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 Frankly, I don´t see a way to keep the friendly neighborhood LHS alive on the basis of discounts, which can be obtained by on-line shopping. Stocking all those little tidbits, which we dearly need, costs a lot of money, which has to be earned. No one can run a business just for the love of model railroading. It finally boils down to an either-or question. Either we are willing to pay a reasonable price and keep the LHS alive as a ready source for the products we need, or we have to live with limited availability of the small, but important things. I do believe, that in the end, all these on-line businesses will also face hard times, as the manufacturers and importers turn to direct sales via the internet.. BLI has its Factory Direct trains and there will be more to follow, as the cost of setting up an online-store are minimal. My LHS closed 2 years ago. It used to be a fountain for building materials. Styrene in any shape, balsa wood, wire, brass tubing and rods, scenic materials of all sorts, the whole range of Preiser figures, the whole range of Revell paint - whatever you needed, he had it on stock. He closed down, when his earnings did not cover the rent anymore... He left a tremendous gap!
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