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  #21  
Old 04-14-2017, 09:29 AM
ghrocketman's Avatar
ghrocketman ghrocketman is offline
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The closest LHS to my home is now 1 mile up the road from the local mall at the corner of a strip-mall (very high rent) at a major intersection, Rider's Hobby. It used to be about 4 miles East of this location in a "duplex" building, half was the hobby shop, the other half a medical analytical lab.
When it was in the old location, it was a GREAT "typical old" hobby shop that you got "a whiff of Aero Gloss" the minute you walked in the door. They had 10000 sq-ft worth of stuff jammed in 5000 square feet. If you wanted it they had it. They even stocked the entire Aerotech line of motors through J's back in the EARLY HPR days. Tons of R/C gear aimed mostly toward the PROPER area of the hobby-AIRCRAFT...kits, radios, most all R/C engines of EVERY popular brand, etc. The prices were about 10 to 20% over Tower Hobbies depending on the item, but nowhere near full-retail. The entire West wall of the shop was model rocket kits from Estes, Centuri, FSI, and early LOC. They carried the entire line from each company. Motors were behind the counter. They actually had a ton of Enerjet E and F motors available thru the early 80's.
They had the most extensive Plastic Model Kit line I have ever seen.
All the built-R/C planes hanging from the ceiling were FOR SALE. The staff were all knowledgeable General Motors retirees that they actually paid decently.
There were 6 stores in this chain across the state.
The owners then got the BONEHEAD idea that they needed to move all their stores to modern high-rent strip malls. The store is now a glorified high-priced toy-store that has a hobby SECTION of about 1/3 of the store, which is about the same size as the old store with only 30% of the stuff. The shop now SUCKS. That hobby chain is now down to two stores across the state.
It was a serious case of "DON'T FIX WHAT ISN'T BROKEN !", which I see in the automotive engineering field ALL THE TIME. The wheel never needs 'reinventing' and just because you CAN do something does NOT mean one should. If it works WELL, don't mess with the works.

There are really only THREE great REAL LHS's in my state any longer- Prop Shop Hobbies in Warren (5 minutes from my work location) and Nankin Hobby in Farmington (20 min from my work location) and Nankin Hobby in Livonia (35 min from my work). All are great, but are an hour away from my home. I generally buy my R/C fuel from Prop Shop. They give a good deal if you buy a whole case of VP Powermaster or Cool-Power/Omega.

For the most part, the days of the GREAT or even GOOD LHS are mostly over due to owners refusing to switch to a low-margin/high-volume business model from the old high-margin/low-volume business model. That alone is responsible for the disappearance of 75% of the LHS's.
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  #22  
Old 04-16-2017, 12:57 PM
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dwmzmm dwmzmm is offline
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Location: Katy, TX
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Quote:
Originally Posted by luke strawwalker
There used to be one on Hwy 6 down towards Sugarland, can't think of the shopping center anymore, but it was next to a Kroger a little ways north of Hull Airport... They folded up YEARS ago, though...

I used to go in there at the time because my brother-in-law's family home was nearby and we were in the area from time to time. Wasn't as built up back then, either. It was a retired couple who had gotten the franchise and opened up the store-- really nice folks and they were really trying to run a good shop-- it was a dream of theirs and I enjoyed talking with them.

They had a pretty good selection of stuff from plastic models to RC and even figurines and games and magazines and stuff... not a lot of parts or tools or building supplies, though, but SOME...

They ran into trouble in fairly short order... after about a year they ended up cramming everything into half the floor space, evidently in an effort to cut their rental expenses in the strip center-- the center put up a dividing wall down what had been the middle of their store and then a couple months later rented the walled-off half of their store as one of those phone stores... When they tried to cram everything into half the floor space, it practically killed them-- they had to cut the inventory a lot and what they DID have was crammed in floor to ceiling with aisles too narrow for more than one person (and almost too narrow for fatboys like me... LOL) Next time I went down that way, they were gone and their store was empty and locked up.

Shame, but the brick-n-mortar hobby shops simply CANNOT compete on price-- not in modern high-rent, high tax property locations in cities... and most folks nowdays will turn their nose up at going into some ramshackle little old building housing a hobby shop in an affordable manner...

SO that pretty much leaves mail order and web order...

Later! OL J R


The last visit I made to this Hobby Town was to search for balsa sanding sealer and thinner. I quickly discovered that Hobby Lobby no longer carries those. Not sure about you all, but I still have plenty of kits in my queue consisting of balsa nose cones and fins. I did find that this Hobby Town had plenty of sanding sealer and thinner in stock. Question is will they be able to restock them when these supplies runs out?
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