Do You Remember When.......

[Anonymous]

Ok Ok I'm only 24 but since my child hood I've noticed a truely sad trend.
Was it just me or did you notice that all the MAJOR retail/toy stores like K Mart, Walmart, Toys R' Us, Kay B Toys, even Walgreens have Little to NO train sets!? And obviously the same for accesories?

Now most of us have a relation ship with our local hobby shops almost by first name basis and thats great! On the other hand so many people that I tell I'm into this hobby, seem to have absolutely no clue on where to start! The toy store diden't have any "real" train sets. All they wanted was a cheap $40 set....not asking for much right, so they are oblivious about the hobby shops because it will "cost more then it should".

When my Grandpa would take me to ANY of these stores(Except for Walmart obviously!!)we could find any thing we wanted in Ho, N scale and slot cars. The one thing that suck out was their massive displays, some even working!! I keep seeing kids eyes with the same glow of excitement that I had/have when they see a model train in action. This is a hobby that needs to KEEP the kids of all ages involved in order to keep a train under the X-mas tree!! I hope Im not ranting too much, just some things change for the worst..... Let's change it BACK!! Thanks!!!
Icemanmike - Milwaukee, Home of the Hiawathas!!

[cbq9911a]

I've noticed it in Chicago - the major stores don't carry trains at all. 20 years ago they did.

If the hobby is to survive, you have to be able to buy trains. And you need to be able to buy trains where you shop - Wal-Mart, Target, Sears, etc.

And there is money in it for the stores. IMHO, Wal-Mart or Target could do for trains what they did for other lines of merchandise. Having some foamer in Bentonville dictate what is made is a small tradeoff for greater availability.