I got a thread closed on another board for saying the same thing. With the thought that it was political. It isn't political, it is a raw unadulterated fact (how to fix it is political ) Wages are stagnant. This is a fact. Costs are not. Sure, $100 DC Athearns isn't so bad when you think about inflation, but when you realize that fact that real wages haven't increased with inflation...then things become clear. And hobby manufacturers know this. They know that the people that can afford $100-$150 engines and $20 cars can probably also afford $250 engines and $30 cars, but that there's a market for $50 engines and $10 cars and since inflation means they can't make $50 engines and $10 cars anymore they end up catering to the upper end of the spectrum. I'm not complaining, just stating the economic reality of the market. And this affects local hobby shops, because their inventory costs more and they have fewer potential people to sell to. We should all be thankful that Walthers and Bachman have managed to still make products in the low end and have upped their quality significantly. Those $30 DC engines and $50 DCC engines may not be good enough for us old hands, but they give people a chance to break into the hobby. But again, back to the LHS, if you walked into a hobby shop and saw nothing but baseline Bachman and Walthers Trainline engines and cars, wouldn't you complain about the lack of quality and selection? Having said ALL of that, I think the mark of a great local hobby shop is their used/consignment section. A couple of shops in Portland that I used to frequent had excellent used racks and I regularly bought from them. Appropriate pricing makes a big difference here, but it was just great. The other end is the multihobby/Craft shop with a good train section. Hobby Lobby used to be the king here, but there sometimes is a local place. When I lived in North County San Diego, there was a craft shop in Escondido that had a large model train section. They sold a lot of Bachman and Walthers with a few higher end pieces from Athearn, proto and Spectrum, but their bread and butter in HO and N was the afformentioned. (They had a lot of large scale stuff too.) They did pretty well as a section of a larger store and I would think that that's the way to go in the future. I see other hobbies struggling in the same way where the specialty stores struggle. Instead of going in alone, hook up with other local small business owners or those interested and share the costs by combining stores.
[QUOTE=Bruce-in-MA;774608]If one does their homework, I think it would likely be found that hobby shops are rarely money makers. Even opening an on-line store would be a risky endeavor, as too many well established on-line stores already exist. Opening a local hobby store these days, or even taking over one, is very risky. Unless one finds a special circumstance (like a local strong market), I can't see where it would make much business sense.[/QUOTE] In March 2010, the proprietor of a well-known LHS here in New Jersey decided to retire. However, unlike the fate of so many other shops that closed due to their owners' retiring, Fred Moglia, founder of F&M Hobbies in Denville, NJ, sold the business to Jim Dobis, who has picked up the torch to continue serving modelers in the area. While many will perhaps even marvel at this, F&M (Jim kept the name) has a loyal customer base, not surprising for a business that was founded in 1984 following Fred's departure from a 23-year career at Shell as a senior chemist. Jim has also brought the shop into the 21st century with the creation of a website, http://www.fandmhobbies.com, that features the three primary lines the shop carries: plastic kits, model trains, and radio control. Dieter Zakas
I think part of what has caused their dilemma and demise is their inability (or refusal), to adapt to the computer age. Many could have "online" stores, to go along with their "brick & mortar" stores ( yes, I know that would be extra expense for labor & etc., but also extra income). I had this conversation with one of our local shops some years ago, and he got all "PO'ed" at me for bringing it up........but I think it is impossible to avoid.........business is going "online", like it or not.
In many, if not most, situations selling on-line and also from a real storefront does work very well. To be competitive on the Internet one needs to price items typically 25%, or 30% (sometimes more), below what is found in the majority of the brick and mortar shops so as to sell in volume. If the shop sells at 5% off MSRP, but 30% off on-line, the walk-in customers are sure to quickly become aware of that fact. How does the owner respond when the longtime walk-in customers ask, "Hey Hank, if I can get it on-line from you for 30% off, why can't you give me that discount here in the store?" If old Hank does cut his store prices to those he sells at on-line, odds are that he'll still be suffering by keeping the store open. And if he doesn't, he looses his store trade. It's a rare situation where a brick and mortar shop can compete successfully with an on-line example and keep a store going while working both sides of the street. Usually it doesn't improve things by much, if at all. Two of the shops in my area briefly tried this approach. Both are now on-line only. NYW&B
