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  #11  
Old 04-12-2017, 12:52 AM
luke strawwalker's Avatar
luke strawwalker luke strawwalker is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dwmzmm
There is a Hobby Town in far west Houston (Hwy 6 and Westheimer Road), I've only gone there to get stuff I can't find at Hobby Lobby. Yes, this Hobby Town sells all of their rocketry merchandise at MSRP.


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
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  #12  
Old 04-12-2017, 10:36 AM
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ghrocketman ghrocketman is offline
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I think the ONLY way for a retail hobby store to thrive or actually survive in this "internet age" is in an old 'ramshackle' low rent stand-alone building.
First-timers may be willing to pay full-retail for their first R/C start-up package with all the hobby-shop advice, but not on additional aircraft/setups/radios/engines.
True hobbyists will not pay at least 40% (typical retail) over what they can get for price through internet ordering.
The ONLY items I purchase at close to full retail at a hobby shop are small hardware items like clevises, control horns, wheels, pushrods, and glue.
I sometimes purchase Glow Fuel by the gallon at close to retail near the end of a flying season if I don't feel like ordering a 4 or 6 gallon case.
In my book it is ALL about PRICE for major items. I recently bought a top-of-the-line Graupner MZ-24 2.4GHz Transmitter/2 receiver combo through internet order from one of the major internet hobby companies. The LHS had the same outfit for over $300 more even when my unit was shipped.
I offered the hobby shop $50 over what I could get it through the internet, which is a REASONABLE profit. They countered with $50 off their price, which was $250 more than internet price. I told the owner he was nuts, and good luck ever selling that to some sucker. THAT sort of thing is why hobby shops FOLD, rightfully so.
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  #13  
Old 04-12-2017, 11:21 AM
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Today there are only three reasons a local shop can survive.
1. Convenience/immediate availabilty
2. Knowledge
3. Social gathering

1. Ross Dunton (Magnum) sold a crap load of stuff in addition to motors because his shop was on wheels. Yes, the main items were motors, but he sold a ton of kits, epoxy, etc. because he was on location. A brick and mortar store needs lots of customers willing to drive across town for immediate gratification and/or to get the part that they must have TODAY. There aren't that many people willing to pay retail for anything other than small parts and you can't blame them. Why spend $300 extra (ghrocketman's post) on a Tx/Rx in a store when you can save that $300 and buy the same Tx/Rx and a $300 airplane to go with it online? It's like buying a car for an extra $3000 cause it is in your hometown instead of buying it 10 miles away in a neighboring town and putting that $3000 down or using it to get that ZTR mower you've been wanting.

2. Knowledge...I've never been to a hobby shop that had a clue about anything other than the main product they were selling, which was R/C planes, cars, boats, or trains. There is no reason for customers to go to a hobby shop to learn about rocketry because the knowledge base isn't there. Somebody might recommend an Estes/Quest starter set or even an Aerotech starter set if they still make them, but that's about the extent of it. I'm sure there are four or five stores in the country that are the exception, but not enough.

3. Most hobby shops I've walked into had R/C guys bench flying or had folks in the back playing Dungeons and Dragons or Pokemon or something similar, but I've never been into one that had rocketry guys hanging out..."bench launching?"

Model rocketry began life and sustained itself for years by mail order. It now sustains itself the same way but uses the internet to place the orders vs. snail mail. Brick and mortar has never been the main force behind rocketry, and its upsurgence in the 90's was only a blip on the radar.
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  #14  
Old 04-12-2017, 01:00 PM
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There is a GREAT throwback hobbyshop in Parkland, Washington that is like a step back in time. No website, email, or even a fax machine. Very friendly knowledgeable staff and a great selection of kits, and supplies to support all flying hobbies. If they don't have it they will get it in short order. They offer an AMA discount and will match some internet pricing.
They are called "Hobbytown" only because they predate the chain and had the name first. They would never be confused for one of those corporate cookie-cutter joints.

John, Chuck, and Nelson are super good dudes. Long may they run!

Looks like the guys were enjoying the sun out back of the shop the day the Google car drove by:
https://goo.gl/maps/QHpTExWxYm22
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  #15  
Old 04-12-2017, 01:39 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pterodactyl
There is a GREAT throwback hobbyshop in Parkland, Washington that is like a step back in time. No website, email, or even a fax machine. Very friendly knowledgeable staff and a great selection of kits, and supplies to support all flying hobbies. If they don't have it they will get it in short order. They offer an AMA discount and will match some internet pricing.
They are called "Hobbytown" only because they predate the chain and had the name first. They would never be confused for one of those corporate cookie-cutter joints.

John, Chuck, and Nelson are super good dudes. Long may they run!

Looks like the guys were enjoying the sun out back of the shop the day the Google car drove by:
https://goo.gl/maps/QHpTExWxYm22

That's a nice sized store and it looks well kept. I like the patriotic decor too. I've been in some where they had garbage cans catching water and thick layers of dust on everything that wasn't their specialty. The guys out back are looking at some really expensive looking R/C boats!
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  #16  
Old 04-12-2017, 01:49 PM
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Dewalt Dewalt is offline
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That is a nice Hobby Shop and the guys there were great to deal with. I visited that place in November while visiting my son who is stationed at Bremerton.
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  #17  
Old 04-12-2017, 01:55 PM
Initiator001 Initiator001 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tbzep
Brick and mortar has never been the main force behind rocketry, and its upsurgence in the 90's was only a blip on the radar.


The main force in all hobbies (Including rocketry) has been hobby distributors and by extension hobby shops.

It's been that way for rocketry since the early 1970s.

Hobby distributors move millions of dollars of mainline rocketry products every year.
On-line/direct mail-order rocketry sales are a much smaller percentage.
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  #18  
Old 04-12-2017, 04:56 PM
rocket.aero rocket.aero is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tbzep
The guys out back are looking at some really expensive looking R/C boats!


I don't think those are R/C boats, but rather reeeeaaaalllyyyy small racing boats. Here's a link to a similar design:

http://www.clcboats.com/shop/boats/...lass-racer.html

Then again, I may be completely wrong. <G>

James
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  #19  
Old 04-13-2017, 11:11 AM
Tango Juliet Tango Juliet is offline
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I've been pretty lucky. We have a HobbyTown USA about three miles from me here in Mobile, AL, and Rob (the owner) is a true modeler. His main interest is in R/C aircraft (electric, nitro/gas, sailplanes, turbine jets), but he's also done cars, plastic models, and rockets. He's also an active member of our R/C club and provides gift cards for fly-ins as well as other discounts. All that said though, I do more of my large purchases through on-line vendors and rely on him mostly for hardware or things I need sooner than later. He used to have a second store across the bay in Daphne, AL, but the overhead cost for the storefront was too much for him. Either he or his wife can be found in the store at almost any given time, and they try to hire employees with some knowledge when they can. They're oldest child is now in college with another in High School, so I wonder how much longer they'll keep at it before they retire. He's already a retired F-14 WSO.
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  #20  
Old 04-14-2017, 08:40 AM
luke strawwalker's Avatar
luke strawwalker luke strawwalker is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ghrocketman
I think the ONLY way for a retail hobby store to thrive or actually survive in this "internet age" is in an old 'ramshackle' low rent stand-alone building.
First-timers may be willing to pay full-retail for their first R/C start-up package with all the hobby-shop advice, but not on additional aircraft/setups/radios/engines.
True hobbyists will not pay at least 40% (typical retail) over what they can get for price through internet ordering.
The ONLY items I purchase at close to full retail at a hobby shop are small hardware items like clevises, control horns, wheels, pushrods, and glue.
I sometimes purchase Glow Fuel by the gallon at close to retail near the end of a flying season if I don't feel like ordering a 4 or 6 gallon case.
In my book it is ALL about PRICE for major items. I recently bought a top-of-the-line Graupner MZ-24 2.4GHz Transmitter/2 receiver combo through internet order from one of the major internet hobby companies. The LHS had the same outfit for over $300 more even when my unit was shipped.
I offered the hobby shop $50 over what I could get it through the internet, which is a REASONABLE profit. They countered with $50 off their price, which was $250 more than internet price. I told the owner he was nuts, and good luck ever selling that to some sucker. THAT sort of thing is why hobby shops FOLD, rightfully so.


Yes, all quite true...

It's sort of a catch 22... I know of a couple "ramshackle hobby stores" that had been there FOREVER, in their OWN buildings, LONG since paid for, that folded simply due to the lack of "eye appeal". Back in the 70's when I was a kid, I knew of a LOT of places that were so "ramshackle" that were excellent places to do business... so what if the wooden floors creaked or the displays were from the turn of the century?? LOL You don't go to a store to buy the displays, do you?? I go for the merchandise... BUT, today people are SO darn finicky that they turn their nose up at everything that isn't the "latest and greatest" and if it doesn't look flashy and new, it's "not cool enough" for them to shop there...

BUT, then the big new flashy stores have to be in a great location and spend lots on business property rents, and so have ENORMOUS overhead. Usually the old hobby shops are "out of the way" and NOBODY wants to drive ANYWHERE anymore (I usually hear griping at least a couple times a year because we don't want HPR on the farm, and folks gripe about having to drive 90 or so miles to Hearne or deal with the BS on the NASA property, which isn't even really a decent place to fly HPR anyway because there's houses RIGHT UP TO THE FENCES ON ALL SIDES... plus all the gubmint buildings on site... Folks that won't blink an eye at blowing $300-400 bucks on a SINGLE FLIGHT and spending MONTHS working on the rocket and procuring materials suddenly balk and whine like babies because they have to buy $40 bucks in gas and drive 2 hours to go fly the d@mn thing... one of my pet peeves and another issue best discussed elsewhere...) Anyway, it's too much of a bother for most people to drive an extra ten minutes and find someplace at the edge of the GPS's "known world" in order to get to an old established hobby shop with cheaper prices...

And, of course, the very stuff most EXPERIENCED hobbyists are likely to buy is the very stuff that MOST hobby shops don't want to carry... supplies, tools, parts, and pieces... WHY? Because there's a ton of them, they have to stock a wide selection if they're going to be well-stocked and actually make the sales, and that requires a LOT of effort and shelf space to display it all... and then of course these are low-priced items that are low-margin and don't make the store much money off selling them... (well, usually other than tools, but then again, the prices have to be competitive for folks to buy them at a store rather than online, and most shops I've seen charge WAY more for their tools than I could get them online). No, they want to sell the big-ticket high-margin items that make them a bucket of money on every sale, and that means selling kits and starter outfits and setups and other high-dollar items at RETAIL... Which, as you mentioned, most experienced hobbyists are not going to pay...

SO, that basically leaves them serving the "noob" market, where they can get folks to plunk down cash for what they can lay their hands on RIGHT NOW and take home with them RIGHT NOW, and MAYBE get some "advice" along with the sale... That market in a given area is USUALLY about a mile wide-- but only an INCH DEEP, because one of two things happen-- 1) they're a "flash in the pan" hobbyist that plays with their "new toy" for awhile, gets bored with it or crashes it or whatever, and then puts it away and moves on to something else, or 2) they become an "experienced" hobbyist, realize they can get MUCH better prices online, and stop buying most things at the local hobby shop...

Later! OL J R
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