Hours of Operation! (for disscusion)

[eZAK]

The story starts with my recent vaction to the Great Smokey Moutains.
Last Friday, while staying near Gatlinburg, TN., we had plans to take a train ride on the Great Smokey Moutain RR dinner train.
While there we decided we would leave alittle early and stop in at the Smokey Mountian Train store.

We left TN. at 3:15 and arrived at Bryson city NC at 5:32.[:(]
(Hey, it was 'only' 40mi.; just on the otherside of the mountain)

Guess what they close at 5:30[banghead][%-)]
Well at least we made the dinner train in plenty of time[:P]

And now for the discussion.
Are the hours of operation from 9:00am to 5:30pm acceptable for a train store?
Even on a holiday weekend, with tourist trains stopping at your front door?
On top of that they were closed on Sunday also!

Is this normal?
Am I spoiled having train stores in my neighborhood open til 7 or 8?

What do you folks think?

[ChiefEagles]

There are a couple in Raleigh that keep hours like that . My "train lady" [close by in little town] is open only Tuesday through Friday from 1PM to 5:30 PM. On Saturday, 9 AM to 1 PM.

[ChiefEagles]

OH, eZAK, Bryson City rolls up the street at 5 PM. [;)] There is [or was as have not been back this year] a seafood restaurant there. A chain. One there and one in Florida. [:D] Did you get to see Fontana Lake. Beautiful Especially in the spring from the water. You are in the heart of the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. Some years, several of us guys rent a floating house [not a house boat but a whole house with porch on floats] and launch our boats. Tie them to the house and fish all the time. Never touch land but maybe a couple of times during the whole week. Running through the mountains on boats is great, seeing dogwoods in bloom and wild azaleas in bloom and hearing turkeys gobble and see bald eagles over head. They have the big black woodpeckers that sound like they are beating on drums. Sleep with windows open with cool mountain air. Now that is a vacation.

[Anonymous]

If I owned a train store, I would open the place at around noon on most weekdays (might keep the shop closed on Sunday and Monday if it was a mom-and-pop operation), and would have daily hours something on the order of noon to 8 p.m. I would definitely be open on Saturdays with extended hours--say 9 a.m. to 6 or 7 p.m.

Stores should set hours that conform to the needs of their customers--train stores as well as other stores. Far too many of them establish hours that meet their (the owner's schedule) rather than meeeting the needs and convenience of their customers.

[Anonymous]

We have a train store by us in Queens that is luck of the draw. When the owner feels like being there he opens up. Otherwise it is phone calls or taking a ride there to see if he opens the place. I do most of my buying over the net. Only snag is that you have to wait till they ship . Guess it is better than a half hour drive to the closed train store. :)

[cnw1995]

Pat, I was always perplexed at our local (soon to close) hobby store - he posted hours in a window card but never kept them. I'd come by and sit on the stoop waiting to see if he'd open over the years. Sometimes he would and sometimes he wouldn't - now with small kids, I usually can't wait. I urged him to open a bit later in the morning and stay until 6 or 630 since most of this customers could never make it in time after work. BTW, What was the dinner train like?

[eZAK]

The dinner train was alot of fun!
It was actually a mystery dinner train complete with story line, plot, & murder.

On a footnote to the above story;
The G.S.M.RR. runs several trains during the week & week ends.
They all start in Dillsborro and end at Bryson.
In the 10min. we stood around we saw three cars pull into the lot, look at the closed sign, then drive off.

You woud think with excursion trains stopping at your front door (litteraly) you would more closely reflect the train schedule.

[CB_Fan]

Hope you go back. Their collection of Lionel trains and the professionally built layout are well worth seeing, and they have a good stock of newer Lionel trains and Thomas items for sale. That's a beautiful part of the country. We spent several days at Lake Junaluska, just outside Waynesville, two winters ago. Saw the Christmas parade in Waynesville, with units from towns throughout the area, and watched the snow fall all one day -- something we rarely see in Lower Alabama.

[Dave Farquhar]

My favorite store is open 10-5 M, W, Th, F, and 10-3 on Saturdays. There's another store in the area (fairly popular but out of my price range) that keeps very similar hours. There are hobby shops here in St. Louis that sell other things in addition to trains that stay open until 8 or 9, but as you would expect, they have more HO and N than O, and no used or vintage stuff. They're great for buying new Lionel, MTH, K-Line, or (especially) Industrial Rail though.

I'm sure the O gauge specialty shops would get more business if they stayed open later, but how much more is open to question. My favorite store does extend his hours a bit during Christmas.

Fortunately for me, if I leave work 30 minutes early I can swing by there on my way home. So I do that on occasion, or stop in on Saturday when it's open. I figure since I'm in a minority scale, I have to take what I can get.

Incidentally, the best store in St. Louis for buying baseball cards keeps really weird hours too. I don't know that it even keeps its posted hours, because usually when I drive past there it's closed. Some businesses manage to work that way and stay in business, but I don't know how. (They'd been there a while when I first visited them 20 years ago.)

[TexasEd]

My local dealer is open to 6 pm M-W & F. He stays open to 8 on Thursday and Saturday. Closed Sunday.

I think he is very responsive to his customers.