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My "local" hobby shop is a total joke. It is 15 miles away and the next nearest is 75 miles. As many times as I've tried to do business with him, I always come out disappointed and wondering why I bothered. That's the times I've found the shop open, anyhow. Though his hours on the sign are "Monday thru Friday 10 am to 5 pm & Saturday noon till 4" good luck on finding the shop open. 9 times out of ten it is locked up and dark no matter when I stop by. I have totally given up on trying to make a "special" trip, especially without calling first. Even that doesn't work sometimes. I have called to see if he's open, and when he answered the phone I told him I would be there in about 15-20 minutes. He would say no problem. (this would be well within his "open" hours) By the time I get there, less than 20 minutes later, the shop is locked up and no one is around. Even so, I still want to try to support local business, so when I do find the shop open, I try to buy something. Problem is, he has lots of "old stock" that has obviously been opened before, and a couple models I bought from him were missing lots of parts. He won't even stock Kadee couplers because "everyone up here uses McHenry's". So I tried some. They make good gondola loads. The rest of his inventory is at full retail of course, what inventory there is. I can't even get Woodland Scenics ground foam there when I need it. He always "just ran out" though the display looks unchanged from the last time I saw it. He is willing to order from Walthers (at full price and with a 50% deposit) if you really need something. I doubt I'll ever need anything that badly. The shop is dusty and poorly lit. Maybe this was fine in the '40s or '50s, but it sure doesn't make sense nowdays. So now I shop exclusively on the internet. Believe me, it's a lot less aggravating! Even ebay beats my LHS, hands down. I'm to the point that I would buy a used engine on ebay before I'd buy a new one from my LHS. And I'm not into buying used locos! Anyhow, that's why I rated my LHS as "bad". Too bad there wasn't a category of "absolutely terrible!"
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