This topic has been raised some time back, but it's worth a re-visit, especially for the new folks. The big local shop here is Lobo Mountain Trains, who took the mantle when the owner of Depot Trains retired & sold his inventory. With an inventory of stuff from G to Z, a good supply of HO and N scale stuff, brass out the wazoo, and decent policies on layaway, ordering, and a bit of a discount (not much, but every little bit helps), plus a heapin' helpin' of good ol' Southern hospitality from the owner, it's a great place to stop by & visit. Folks here may sing the praises of mail-order hobby shops and Internet hobby shops, but the owners of the brick & mortar stores are in the business to make a profit, and the smaller ones are limited to what they can offer. As much as I like to shop for bargains (and I do wherever I can), I like interaction with a real, live human being face-to-face.
I guess that I am very lucky to have a full line hobby across the river in Louisville Kentucky. SCALE REPRODUCTIONS has been very agressive in going out and getting business. I like the idea that the owner knows me by first name. He knows that I am partial to SOUTHERN, L & N, MONON RAILROADS. He asked my NTRAK club, KSONS, what items we would like for him to carry, MICRO TRAINS and KATO, were first mentioned. He is now a dealer of both. We get very good prices on all items, even if something has been special ordered. He gives me a club discount. When is the last time you had an internet/online dealer donate door prises for both your club's and local NMRA division Christmas dinner? Brian donated to both dinners and we didn't even ask him to! Service still stands for a lot with me. I know that if I have a problem. I can get it taken care of quickly and fairly. I realize that online dealers have their place, I deal with BROOKLYN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS, TEXNRAILS, and RIO GRANDE HOBBIES. But I have always said "SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL HOBBY SHOP" You won't really miss them till after they are gone.
LBF Company does support the NMRA. They will donate 50 cars to any region to help support that Regions Conventions. They do this once a year for each region that files the proper request. I was general chair for the MidWest Regions spring convention in 2001, The Hoosier Connection twenty-oh-one. We used the cars as door prizes. I attended the Tri-Region Convention in Ft Wayne, In. last Oct and got an LBF N-scale gon as a door prize as did my wife. So there are companies that support our hobby but they are few.
I don't buy mail order, I drive an hour to the local shop, Kennasaw Trains and Hobbies, he may not be the biggest but hes alway got the stuff I want and at a fair price. I DO NOT shop at National Hobby Supply in Marietta simply because I've went there five times this year, and not once have they had what I was looking for!! I mean they dont even carry Grand Line detail parts!!!!
You want to know the secret to a great hobby shop? SERVICE, SERVICE, SERVICE AND MORE SERVICE! Nothing bugs me more than going into a hobby shop and finding no one there that is willing to help you! If I go to a hobby shop and find the clerk is too busy to look up from whatever he or she is doing and even ask, "Can I help you find anything today?", I complain to the owners. If that doesn't help, I'll move on. I've worked in retail for over 15 years and customer service is everything! Sure, they may not have what I'm looking for. But if they try their best to get it, they pass. Walthers isn't the best supplier and they have a lot of things on back-order. But that isn't a hobby shops fault, bad customer service is. [ 28 May 2002, 21:12: Message edited by: Maxwell Plant ]
Service and Selection is most important Price is next. If a place makes me feel welcome, and has a reasonable supply of Nscale, I go back for sure. I try to spend at least $50.00 everytime I do. I am willing to pay retail up to a point. I don't go back to places that don't make me feel welcome. And that is a lot of shops. I buy mainly online (eBay, BLW, and N Scale Supply) since the nearest modelrailroad shop is 150 miles away. The 2 closest either closed down or quit trains. My favorite shop was "Trains and Things" in Willits, it was south, 96 miles away. It had the best service and a pretty good stock of Nscale. I was sad to see it close. The other was 75 miles north and it stopped carrying trains. Oh well. I have 3 in the SF Bay area I like. "Gunnings" in San Anselmo, Steve Gunnings knows me by name, finds me rare deals and he knows a lot about brass. He even gives me 10 -20% discount. "Trains and Dollhouses" in Navato had a good stock of everything and was very friendly and helpful. "Fulton Station" in Santa Rosa was very friendly and helpful and had some hard to find stuff. I liked "Bruces Train Shop" in Sacramento because it has lot's and lot's of stuff. Service is sketchy. Once I got a clerks attention and we started talking trains it got a lot better. Feeling welcome and not a bother is most important. Selection is next. Then price. IMHO a successful hobby shop needs at least 2 of these qualities. [ 29 May 2002, 00:39: Message edited by: ByronV ]
I may be the only one who feels this way, but... One of the the biggest advantages I find in buying my trains on eBay is timing. My "Local" shop is an hour's drive away and closes at 4 in the afternoon. I'm a nocturne so being anyplace before 4 in the afternoon is a challenge, and to get up early just so I can drive to Ferndale to look at trains just isin't a worthy priority. On the other hand, I can, and do, shop eBay 24 hours a day. Most of my train shopping takes place at 2 in the morning because thats when I have time and am in a train frame of mind.
went looking for one today to what was around and not that much at all the one had very little n-scale stuff and what they had was junk toy stuff (model power) did buy a bachman steamer and found a tinplate club layout which was petty cool they where still builing it so the day wasn't a total lost had a good time looking around there layout
Pat, A couple of thoughts. First, this audiance and the Atlas forum audiance are skewed to the net and computers. In reality only a very, very, very small percentage of folks shop via the net, or mail order. Photography mail order has been around since Christ was in diaper's but they haven't seriously dented photography sales at local camera shops. My guess is about 2 percent of hobbiests shop via the net and mail order. Secondly, my two favourite shops both sell a lot of stuff through the net. Whenever shop A can't move stuff, it goes on Ebay. I've been amazed at what junk people buy on Ebay. I know that both stores claim if it weren't for moving stuff on the net, in whatever form, they would be in trouble. Both stores here in Vancouver, British Columbia sell a lot to customer's in the USA, Australia, Europe and Eastern Canada. I have referred Australians from trainboards to one of the stores - Pacific Scale Rail - to buy Canadian goodies. He sent my son an Australian Military Engineers Cap badge as a thank you. If you haven't, over time you will develop a niche. Use the net to expand that niche whether it is Ebay, or serving customers who have visited your store, but live far away and are willing to do business over the net. One store - Central Hobbies - has sold many thousands of dollars of goodies to a customer in Toronto. Now you have to realize that Toronto is about twice the size of Vancouver, and Central Hobbies prices are not excellent, but are average. So something appealled to him, to give them his business. Have lots and lots of business cards made up with your email address, and police your email a couple of times every day.
Rick, I really appreciate your comments. I know what you, and everyone else, mean by offering superior service. I have a customer in Wrangell (the next town south, 30 miles or 3 hours away) who orders at least $40 of military models each month, sometimes more if I can find them. He could easily save a bunch of $$$ by ordering from a mail order firm, but I guess he likes the personalized service I offer him. It's really hard to offer this service to every customer who walks in the door, simply because stuff happens. Sometimes the clerk and the customer don't hit it off, sometimes you simply can't get what the customer wants quickly enough, etc. Then you have to work overtime to appease an angry customer who can damage all your goodwill with one simple comment spread around town. As far as finding a niche, it's always a good suggestion, but a bit late at this time, since I am closing my store due to a move to Oregon; not because of poor business, but because my wife, who works for the US Forest Service, got a job in John Day, OR. upguy is quite pleased we're moving close to him (he now has more free labor for his railroad construction! ). I don't know if I'm going to open another hobby store or not. I'd really like to own a business that can support my and my family! I plan on taking at least two months off from any new job, just to get my family settled into our new home. But trains are in my blood! Pat
Most of what I buy comes from mail order because there are very few items in P:48 in the local hobby shop, Not enough call for it. I do get some things from one hobby shop and I deal with them almost exclusively. They give me excellence in service, knolageable expertise and take the time with me, I do not feel pressured in any way, realy try to serve my needs, and offer me value for my hard earned dollar. Over the years thay have become friends as well as bussiness associates. I buy alot of the building supplies, paints, scenery, rolling stock, electronic items and detials from them. If I order something and it's not just right they will not make me buy it. They know how to run a bussiness based on service not price and service is worth the price. The on line people I deal with are just as well versed only more complacated and time consumeing. Where I live I have few hobby shops of that caliber to chose from unless I want to drive for a couple of hours and that blows getting that loco for 50% off out of the water.
I live in the New York metropolitan area. I buy on line in California. Price is a secondary consideration. My experiences with LHS in my area is misinformation in order to ring up a sale, a repeated behavior.
Since mid-2005 I've been employed by a traveling healthcare agency that sends me all over the 47 contiguous states (I said 47, since California doesn't recognize nationwide accreditation but only its own). At every assignment except one (Macon, GA) I've been able to find a hobby shop, either in town or a short drive away. I prefer brick & mortar stores over online shopping and eBay, but I've bought from all three places, as well as swap meets. In order, I look for the following: Customer service In-store availability Prices If the store has a bargain bin, that's a plus- I admit to shying away from retail if at all possible, and have found some neat stuff in the bargain bins. For example, an Athearn/MDC 60-foot flat with John Deere tractors (licensec product, retails for 21 bucks) that I got for half price because the box was beaten up. Buying from hobby shops hither, tither & yon also are reminders of my travels- the Santa Fe P2K SD45s from Denver, the Atlas UP U30C and Centrailia UP CA-4 crummy from Cheyenne, this GP7 from a swap meet in Augutsa, ME, that FP7 from Rickreall, OR...........
When I sold computers I appended to the bottom of all of my quotes: Quality, Service, Support, and Expertise I backed that up personaly even if my boss wouln't. I was top in sales because I backed it up. I give more and I expect more. Same goes for a hobby shop.
