The useful LHS. A myth or fact?

I guess I am lucky as there are 4 local hobby shops and 3 of them have alot of n scale stuff and brings in both american and canadian railroad locos and cars. I guess it also helps when two of the owner models in n scale.

JSL

 

Adam, which store is your personal favorite.

I am in the same boat as him as I have the same LHS as SteamDonkey.

there are 4 that I'm aware of within my driving area (I think there's a least 1 more) and 2 of those are only a block or 2 from light rail transportation.

I get a monthly pass for the Public transportation for work. That means that the costs of going to the hobby shop for me, are essentially free for those 2 stores.

Of those 2, one is a general service hobby shop in Beaverton Or. Tammies which is great for large scale and only stocks the fastest selling stuff in HO and N. With no discount. They are also the closest and again, free to get to though, so I patronize them as needed.

The other one on the Light rail is HobbySmith in the Hollywood district of NE Portland. They have good prices and they have both consignment and used shelves that are filled with all sorts of goodies.
Of the shops I need to drive to. Mainline trains is out in the boonies, but they too have used and bruised shelves that are good to root through and decent prices. 20% of MSRP.

Finally is the Whistle Stop which has lots of pretty HO and N scale things to look at, but their prices aren't very friendly. Still if you need detail parts and that kind of thing, they have the best selection on that. So they still have a value to me.

 

My LHS earns my money the old way, through great service..well, depending on who's behind the counter. One guy does nothing more but sit on a stool in the corner and watch the TV. And with the register being on the other side of the shop, it's kinda annoying to have to walk back and tell him you're ready to pay.

But anyways, the other guys all greet me and ask if they can help me find anything. It's kinda funny though that the last several times I've been there, they were in shock at what I was looking for. "Do you have any Code 55 flex for N scale?" Code 55?! Are you crazy!? We'll I'm also looking for Code 55 and 40 supplies to hand lay some turnouts. "WHAT!?"

Turns out they did have some C55 flex, but only 3 pieces. I told them I wanted to experiment with it for my upcoming Thunder Ridge layout and after sharing some photos of the IM Cab Forward and recommending they order one or two for the shelves, they ended up sending all 3 pieces of flex with me, free of charge. I reciprocated by buying some tools that I needed, but had been holding off on.

My latest trip was in search of possible supplies to hand lay some C55 and C40 turnouts. Again, the response I got was as if they just saw an alien. Nonetheless, they remembered my C55 flex inquiry and said they ordered a whole new batch. It was like finding gold when they pulled out an unopened case of Atlas C55. They again earned my business as I'll now be buying all flex for Thunder Ridge from them instead of ordering online as I originally planned. I also saw a big InterMountain box in the display case.

My LHS has a good stock of the Kato NW2s. Which road name? Perhaps I can connect you up with them.

 

I feel the OP's pain, my one local hobby shop just closed. This guy was trying to be a do everything shop, R/C, gaming and trains, in an area the size of a small 2 car garage. Trains took up roughly 50% of the space, with the N-scale display being the smallest. I live in Va. the heart of N&W country, so you'd think they would stock mostly east coast roads, right? Nope, most of what they had, in all 3 scales, was west coast stuff. the shelves and displays were full of SP and UP. I also got the "We can order anything." line; but if I have to wait for it, why wait and then have to drive 20 miles to get it, instead of having it delivered to my door? I do have a couple of other shops I can go to, but the closest is a 3 hr round trip

 

Well, I guess the "We can order anything." line is in most every LHS's repertoire. I live in San Diego County and our largest hobby shop is about 90% HO and other scales. Being a Z scaler I'm vexed that there never seems to be any new N scale locos or cars filling in the same empty spots in the display case. Sadly it looks like they sell more Z than N. If you look in the loco display case they have many unsold diesels of all varieties. I'm not a diesel guy so I don't look closely at the diesels, but the shelf looks undisturbed. I do look at the 4 Mikados they have they've been there for a year undisturbed. The price is about $154. On line considerably LESS. I guess if I was there for N scale I would just be there for track and scenery materials. No way would I plunk down and extra 30% for the item plus tax. I feel sorry for all LHS's. I'm glad they are there and I will buy scenery stuff I need today, but not locos or rolling stock. Sad. Jim Socalz44

 

I think I went in that shop. It was very close to a railroad, I asked what line it was (knowing full well whose it was). I was told, and asked to see some items from that road. There was considerable hemming and hawing, and I think there ended up being maybe a dozen NW/NS pieces in the shop. I also got the "we can order" song and dance. Since I am a person to mince few words, I informed the person if I went to Food Lion (local grocery store) for a gallon of milk, and was told they'd have to order it, I would leave and never return to such a place. And I left and never returned. And it was a 110 mile one-way trip for me (wasted).

 

Tuning into this thread reminds me of my days as a kid riding my bike to any one of three LHS in town. Now I live in the middle of nowhere and have solely relied on the internet candy stores; which for the most part have delivered the goods much to my satisfaction. As my layout construction enters the scenery stage I foresee endless problems dealing with size, shapes, designs, texture and color due to a lack of hands on access.

Just so happens I live on the backdoor step of a most prominent scenic manufacturing company in central Missouri that will allow me to walk in, hand them a list of part numbers and buy said items. One problem with that is I still lack any hands on access to their products, since nothing is displayed. I’ll have to bite the bullet and try to locate a LHS somewhere in this forsaken state even if it means a 300 mile round trip to KC or STL.

Maybe I can make some lemonade out of the lemons.:tb-rolleyes:

Jerry

 

There are so many shops that order to much and see it sit. The smart ones blow it out after it sits to long. The others are collectors and have it sit, sometimes for years.

There are a lot of "Collector" shops out there. Not as many as there used to be, but still a lot.

 

I live about 30 miles from a hobby shop that has an largeg selection of N scale cars and lokies. The only problem is that their prices are around full retail and nothing ever seems to leave the shelf. When Kato announced the new run of SD45s, I inquired as to whether they would be stocking any, and the reply was negative. They offered to order if I wanted to reserve some. This didn't bother me, as they probably already have in excess of 100 lokies that aren't moving and certainly don't need more inventory.

I asked them to check the price for me, and about gagged when they left a message on my cell phone.I shouldn't have been surprised that they wanted the full $110 list price, but I had hoped they would realize they had a chance for a sale if they priced it right. I want so much to support this hobby shop, but I won't pay almost $37.00 more than I could buy it for online.

I suspect that this is why they have such a large inventory. I have mentioned before that they always have HO sales, but never anything in N scale. I guess sitting on the inventory and selling nothing is better than moving some of the items at a modest profit.

 

These days its hard for me to buy from a shop that sells full retail (money's tight), I can mail order and pay shipping and still not pay full price. I've got a train shop about 30mi from me that's full retail, I try to buy stupid little stuff there, glue, paint, mt couplers ect. Biggest problem with this guy is, if he doesn't have something it's always coming next week or by the end of the week...never shows, even the stupid little stuff like some MT 1015's...on order for 2 months and due in next week for 2 months. So my real LHS is a 100mi away, but thats okay he makes it worth it and takes care of customers and I go see him about 5 times a year...or more.

Lately I've just been spreading the biz around, it keeps me touch with quite a few people and makes you a somewhat regular everywhere. Having several vendors to go to that know you can help in a pinch too and you'll know your getting a fair deal if they can help you. I tend to get engines from one place, new MT cars and details from another and so forth, if one falters usually one of the others can help out. Works good for me

 

Being that I work in a "LHS" I have a few comments to make.

First, I work in one of the "chain" stores. We carry a good selection of N, probably more N than HO with a little O thrown in. Most customers don't expect us to have an N so they are pleasantly supprised when they see our shop. Unfortunately, most people don't even consider us to have a good selection because of the "chain" conotation. Not all stores are the same.

Since we started beefing up our N scale selections about 5 years ago, our N scale sales match or even outpace HO sales. There is something to be said for having a visible selection available to help influence purchases. Most people that come in struggling with the decision between HO and N, leave with N. Many more people come in looking for N right off the bat now. If you have nothing but HO to show them, of course they will leave with HO, (because there is no N scale available out there from their experience).

As far as mail order, there is no way a Brick and Morter can expect to ever have the depth of selection that an online store will have. The online store has the world as it's customer base, a B&M store has about a 30 mile radius worth of population. A B&M also has to display all this product where it's just a stock picture on an internet site otherwise. They can leave case lots of product on a shelf and not worry about inventory shinkage. The turnover rate is just too slow to hold on to all that stock. The online shop makes up it profit margin in sales volume. The B&M won't have the volume so they must make a little more money and ballance that out with personal service.

As mentioned earlier, your best option is to have a good repore with your LHS and you should be treated well. If the first thing out of a customers mouth is whining about lack of this, or price of that, they are off my radar. If they come in, communicate what they are looking for, ask for assistance politley and show a general interest, they get treated appropriately. Our shop places orders almost daily so a special order at most takes a week and that is due to time to ship from the distributor, most things are there in two days. I have many customers that don't know what is out there and simply ask me to find X loco in Y road name, let them know what it available or on the way, and they will order it. They don't have the time or desire to surf the forums, manufactures sites, etc. to know what is coming down the pike. They use me for that information and are happy that I can do that for them. It's worth a few extra percentage point on the price for them to not have to do the leg work.

If your shop is more than 30 miles away, it's not exactly local and I can understand mail ordering. What really blows me away is how lazy people have gotten. We have people that live less than 5 miles from our shop, ask to mail something to them. Worse off, it usually ends up being a $3 part and shipping cost more than the part. They could drive to the store in 10 minutes and have it but we have to pack it up, take it to the post office and end up spending more time than that to get it out the door. We take care of them though, all part of customer service.

One last point, do you folks that mail order, realize what you are doing to your local economy? You are sending your money out of your local community, more than likely never to return. There have been impact studies done and mail order hurts more than just the lost local sales of the product. The only local industry that benefits from mail order sales is the shipping companies and maybe the 7-11 that their drivers get their coffee from.

It's a stretch to say this, but it is very similar to the US outsourcing everything to China. Yeah it's cheaper now, but what does it do for you in the long run? The money is going over there and it sure isn't coming back this way.

Ok, Soap box put away, time for bed.

 

"One last point, do you folks that mail order, realize what you are doing to your local economy? You are sending your money out of your local community, more than likely never to return."

Yes, I think we all realize this, but when the price differential is so high, there is not much of an alternative. As for brick and mortar competing with the internet stores, it is probably time for the brick and mortar shops to update their business practices and go online.

 

From the customers I see, I don't think most of them do understand. Their sole motivator in life is price. We are a full line shop so I see it from all segments, not just trains. The amount of people that buy some off brand piece of RC junk from an on-line source and then come in an pitch a fit because we don't carry parts for it is astounding. When it happened once in a while, I used to feel bad when I told them they just wasted their money. Parts are not available so I would make an effort to find a substitue part. Not so much any more as it is a daily occurance. I'm a little more cold now..."Here is why you should buy local. If you bought it from us, you could fix it." and show them a wall full of support parts for the products we sell.

Fortunately trains haven't gotten that bad....yet. Except for the "I got this great deal on Ebay" that turns out to be an old Tyco locomotive and some brass track.

 

When all the hobby shops are closed and all that's left is the internet, when you can't jump in your car and drive down to the shop and pick up a bottle of paint, when people can't say "Oh, look, a train store! I used to love trains as a kid, let's go look!", when you can't go talk to the guy behind the counter because you have a question on a decoder you bought from him, when you can't bump into Joe in the boxcar aisle and tell him about the unpatched Southern Pacific loco you saw last week, then this will be a very sad and dying hobby.
:bear-sad:

 

I'm all for making sure local busineses survive, but Its not a very capitalistic sentiment. As a consumer, I should do what makes the most sense for me and make the most of my very very limited dollars to spend.

Now of course as often as not, consumers will go to online sites for no good reason, or they'll have unreasonable expectations based on no aspect of reality. Those people are tough to deal with online or Brick and Morter.

 

While I agree, I didnt mean to imply that all LHS were like the 2 near me; and keep in mind, mine are 40miles (each way) away, so not exactly "local" anyway.

The chain store sells what sells for them. I dont begrudge them that. My point was, that they stock next to nothing in N, and then decided to stop selling N because "it just dosent sell". It isnt selling for them because their selection sucks. Period. I know they cant have 5 of everything, but even when this place DID "carry" N their selection was, at best, half a dozen locos and maybe 25-50 assorted cars, and some track.

No structures. No decoders. No detail parts, decals, nothing. Just that. Of course it isnt going to sell well.

The train shop seems to do very very good business in HO. I would think they could afford to carry more N than they do. They have more than the chain store, but still not much at all, and an odd assortment. They dont carry much in the way of structures (maybe 2 or 3 for N) either. This shop seems to be very well off, and I suppose if they have a business model that works, it works. But once again, they blame their lack of sales in N on the lack of interest...not their horrid selection, and the fact he tries to convince EVERYONE to model HO or 0. He has a full shelf of Lionel, and a display case full of beautiful O scale locos.

I dont blame LHS for being LHS, for having a markup, for not carrying everything. The point of my posts was that these two LHS say "N just dosent sell" and havent ever even TRIED to actually get involved in that market.

If a LHS, even one that didnt carry N, were closer to me, yes, I wouldnt mind ordering from them. The combo of 40 mile drive, paying more, and not having what I want anyway, is just too much. Would YOU want to shop at these shops?

 

No,a useful hobby shop isn't a myth..I recall them well.Sadly these types of hobby shops died with their owners or closed due to retirement..

Then came modernization with limited runs,higher prices,fewer wholesalers(most shops are now force to use Walthers and Horizon)Internet shops coupled with higher rent,business taxes,higher insurance rates and all of a sudden the Mom and Pop stores was being squeezed into selling at train shows to help the bottom line..Now comes another slap in the face you can buy direct from the manufacturer!

So,with the deck stack against them hobby shop owners has lowered their inventory and cursed their luck..Then there are the savvy few that increase their inventory and started selling on line.

Anyway I recall when I was happy to drive 65 miles (130 mile rt) to get to a fully stock hobby shop every other Saturday..

Guys,I don't know but,it seems odd the only city in my area one can still go hobby shop hopping is 60 miles away-Columbus..I recall going hobby shop hopping in Toledo back in the early 90s but,those shops are now gone..

 

I'm lucky - I've got a very good LHS minutes from home, and do all of my purchasing through them (the same shop that skipgear works at ). Being able to make a run for some Evergreen Styrene or paint when I need it is huge, and I don't mind spending an extra 10-15% on bigger ticket items such as locomotives. They can and do special order anything, and they also let me know when new releases are coming out that may interest me.

Good selection of stuff for those impulse buys, good place to hang out and talk trains. I do think there is a future for a well run store w/ great service.