Went out to the last decent hobby shop in the Dallas-Ft Worth Metroplex....Hobbymaker, and they decided on Monday to shut down too. I know this will be a sad event , but I took a look at some kits they were selling as everything was 10% off. They had the Revell 72nd scale U-boat for $81. I picked mine up from Tower for $39. All there stuff was higher than everywhere else. They price right at retail, so they aren't even close to competetive. There is a Hobbyland in Arlington left to buy paint and supplies from, other than that ....I'm totally internet now.

howdy blaster

i know the place in arlington ya talkin about, and its a cool place[ on cooper]

try the wal marts in irving and grand prairie, sometimes they have some good paint kits[ and priced right ]in the models section.

will let ya know if i find anymore places, as i look for em all the time.

take care and keep in touch...

reb

I feel ya man :-) my hobby shop is in business do to the mass amount of Warhammer products they sell there. Occasionally they'll have a new piece of 35th armor there that i see but for 35th stuff they lean toward the figures and price right at retail too. they wanted something like 50 bucks for a Chinese ISU-122 (or whatever number it is). If it wasnt for they wargamers...this shop might be gone. I usually go in there just to get some cement, paint and diorama accessories(turf, balsa etc...) I too am almost 100% internet now, thats where I like to purchase most of my kits.

dropped my 2 cents...
-Shain

Seems sad that the internet is closing down a lot of hobby shops I remember Phil's Hobbies at the noth side of Dallas They closed down back in June of 2003

That depressed me for awhile He had a real great selection I drive big rig Everytime I could I would stop over there to get stuff

Really doesn't help with the likes of Squadron mail order in the Dallas area

I am sorry to hear your hobby shop is closing, this seems to be a bad trend these days, i hope not i must be one of the lucky ones in my area in New York there are 3 good hobby shops 20 miutes from me i hope they don't close i don't want to go only internet. I like taking the ride on weekends and going shopping. Maybe you will find a new shop keep on the lookout.

Hey Rebel, that's the one on S Cooper. They probably won't close because 1. they are part of national chain 2. they have a great location...a block from the second largest mall in the country. 3. They have a large radio control section as well as model railroading, rockets, and some kiddy artsy fartsy stuff. model kits equals about 25 % of their space and they run about 10% below retail

everytime i place an order at my lhs iam missing something. last time i called 4 times to be told"sry, we werent aware u had an order" 2 and half months later they call out of nowere to tell me they got the kits and to come get them, gues what, iam missing one!

so besides paint and glue, there aint nothin lese iam buying htere

the other one sells tam king tiger 70 bucks. and the revell b-17 i paid 30 for 60 bucks...

so il have t use internet now. jsut trying to figure out how c.o.d order works

Frank

I have to agree with everyone. My LHS only caters to the radio control and Warhammer crowd. Yeah, they have some military models, but the prices aren't anything special. I pretty much go there only for paint,putty that kind of stuff. Two hobby shops I visit when I'm in Jacksonville, Fl on business are Art's Hobby shop and Hobby Planet. Art's has hard to find kits and Hobby Planet has great selection and prices on kits and supplies. It's too bad I have to drive 600 miles to get a good deal! :-)

Jesse

Although I have purchased over the net, I still totally enjoy the experiance of going into the LHS.. Which now for me is, getting farther and farther away.. For a decent one, I have to drive to Toronto, a 2 hour drive for me.

The net has taken away the magic of seeing all the boxes lined up, the lights glinting off the cellophane.. Getting to know the owner/ clerks.. Spending time with your son or daughter on an early saturday morning as you cruise the isles, seeing thier eyes light up at all the possiblities.. Sometimes I think progress bites.. Just my early saturday mornig rant... :-)

Mojo)

This week I took a special trip to go explore a LHS I had never gone to before - I was totally dissapointed. They like others cater to RC and gamers (good for them not for me). The 12 AFV kits they did have were priced way to high and the selection of AC static kits was terrible.

I don't the internet is putting these guys out of business. Personally at the prices they charge (maybe justifiably so with the rent they have to pay) it would severly reduce the number of kits I would buy if I had no other choice. At my LHS at the mall 3 miles away the average Tamiya AFV kit is $30. The smaller ones are right at $20 and the bigger ones run $50. If I were a younger modeler I don't know how I would be able to afford the hobby on a drive through budget.

Oh well - I'll get off my soap box now.

I certainly understand what everyone is saying - I don't have a decent static kit hobby shop anywhere near me. Hungates is the only one who stocks a decent amount of kits, but they typically price them 10% over retail.

Here's my idea though. If these RC / Gamer hobby shops can sustain their business off of just those lines, why won't they stock better selection of kits at 25-30% off retail (when I worked retail, wholesale was about 40% off) They still make a marginal amount off of each kit, and generate a better traffic stream through the store, and it's all gravy on top of their RC and games. Seems like it could be better for the stores to start treating static kits not as a pariah but as a revenue generator.

Just my opinions, you get what you paid for.
Mika

Mika
That's a great thought. Why not do that. The shop I just went to certainly does not hurt for floor or shelf space what so ever. That would be a piece of cake for them. The Hungates I go to is known for the raise the price 10% then put everything on sale They could certainly to that too.

Great idea

well i live in Fort Stewart next to Hinesville which is bout a 30 m inute drive from Savannah. Now Hinnesville is a small town with only 1 hobby shop. Which is stayin alive because of that reason, but it doesnt carry the very good stuff like resin kits, so yea i order from squadron, be greaful you still have one near by.

I used to live in South St. Louis and there was a hobby shop called Schafer's. I lived a couple of blocks away. Now my family moved to South St. Louis County and there is a shop called Checkered fla, which gets probably half of its bussiness from RC cars but still have one whole isle of model palnes, armor, ships, and figure all reasonalby priced. Now back to Schafer's. They moved from thier old location to South County about 3 miles from my house. They have RC planes and those beads but still carry some armor. I really like Schaffer's. It was run by mom and pop until they moved and now thier kids run it.

I'm in a niche business, and we consider ourselves head and shoulders above our competition. The price of our product is abit higher than our competitors as well, even though on the surface our product is practically the same. That is due to many factors, one of which is that we have 26 regional offices compared to a centralized operation from our competitors.

However, what we offer is known as "value added." which we believe more than makes up for our higher price. If independent hobby shops want to stay in business they need to quit whining about the low internet prices (due to no overhead for rent and so forth) and provide that value added service that will make customers want to walk into their shop and possibly pay more for the same product. I purchase from VLS and I get a pretty good discount with my membership there. However, I still go to my local hobby shop because I like their service and they can get some stuff I can not get from VLS. But I have to pay full retail. I think my local hobby shop would be more successful if they did not charge full retail. If they would discount some items by say 10% I would bet they would get business back from the internet.

But again, price is not just it. A hobby shop needs to get to know their customers, especially the repeat ones. A willingness to get to know their names and start up a converstaion; ask what the customers are building and suggest they bring it in for display; how about asking the customers what they would like to see stocked?... There are all kinds of ways to provide value added service. Signs on shelves saying, "You open it, you bought it" are no way to endear customers.

My LHS has HO model RR materials,collectible diecast vehicles,and Major Armor,acessories,and Aircraft. Ships too.
One thing he does do is have a knowledgeable staff about most products. And we arnmor nuts are in there on Saturdays to help out new customers.
Also,if we have bought a kit there,we can display it in some major front hallway display cases. (++) (++)

what can we all say? its cheaper on the net, even with shipping, than our LHS.........

but i do enjoy browsing, pickin up some small items that i may need, chat with a clerk or browse the magazines. and there is the semi local squadron near by, does phone orders too.

and i check out the dollar stores too, they have treasures too...

i do miss the large moel sections, but time marches on.............

reb

Is buying on the net really that much cheaper? I don’t know as I don’t have much experience.

I only know that I bought a book once on the internet.

It looked 50% cheaper than at my local bookstore. Then the shipping costs were added, and customs added some money for importing the book into Belgium. Suddenly, it was not that much cheaper anymore.

Then the postman came by when I was at work and left a note in the mailbox saying that I had only 5 days to go and pick it up at the post office which meant I had to drop my plans for the Saturday to go and pick it up.

The book was a disappointment. The nice images of it seen on the net were coincidently taken on the nicest pages of the book.

Suddenly, it was very expensive.

At the end, we have to decide what we want, a local store where one can find other model makers, look inside boxes, talk to the store holder with a lot of experience in modelling, exchange tricks and tips…

Or a cheap internet site without any human contact and no way to get back to when something is wrong with the articles that you buy…

For me it is clear, when planning a modelling project, I buy the best detailed model available even when it is more expensive than the 20 year old Revell look-a-like. I tend to do the same when deciding where to buy it.

drabslab,

Maybe it's different on the other side of the pond, but locally my local hobby shop (I shudder to call it that) sells (for example) a $20 kit for $22, plus 7% tax for a total of $23.54. Now, if I go to a net retailer (squadron / greatmodels / discount model / etc. ) and can get the same kit at 30% discount (if you shop wisely) for $14.00. Add $5.00 for shipping and I've saved $4.54 for that kit which is 20% cheaper than running out to the LHS. I've traded time for money, but when it comes to waiting for the next kit in the mail, I can wait. Heck, makes it even sweeter.

Mika

I belive that LHSs will eventually evaporate or at least go through an evolution phase which at the end will make plastic model kits disappear from their shelves.

the Internet based shops offer cheaper prices, enormus selection, shipping to your door or at least to the nearset post office and finally- one can place an order 24/7 as it doesnt close on 19:00 when most people only come back from work.

also, I belive that recent revival of the hobby and the succes of aftermarket companies lends mostly to the Internet which allows everyone to get exactly what they want as opposed to what the store owner decided to get.
the internet also allows model companies to get feedback from their customers through online modeling magazines and modelling portals like Armorama, ARC, TL etc. etc. I dont belive they would have gone the long distance to ask every hobby shop owner what their customers want to see them make.

It's all about the trade-off of pros and cons, just like with any business. In fact, substitue the word "music" for "hobby" and the exact dynamic is also true:

LHS vs "IHS"

1) I have 3 LHS within a 15 minute drive from my house. I have DOZENS of "IHS" in my den.

Advantage: IHS

2) I can "see and touch" what I want before I buy it at the LHS, and can only rely on second hand information for items from the IHS.

Advantage LHS


3) I walk out of the LHS with the item in my hand right now, instead of waiting for the IHS to send it to me.

Advantage LHS.


4) Because the entire population of the planet is a "potential customer" the IHS can afford to maintain a much larger variety of items in stock, because there is SOMEBODY out there who will buy the "Luke Skywalker Dukes of Hazzard General Lee M4A3E8 w/HVSS and tailfins".

Advantage IHS


5) If IHS number 1 (or 2 or 3 etc.) doesn't have what I want, I keep on surfing until I find what I want. From the comfort of my den. And I can visit 5 or 6 IHS in less time than it takes me to get to even the CLOSEST LHS, much less all three.

Advantage IHS

6) The LHS has to charge sales tax, the IHS has to charge shipping. Both of these items are so variable at the moment, and not equal to everyone so this one is a toss up.


There may be other categories, but you can see that there are good reasons for both, and unfortunately, the advantage seems to be toward the IHS and not likely to change.

I'd be willing to actually pay perhaps up to 10% more at my LHS if I could always walk in and get what I wanted.

But I know that THEY have a tough time figuring what I want in advance, because half the time I don't even know what I want. And the minute it gets to the point of they don't have it and it's special order time, it's just easier to do it myself from home and have it sent there.

What's the answer? I think we're going to continue to see a decrease in the number and quality of the LHS, because for much of what they carry, the IHS has advantages that are just too hard to beat.

And that's sad, because it's all those trips to the LHS and looking at all that stuff , in boxes and in the display cases that got me started in this, and probably most of you too.

Tom

I think that an excellent proposition for an LHS is to have an internet site- the way Rainbow ten operates. This will generate some business, but would also serve to pull in customers to the storefront.

Cheers,
Tvrtko

Yeah, that's the right idea I think. The prospect of doing that may seem daunting to most of the smaller guys, but you're exactly right. If I was running my own LHS, you can bet I'd try set up my own web site! If getting more customers to buy from you and finding a customer for everything you've got on your shelves is the goal (and if it AIN'T your goal, why are you in business??) that's sure the best way to reach it.

Tom

The problem with a combo operation is that the website typically can't compete with pure IHS' in terms of price (you still have retail overhead). I don't know if any of the IHS I typically do business with have a brick and mortar.

Also, "knowledgeable staff" I think is pretty moot with the way internet hobby sites (Armorama, PMMS, etc.) are able to get their hands on product and thoroughly analyze / compare it to XYZ brand.

My thoughts,
Mika

If I understand what I've read in their weekly info sheets. Great Models does both. I sure wish sqadron would, but they want to run a tight M-F operation and it keeps their employee costs down. But it sure is neat during scalefest to go though that distribution center with a shopping cart. I too will miss seeing the stacks of models, but as most of them are cars and airplanes....maybe not so much