During the couple weeks leading up to GN&H's closing, I visited the store a few times, first buying kits & such, then supplies, and, finally, fixtures (like racks & such) which now make up part of my hobby room.
On one of the visits, I overheard a long-time customer speaking with the owner of the store. According to the owner, business was great, but he and his wife wanted to retire (they'd been in the business, apparently, their entire lives), and had first offered the business to their children. Then, when the children turned them down, they had tried to sell it, to no avail.
Left with no alternatives, they just closed up shop.
The sad takeaway, to me, is that the hobby industry seems to be in such a sad state of affairs that entrepreneurs "know better" than to get into the retail hobby store business. I keep hoping there will be a resurgence of interest in hobbies, but based on my own experience with my kids, I think electronic stimulation has won the battle. Apparently, the quiet joy of building something has been thoroughly clobbered by the raging joy of mowing down virtual opponents in a frenzy of wild blood lust.
I find myself missing ALL my old hobby haunts more & more each day...