I have a LHS here that I REFUSE to go into. EVEN IF they have that item I am looking to buy. I went into this particular LHS about 10-12 years ago looking for a specific type of super glue (brush on Jet to be exact) for a specific application. Hobbytown USA, where I normally got it was out of stock so I went to this other LHS. I told the guy (who is the mgr there) what I was looking for and WHY I specifically needed it. He then proceeds to tell me, " If you had any idea about modeling you would use this"....and proceeded to hand me a bottle of Testors Model Master liquid glue which would NOT work for the application I needed. I have not been back to that rather large for my area LHS since.
I would no get upset about it. The way things are going the local hobby store will be a thing of the past. We have had five close in our area so far. Some were very small and amounted to no more than a part time occupation for the owner who usually had another full time job. But a few were rather large full service shops. The hobby is changing and the efforts to prop up the local hobby store are futile. The one thing that may change the picture is a change in the laws that will allow states to collect a sales tax on mailorder and internet sales. But even that may not be sufficient.
I'm sorry to hear this. My local shop is attached to Bowser and has a very large selection of every scale. Anything not in the store will promptly be ordered in at my request. I also get better prices in the store than I would online. I've been going long enough to be on a first-name basis with the owner. The owner is a HO guy, so the HO selection dwarfs the other scales. Sometimes he gives me a good ribbing about working in N Scale, but he is not biased about what he has on the shelves, and actually talked me out of switching to HO when I was impressed by the wider range of available items. I have to make a 35 minute drive to get there, which kind of stinks, but I guess its easier on the wallet! Hope you can find a shop that fits your needs! It IS worth supporting the brick and mortar shops!
Be glad you have an LHS to get angry at. Here at the end of the earth, all we have is a HobbytownUSA in conjunction with a video rental store. The LHS owner's N scale inventory is small but he will order anything I need, if his supply house stocks it, and he doesn't charge extra for special order. Personally, I am not always in the best of humor after I have driven to his shop only to find he doesn't have it but I also understand that inventory is expensive to maintain and most hobby shops earn only a small return on investment. The owner is certainly not getting wealthy from the shop! In my case, I have N scale railroad equipment plus I build and fly RC aircraft, both of which are expensive hobbies to work in. My LHS tries to stock some supplies for both plus plastic cars and planes, magazines and a whole host of assorted items for various hobbies but his dollar only stretches so far for any. Yes, he could concentrate on a few at the expense of others but which ones does he eliminate? Mine would probably be one of those, since they are more expensive than most hobbies and don't return a greater margin than the others. These days, with hobby shops closing every day, we should thank the LHS owner who continues in business even though his tax accountant says SELL! Swallow your anger, leave the store and don't go back.
Don't feel too bad. My nearest real train store is nearly a six hour round trip. Even with gas prices down a little, making the trip still doesn't pay well.
I've been on both sides of the counter. In all my years of custom painting and selling, I've only had one jerk at a Rockford IL train show and he was real mild compared to the RC Plane guys. I've visited hobby shops all over the U.S. and Canada and only had a few bad experiences. Usually the bad ones have a bias. Maybe a scale bias, ie HO versus N or in some cases, tinplate toy versus those crazy rivet counter O, HO and N scale guys. The worst yet again are the RC shops. The "be everything to every hobby shops" or the Radio Shack of hobby shops (I think you can figure out who) have a hard time pleasing everyone. Doll houses, Warhammer, Plastic model cars Trains, RC everything......It is hard to please all the customers with inventory and almost impossible to please everyone. Again, RC Model Plane guys are the worst. Even within the same genre' of RC planes there is in fighting. Electric versus nitro versus gas, Extreme aerobatic 3D versus scale military, versus fun fly, etc. I've even seen these RC guys get into it in the shop. The poor hobby shop owner is forced to put up with this "hobby drama" and try to order inventory that pleases not only the majority but those who will actually buy it at his shop. Most of those RC guys however have no problem coming in and telling the owner why he is the best pilot at his club and why he wont buy from the very shop he is standing in, then proceed to purchase his stuff on-line AND tell all his buddies why the local hobby shop is rubbish and the owner is an idiot. Meanwhile, N scale modelers such as myself wait for train shows or visit train exclusive hobby shops. My local train exclusive hobby shop is about an hour away and is a DCC wealth of inventory and knowledge. The owner stocks mainly HO but also has a decent selection of N and G. He sells books, magazines, paint and offers DCC installation and repair. His prices are fair and honestly folks, the margin on any hobby item is not that great for any retailer. He is also friendly, helpful and always willing to talk trains. He is smart as his bias is based on sales and demand, not what he likes. So as result of being in central Illinois, he sales are mainly HO and mainly mid-western roads. He will special order also but within reason as some folks have eyes bigger than their wallets and will "order" a special thing or two only to either never pick it up or purchase it somewhere else. Now the owner is stuck trying to sell that special item to someone else, sometimes at a loss. At the end of the day, Hobby shop owners and customers are afflicted with the same condition, that of being human. We all have bad days, however the burden still rests on a shop owner. Be receptive to a customer who walks in, no matter what their interests, helpful and yes, sometimes patient. The OP's experience is that of a shop that will not be around for long as he and others will vote with their wallet.
While I have pointed out a few LHS that were just bad business all around there have been at least three times that number that have been a pleasure to have been in. And while changing times and the economy played out as some of the factors that spelled their demise a lot was due to the reluctance of the owners and staff to adapt to changing times and ways of doing business. The store that now gets the majority of my business started out as basic brick and mortar store catering to all scales eventually. While a train only store it did carry a full line, and still does, of scratch building supplies, paint, wire electronics, hydrocal, and just about anything else needed to build or operate a model railroad except plywood and nails. Early in their life they started a mail order business and as time went on a big internet business. The store moved around ten years ago and now has an extensive warehouse to support the internet side and they still operate the basic store that one can walk into and browse, buy, and walk out satisfied. Key is a good staff both in the warehouse, in the store, and in keeping the internet site current with real time inventory. I don't mind the shipping charges since it works out to about what I would spend on gas just to drive up there and being retired and in no hurry the shipping time of 3 to 5 days is no sweat. And during business hours, about 6 days a week during operating hours, support for issues is pleasantly just a phone call away. And the nice part is that these folks do a large enough volume business that they can offer some decent mark downs and discounts on most items. So the recipe for success for the LHS is there if one wants to follow it. A excellent full service shop used to exist not far from me that I used to visit almost weekly. However the owner stubbornly refused to adapt his business practices and unfortunately is gone today. It was pleasant place to spend some time and there was an excellent staff that had the knowledge to take to business into the internet age while still operating out of the brick and mortar store. He stubbornly refused to change and the result was inevitable. And I think that has been the storyline for a lot of the now defunct LHSs.
I had probably only spent a little over $3oo at our local hobby store plus stopping in once a month to purchase a few magazines. Every time I would go in I was told, well there's old (my name) who never spends any money in here. Since it was always said with a group of modelers who gathered for a Saturday work session on theirs models it was a bit embarrassing to me. Do not know if it was joke or not I have not been back there for years now. Very inconvenient at times but with the quick mail delivery I can live with it. BJ
The one in my area has been rumored to a front for drug dealing, according to my grandparents. They won't let me go for that reason alone. Whether that's true or not, I don't know for sure, but I'm not taking any chances by going there. Mostly everything for most of my hobbies comes from online. There's one I really like in West Jefferson, NC, that does carry a few train sets and rolling stock, mostly CSX Bachmann. But if I need something quick, a few hours drive down the Blue Ridge Parkway is too far. There's also a few in Roanoke, including one in the Virginia Museum of Transportation. But again, that's two hours away. There's several more, but all are around 2+ hours away.
Man, I've seen some seedy hobby shops in my day, but never one that was a front for drugs. That would be interesting. Maybe some now legal in Or,Wa and Co substances would mellow out some of these guys. I've been blessed over the years with fabulous hobbyshops from Chicago to Portland or to San Diego to Sacramento. Some colorful individuals. Some not too astute businessmen, but never as rude as described.
There were a few in the Houston area at one time that did a good job of running customers off. One specialized in HO brass and did not have much else. I think it was on Star Lane just north of HW 59. I would go in there to get decals that I could find nowhere else. The proprietor was grumpy to most folks who came in but some did find a way to lighten him up. It was not worth my effort. Then there was a big slick outfit on Westheimer that opened a branch here in Sugar Land. Talk about scale bias. I don't know why they even carried anything other than O. If you even looked at anything else, you were ignored unless you were the only customer in the store. And then you usually got a lecture. There was a store with the owner who was a big HO champion. "Now if you are looking for a true modeler's scale you need to go with HO, N are just toys." I eventually got to know him real well and he was a goldmine of knowledge about prototype steam. He grudgingly accepted my modeling ability when one of my N scale steam models took first over one of his HO in the contest at the local NMRA convention.
Now that would make for an interesting dual-purpose store. "Relax... with a hobby! Or if that doesn't work..."
Considering the season, one of my pet peeves is when the holiday buying season (starting with Black Friday) comes around and the train store is mobbed with great numbers of non-regulars. I'm lucky, because I live in Los Angeles and, while there are fewer stores now, I still have a choice. My former regular place, owned by someone named Fred, got to be really bad during the six weeks or so around the holidays -- there have got to be 4-6 employees in the place, but they all have something better to do than serve customers, so the counter would be 2-3 deep with holiday lookie-loos wanting to be shown everything in the store, and one guy trying to handle them. (the others doing something really, really important.) So I'd get frustrated --- all I wanted was $50-100 worth of regular stuff, not worth anyone's time, not that half the lookie-loos would leave the store with anything at all. One episode of that a year ago turned me off Fred, Inc for good, after 30+ years. Poor management, period. Went to another train store in the area yesterday. The holiday zoo is already in progress. But all I needed was $20 of plain ol supplies -- counter was mobbed, but there were guys on the ball behind it, they got my money and got me out the door right away. Good management. I'm addicted to the TV show Bar Rescue. Anyone watch that? Jon Taffer needs to get hold of some hobby shops and shake em hard. Same problems in some ways -- retail workers in some cases from the same pool as bar and restaurant managers, maybe not as well motivated as they could be, not well managed, maybe even with other problems. There's a right way and a wrong way to do a whole lot of things.
LOL thats where I go! Freddys. He's got some knowledgeable staff. Have you tried Arnies in OC? his customer service is great. Have had no problems.
