I miss Hobby Shops

[Scott]

The small city I live in had two Hobby Shops.Both are gone now.

The oldest one closed down about 6 or 7 years ago.It had been in
business for about 60 years.Well stocked with aircraft kits(balsa
and plastic),ship kits(wood & plastic),and a large inventory of
model railway stuff.

The other shop closed up about 4 months ago,after about 5 years
in business.They didn't have any Guillows kits in store,but would
get them in when I told them which kits I wanted to buy.They
were basically an RC Car Hobby Shop.

I miss the whole Bricks & Mortar Hobby Shop experience.About a
month ago I bought a Guillows DHC-2 Beaver on Amazon.

I paid about $15 more buying it off Amazon than the RC Car
shop would have charged me.

[kittyfritters]

Miss hobby shops? You and everyone else!

Fortunately, for those of us who live in the Los Angeles area, there is still Smith Brothers Hobbies in Northridge that is primarily a model airplane hobby shop. They also stock balsa kits as well as the usual ARF and RTF RC models and lots of parts and supplies. They also have a consignment section that sometimes has some amazing classic kits.

KF

[kittyfritters]

Here's a couple of pictures showing part of the consignment area at Smith Brothers. There are quite a few solid models but some very interesting flying models especially the Cleveland and Comet kits. There are also some die cut Guillow's kits on consignment and one old one still in the catalog that has a tag on it that says "printed wood".

[Scott]

You're very fortunate to have Smith Brothers.Hopefully they'll always remain in
business.

[ekram]

Even the hobby shops that are surviving don't have 1/10th the amount of model stock they used to. They cannot compete with internet sales.

[Scott]

Even the hobby shops that are surviving don't have 1/10th the amount of model stock they used to. They cannot compete with internet sales.

That's a very good point.Competing with internet sales is a "no win"

[Balsabasher2]

I still have a local (?) Hobby shop to visit. Just 90 miles one way, but he is a well stocked shop with rc planes, some uc planes, lots of old rubber model kits from estate sales, along with new kits, plastic boat, car, and plane kits, and wooden boat kits. Railroad goodies also. Most everything you need for modeling, but you have to go there to get what you want. He doesn't ship. Hobby Towne in Baton Rouge, La.

[Scott]

I still have a local (?) Hobby shop to visit. Just 90 miles one way, but he is a well stocked shop with rc planes, some uc planes, lots of old rubber model kits from estate sales, along with new kits, plastic boat, car, and plane kits, and wooden boat kits. Railroad goodies also. Most everything you need for modeling, but you have to go there to get what you want. He doesn't ship. Hobby Towne in Baton Rouge, La.

That sounds like a great Hobby shop.With that much stock on the shelves,they must have
a lot of regular customers who buy there often.It's too bad they won't ship orders.

[Balsabasher2]

Yes Scott, it is a nice place. He has had serious problems with shipping stuff and he just got tired of all the problems. He stays fairly busy, at least when I'm there. I have always found him to be nice and fair.

[Scott]

Yes Scott, it is a nice place. He has had serious problems with shipping stuff and he just got tired of all the problems. He stays fairly busy, at least when I'm there. I have always found him to be nice and fair.

Last November I ordered a balsa kit from Alabama.The kit made it from Alabama to a postal warehouse in
Canada in two days.Then the Canadian postal workers went on strike.It sat in their warehouse until Jan 15,2025.

The postal workers went on strike when (over the Christmas holidays) they did to cause maximum disruption
for people sending Christmas gifts to family members,etc.The postal workers gained no public support when
they did that.They were finally legislated back to work in January.The wages & benefits they get are a lot
better than a lot of the public who pay taxes for the postal service.

I ordered a balsa kit from Kentucky.It made it to a Canadian Postal warehouse in Canada on August 1st.The
postal workers rejected the final contract offer that day,and I don't know how this will affect deliveries at this
point.

[Balsabasher2]

Scott, know what you mean about the postal service. I live in Slidell, La. Few years back, the USPS thought they could save money by moving the mail distribution center from New Orleans to Baton Rouge. I do business with an insurance company in Baton Rouge and before the change I would mail the payment and insurance company would get it in three days. Now twenty-one days if they decide to deliver. Now I pay every three months and drive to Baton Rouge to make the payment. Oh, the insurance company is about three blocks from the hobby shop, so I get to go there more often. But,, yeah, the mail service sucks here too.

[Scott]

Scott, know what you mean about the postal service. I live in Slidell, La. Few years back, the USPS thought they could save money by moving the mail distribution center from New Orleans to Baton Rouge. I do business with an insurance company in Baton Rouge and before the change I would mail the payment and insurance company would get it in three days. Now twenty-one days if they decide to deliver. Now I pay every three months and drive to Baton Rouge to make the payment. Oh, the insurance company is about three blocks from the hobby shop, so I get to go there more often. But,, yeah, the mail service sucks here too.

From 3 days to deliver a letter to 21 days to deliver is really bad.

My kit from Kentucky has been delivered.From what I've heard,the rural mail
carriers were in favour of accepting the final contract offer and so were some of
the city carriers,so the mail is still moving at this point.

[Ray Klein]

A big contributor to the demise of local brick and mortar hobby shops was also the lack of local support. I would talk with fellow model builders on occasion and they would always say stuff like I went to Hobby Store "X" and looked around, but I didn't buy anything because I can get it cheaper online. I would ask how much was the item(s) they were interested in and they would say some amount and I would say that is just slightly higher than online. Typically these guys didn't figure in shipping which sometimes made their online purchase significantly higher in price. Then the Hobby Store would permanently close and these same guys would cry about it.

[Scott]

A big contributor to the demise of local brick and mortar hobby shops was also the lack of local support. I would talk with fellow model builders on occasion and they would always say stuff like I went to Hobby Store "X" and looked around, but I didn't buy anything because I can get it cheaper online. I would ask how much was the item(s) they were interested in and they would say some amount and I would say that is just slightly higher than online. Typically these guys didn't figure in shipping which sometimes made their online purchase significantly higher in price. Then the Hobby Store would permanently close and these same guys would cry about it.

I agree.I was OK with paying a bit more to get something from my LHS.
Like you said,when the shipping costs are added you may not be getting
that much of a deal online.