involves such a large age group. When was the last time they featured a kid and his dad starting a 4x8 layout with some homasote and cheap LL trees? Maybe it was last month's issue??? I don't read the magazine.
I guess there is no advertising support $$ to make it worthwhile for MR with that kind of layout.
I think, and I'm guessing most of you, too, that most hobbies run against the grain of the current American culture. Real shame.
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