Da Stumer I'm surprised my LHS is still in business. It takes up the basement of a somewhat derilict strip mall, and has a lot of NOS. Never a ton of people there, and some stuff has probably been sitting on the shelves for over 30 years. When something runs out, it isn't restocked unless a specific request is made, and then I need to go back again to get it. They do trains, cars, ships, and planes I think. Another hobby shop in the area has broadened to games, toys, and other kids items as well as hobby trains, r/c, gundam, and the like, and they usually have a decent crowd there. I do pretty niche modeling as well, but I frequent these stores for general supplies such as trucks, couplers, paint, styrene, and detail parts. I'd much rather go to a store and buy items as I need them than pay shipping, especially if I can't get everything online from one place. Online shopping would be perfect if shipping was free, but alas that usually isn't the case.
I'm surprised my LHS is still in business. It takes up the basement of a somewhat derilict strip mall, and has a lot of NOS. Never a ton of people there, and some stuff has probably been sitting on the shelves for over 30 years. When something runs out, it isn't restocked unless a specific request is made, and then I need to go back again to get it. They do trains, cars, ships, and planes I think. Another hobby shop in the area has broadened to games, toys, and other kids items as well as hobby trains, r/c, gundam, and the like, and they usually have a decent crowd there. I do pretty niche modeling as well, but I frequent these stores for general supplies such as trucks, couplers, paint, styrene, and detail parts. I'd much rather go to a store and buy items as I need them than pay shipping, especially if I can't get everything online from one place. Online shopping would be perfect if shipping was free, but alas that usually isn't the case.
Ah, "the dungeon." It was a bowling alley years ago. You may have noticed everything is MSRP, too. Maybe it's not crowded, but it's a big store and they do a steady business. They seem to be doing ok.
Gary
PRR8259 DAVID FORTNEY Even though I live in Pa. Where there is quite a few of hobby shops I rarely go to them. It is so much easier and the selection is so much better that I order online from many of them . I don't like driving, waiting in traffic or dealing with morons who own most of the shops that if not for online shopping I may not be in the hobby. I can sit on my couch with my tablet, order what I want and get what I ordered at my front door, no stress, no driving. Dave Well, I sorta understand why shopping online might be easier, but the particular shops I visit are so well stocked that I can almost always find items that are not available online including new items already sold out online. As far as train shops run by morons, I'm very sorry to hear that. The ones I've frequented in PA, in person, my whole life, for the last 46 years since I was 5, were not run by morons. Perhaps that is why they are still around. I am sorry that it seems others have experienced things differently, but please don't hate on the ones that are left. They became my lifelong friends. I've been to employees' homes and layouts, and helped them finish their personal mainline at 4 am on a Sunday morning...spent many late Saturday nights working on layouts and enjoying the pizza. Sincerely-- John
DAVID FORTNEY Even though I live in Pa. Where there is quite a few of hobby shops I rarely go to them. It is so much easier and the selection is so much better that I order online from many of them . I don't like driving, waiting in traffic or dealing with morons who own most of the shops that if not for online shopping I may not be in the hobby. I can sit on my couch with my tablet, order what I want and get what I ordered at my front door, no stress, no driving. Dave
Even though I live in Pa. Where there is quite a few of hobby shops I rarely go to them. It is so much easier and the selection is so much better that I order online from many of them . I don't like driving, waiting in traffic or dealing with morons who own most of the shops that if not for online shopping I may not be in the hobby.
I can sit on my couch with my tablet, order what I want and get what I ordered at my front door, no stress, no driving.
Dave
Well, I sorta understand why shopping online might be easier, but the particular shops I visit are so well stocked that I can almost always find items that are not available online including new items already sold out online.
As far as train shops run by morons, I'm very sorry to hear that. The ones I've frequented in PA, in person, my whole life, for the last 46 years since I was 5, were not run by morons. Perhaps that is why they are still around.
I am sorry that it seems others have experienced things differently, but please don't hate on the ones that are left.
They became my lifelong friends. I've been to employees' homes and layouts, and helped them finish their personal mainline at 4 am on a Sunday morning...spent many late Saturday nights working on layouts and enjoying the pizza.
Sincerely--
John
Talking to one of my friends at a hobby shop, he commented that "model railroaders make bad buisness men" and he was glad his hobby shop was owned and managed by guys who actually aren't that into trains but instead were buisness guys, since they always kept things running smoothly. In turn, the railfans who work there get to work the floor and run the shop's day to day buisness interacting and befriending customers (yes these being like your story, guys who I have been on railfan trips with, visited their personal layouts, hanged out trackside, etc.) but the purse strings are ran by guys who focus on buisness, not the trains. Makes for a good combination.
Sorry the OP lost their Hobbytown. We've lost a number of them over the years. It's tough to be a dealer that tries to do it all when hobbies are so specialized and varried these days.
In and Around Chicago we've got a number of train shops. Some are just trains, some are quite varried, usually including toys with other hobbies. I have noticed that many shops -even some of the mixed shops- are seemig to specialize in one direction or the other. There's one that gets new product but also has a HUGE NOS selection. There's one that emphasizes O. Two shops that are primarily HO and nothing but new product.
SeeYou190 tin can Kevin I think this makes sense. Move marketing dollars from media-based into overhead for small retail outlets. Drive and create demand. . If Walthers would follow the Games Workshop model and open one-man 500-600 foot stores, and opened one in Fort Myers... I would quit my job tomorrow and run that store. I would spend my pre-retirement years recruiting new people into the hobby and funneling all that future business into the Walthers online store. Walthers could easily market HO scale model railroading as "The Walthers Hobby", and truly make it their own. . Oh... to fully copy the Games Workshop model they would need to double, or maybe triple all their prices. . -Kevin
tin can Kevin I think this makes sense. Move marketing dollars from media-based into overhead for small retail outlets. Drive and create demand.
.
If Walthers would follow the Games Workshop model and open one-man 500-600 foot stores, and opened one in Fort Myers... I would quit my job tomorrow and run that store.
I would spend my pre-retirement years recruiting new people into the hobby and funneling all that future business into the Walthers online store.
Walthers could easily market HO scale model railroading as "The Walthers Hobby", and truly make it their own.
Oh... to fully copy the Games Workshop model they would need to double, or maybe triple all their prices.
-Kevin
I'm not sure I'd want that job. I've been out of the GW hobby for a bit, but what I recall hearing is that the 1-man stores were often understaffed, underpaid and extremely stressfull environments.
However, I do think there is some merit in some version of the model though as GW does seem to be expanding the numbers of stores. I think the price-points and time-involvments for the GW hobby and model railroading are actually quite similar. Both hobby's base-level boxed-item purchase is $30-$60 repeated often and the amount of hands-on effort is similar.
Walthers would basically need to decide what exactly the hobby is that they would be selling at these stores and at least 90% of the store would have to be stocked accordingly, with a small section set asside for "Specialist" products. You'd have to be able to walk into a Walthers store and know with some certainty exactly what you'd find everytime. That requires a supply chain vastly more reliable than most model train dealers have.
I'm not sure what that "hobby" and selection would be but it would be essential if they are to survive in the small spaces that GW stores do. That said, if the "Walthers" hobby was organized the way the GW hobby is, it could be successfull.
Visit the Chicago Valley Railroad for Chicago Trainspotting and Budget Model Railroading.
tin canKevin I think this makes sense. Move marketing dollars from media-based into overhead for small retail outlets. Drive and create demand.
Living the dream.
SeeYou190 Walthers is in a position to do something similar in model railroading. . How many one man 600 square foot shops would they need to open as recruitment centers to pump new blood into this hobby of ours? . The successful modern business model is out there. . -Kevin .
Walthers is in a position to do something similar in model railroading.
How many one man 600 square foot shops would they need to open as recruitment centers to pump new blood into this hobby of ours?
The successful modern business model is out there.
Kevin
I think this makes sense. Move marketing dollars from media-based into overhead for small retail outlets. Drive and create demand.
Enjoy them while you can. Most LHS s seem to be single owner and they eventually retire. Then fun is over.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
basementdweller The Train Station is a great model train store, it's about 40 miles away from me so I make it there once or twice a month. I always forget about Robbie's Hobbies.
The Train Station is a great model train store, it's about 40 miles away from me so I make it there once or twice a month. I always forget about Robbie's Hobbies.
I'm a little farther out, just beyond Utica. It's about a 50 minute drive for me. Fall to early spring I bowl in Columbus twice a week and the Train Station is just five minutes away from the bowling alley so that makes it convenient. In the warm weather months I rarely come to Columbus but model railroading gives way to golf so I don't often need anything related to model railroading.
Here in southern Delaware, we had two shops but one closed last year. The owner retired and the landlord wanted the property for something else. The other shop is only a few miles from me, but it's an O-gauge shop. I'm hoping they will start carrying more HO, or at least let me order it.
I am still delaying setting up my layout, but really, all I will need is track and scenery stuff for quite some time.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
PRR8259 Oh, brother, more about train stores dying... I live in PA, and we still have fantastic train stores. They are not even located in the big cities, but in some cases small boroughs of only 10,000 people (English's Model RR Supply, Montoursville, PA. People come from Canada and all over the world to shop there). We also still have Mainline Hobbies, Tommy Gilbert's and several others... Driving 90 miles to a train store is also no big deal to me. I drive for travel baseball, sometimes much farther for just a game, so 90 miles to a great train store is no big deal. Here in the Northeast, you can get used to driving distances for what you want. It's all a question of priorities. If I want a new horn for my son, the best place is 200 miles away near NYC, but in NJ. I wouldn't think twice about driving there to look at instruments, and I have made the trip. The selection of items is worth the trip. John
Oh, brother, more about train stores dying...
I live in PA, and we still have fantastic train stores. They are not even located in the big cities, but in some cases small boroughs of only 10,000 people (English's Model RR Supply, Montoursville, PA. People come from Canada and all over the world to shop there). We also still have Mainline Hobbies, Tommy Gilbert's and several others...
Driving 90 miles to a train store is also no big deal to me. I drive for travel baseball, sometimes much farther for just a game, so 90 miles to a great train store is no big deal. Here in the Northeast, you can get used to driving distances for what you want. It's all a question of priorities. If I want a new horn for my son, the best place is 200 miles away near NYC, but in NJ. I wouldn't think twice about driving there to look at instruments, and I have made the trip.
The selection of items is worth the trip.
James Sanchez
jsanchez Where I live, Northeast PA we are lucky to have had a new train shop open within the last few years, the shop is doing great with almost no internet business, he seems to do a good job stocking what customers want(as much as possible), has a decent discount on products and freindly service The store carries everything from bargain used items to the lastest pricey sound equipped locos and electronics, plus model kits It is nicely organized store and a fun place to browse and hang out. He also is very good with special ordering items, which winds up being a better deal than buying from the internet. Surprising how many under 30 people are shopping there. The hobby is definitely not dead yet. I think why his store is successful is that it is a smartly run business, that customers like returning to on a regular basis. The store actually expanded last year and is worth a visit if your in Wilkes-Barre/Kingston/Edwardsville, PA. Dave's Train Corner.
Where I live, Northeast PA we are lucky to have had a new train shop open within the last few years, the shop is doing great with almost no internet business, he seems to do a good job stocking what customers want(as much as possible), has a decent discount on products and freindly service The store carries everything from bargain used items to the lastest pricey sound equipped locos and electronics, plus model kits It is nicely organized store and a fun place to browse and hang out. He also is very good with special ordering items, which winds up being a better deal than buying from the internet. Surprising how many under 30 people are shopping there. The hobby is definitely not dead yet. I think why his store is successful is that it is a smartly run business, that customers like returning to on a regular basis. The store actually expanded last year and is worth a visit if your in Wilkes-Barre/Kingston/Edwardsville, PA. Dave's Train Corner.
basementdweller I am often surprised how many larger cities lack a decent hobby shop, yet others thrive in smaller towns.
In Florida:
Good sized cities with decent Model Railroad hobby shops:
Miami (2)
Fort Lauderdale (1)
Daytona Beach (1, Port Orange)
Melbourne (1)
Saint Petersburg (2)
Sarasota (1)
Fort Myers (1, transitioning away from MR)
Naples (1)
Orlando (1)
Port Charlotte (1)
Good sized cities without Model Railroad Hobby Shops:
West Palm Beach
Jacksonville
Tallahassee
Gainesville
Tampa
Ocala
Cape Coral
Bradenton
Small towns with thriving shops:
Spring Hill
What Florida looked like 10 years ago:
Miami (3)
Daytona Beach (2)
Sarasota (2)
Fort Myers (2)
Orlando (4)
Port Charlotte (0)
West Palm Beach (0)
Jacksonville (2)
Tallahassee (1)
Gainesville (1)
Tampa (3)
Ocala (2)
Cape Coral (1)
Bradenton (1)
i liked Hobbyland too, I was surprised to see its model train selection dwindle, thus I have not been there in quite some time.
Back to the OP's original point, I am often surprised how many larger cities lack a decent hobby shop, yet others thrive in smaller towns. All the reasons are already well discussed.
On another point someone mentioned record shops, there are many decent record shops in Columbus, OH. They are busy stores and always with patrons. In my view a lot of this stuff comes around full circle. But what do I know.
Online has a much better selection, so goes the belief.
As long as the preorder business model hasn't sold them all out too. Try buying something from MB Klein 4 weeks after they got their last container shipment.
The train business itself is keeping less inventory on hand than it used too. I know of several LHS that are out of stock because the runs are so limited they can't keep the shelf stocked. Pretty tough to meet break even costs if the shelves are bare because the factory didn't produce enough product.
Oh well.
- Douglas
I'm very fortunate to live near Columbus, OH and go into town several times a week on other business. On the north side, there are four hobby shops within about a 15 minute walk of one another. One of them, The Train Station, is exclusively for model railroading. The Hobbyland used to be another great source but in the past year they have greatly reduced their model railroading merchandise. I'm wondering if they are going to get out of it all together when their current stock sells. Then there is Robbie's Hobbies which has a decent selection and a lot of second hand train stuff as well. The fourth is fairly new and was mostly Lionel. I've only been in there once and their HO was very limited. Mostly second hand if I remember right.
York1 Half of the store is set up with tables and chairs for gaming nights.
"Friday Night Magic" is a certified cash cow. When it comes to shelf space used to profit generated, you cannot beat Magic The Gathering.
Da Stumer I'm surprised my LHS is still in business. It takes up the basement of a somewhat derilict strip mall, and has a lot of NOS. Never a ton of people there, and some stuff has probably been sitting on the shelves for over 30 years. When something runs out, it isn't restocked unless a specific request is made, and then I need to go back again to get it.
I'm surprised my LHS is still in business. It takes up the basement of a somewhat derilict strip mall, and has a lot of NOS. Never a ton of people there, and some stuff has probably been sitting on the shelves for over 30 years. When something runs out, it isn't restocked unless a specific request is made, and then I need to go back again to get it.
Yeah that is the hobby shop I have very little surprise when it closes down. My guess is it makes enough income for the owner to run right until their retirement. However, because they don't keep the stock fresh, keep the place clean; they don't have any sort of strong customer base.My guess is that shortly before retirement, that owner will try and drop it off onto somebody younger to run; telling them the joy about how "awesome" it is to run a hobby shop. However while it makes a small steady stream of income for an older family nearing retirement who have their home and cars fully paid off and social security around the corner... it would be a buisness death sentance to anyone in their 20's-40's who don't have a home paid off yet, who are struggling to maintain their secondhand cars, and likely have a young family to feed; with the proposition that to make said shop succesful again they would need to 1) re-locate to a more vibrant location, 2) begin investing in more stock, and 3) begin setting up an online shopping component to help move things that are wasting away on shelves. Its a daunting task; but unfortunately when I am sure the younger generations would refuse the owner of such shop would brush away their disinterest as "kids these days don't like the hobby anymore." Sure they could give the shop to somebody who is older and more established in their 50-60's; but would they be willing to sacrafice their established retirement plans at their 9-5 jobs to take the risk of investing in a small hobby shop?I think a hobby shop can work, but it has to have several keys to make it succesful in this day and age; and that is often-times making it an online focused shop with an LHS storefront at their shipping location. I often pick TrainLife as my favorite LHS, although for most of you outside of Utah they are probably known as an online retailer. Yet I can drive to Provo, talk to the staff for a while and browse their store shelves like any other LHS in the area; even checking out the Pelle Soeborg layout they bought and have on display in the shopping segment. Because they are an online retailer and constantly moving product, the LHS segment's shelves have new products on them nearly everytime I am there to visit. Compared to the other shops in the valley which seem to have the same stuff that was there one or two or even three years ago on store shelves; TrainLife is always something new for me to look at.
csxns riogrande5761 ScaleTrains announced articulated well cars for early double stack trains and one guy commented how he was disappointed with the announcement - that he was hoping for another engine announcement Think i just read that at the Atlas Rescue.
riogrande5761 ScaleTrains announced articulated well cars for early double stack trains and one guy commented how he was disappointed with the announcement - that he was hoping for another engine announcement
Think i just read that at the Atlas Rescue.
James,I would give my eye teeth for such a shop close to me.. The only shop that even comes close to your shop is the Train Station in Columbus(Oh) and that's roughly 130 mile round trip.
As of now the closest shop to me is a bicycle shop in Sandusky that carries model trains a 100 mile round trip.
So,my hobby shop is on line.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
As Dave N. has mentioned, we are blessed in the SE WI and metro Milwaukee/Waukesha area.
There are 4 "steadies" that I can name. and I'm sure Dave knows of a few others.
Hiawatha Hobbies, South Side Trains, Walthers and Somerfeld Trains.
Mike.
My You Tube
drgwcsHobbytown seems to be a different animal from the regular all train store. I suspect most make a lot more money off R/C and other things such as gaming/ toys models etc. Most of the ones I have been in around the place don't have a very deep selection of trains.
My experience is the same. One Hobbytown recently moved to a new location, smaller, and out of the way.
The other Hobbytown is much larger, and it is usually busy. Its train supplies are very sparse, but it seems to do well with the board gaming people. Half of the store is set up with tables and chairs for gaming nights. They have found a way to survive in a difficult marketing time.
York1 John
Hobbytown seems to be a different animal from the regular all train store. I suspect most make a lot more money off R/C and other things such as gaming/ toys models etc. Most of the ones I have been in around the place don't have a very deep selection of trains. The exception I saw was the north Indianapolis location. Used to go in there when we lived nearby and it had a huge selection. They moved a little over two years ago and I was in the location over thanksgiving when we were in the area visiting family. Sad- wow empty hooks and the selection was a fraction of what it used to be. You can't sell out of an empty truck.......
-Peter. Mantua collector, 3D printing enthusiast, Korail modeler.
The real reason all these stores are closing is not what you think. These stores can not hope to compeat with the selection of things online. How can any hobby store even come close to the selection online. Even my go to online hobby store dosn't sell everything I need. I needed powdered tempra recently and even though Licks carries it online, a very large one of their stores did not have it on the floor.
I seen it too. Going by a few of the last post, about weather and such, I had to quickly go back to top, thought we stumbled into the diner!
Hopefully, another LHS thread comes to a quiet end.
Could be.