A Sad Day
#1
Went to Colorado Springs today, and on the way out of town decided to stop at the two railroad hobby shops in town.

The first one is going out of business. The owner is retiring, there are no buyers for the business and he is closing out.

At the next one, I was shocked to discover it just wasn't there at all. Went next door to a small restaurant and learned that a family death had been followed by a bunch of trucks that loaded everything and left. The shop is empty, the sign is gone and so is the business...the major N-scale supplier and sole Marklin dealership in this entire region.

The only model shop left is a two hundred mile round trip to Denver and back.

I fear for the future of this hobby in my area.

Besides that, rain, snow hail, sunshine and flood warnings. :?
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#2
I think the Internet stores are slowly killing the brick and mortar ones regardless of what business they're in. We had one model shop in Mesa for as long as I can remember close, but within days, a new one (I'm assuming with their old stock) appeared in Apache Junction. That's fine for those folks on the east side of the valley, but well over a 50-mile drive from where we are. Still, they just seemed to move and change their name, just not really shut down.
Don (ezdays) Day
Board administrator and
founder of the CANYON STATE RAILROAD
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#3
I fear you are right. My problem is that I like to look and handle what I plan to buy, and the internet, no matter how efficient, doesn't provide that. It also doesn't warn me of known problems like my friend the retiring store owner used to, nor does it call me if something on my wish list happens to show up.
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#4
Internet shopping is fast, convenient and fully stocked unlike most local Mom & Pop B/M stores where its I can order it for you or maybe that old and worn I can't get one because (say) I can't order $3,000 a month from the manufacturer, which means when translated "you have my dusty 10 year old stock to choose from".

However..
The only fully stocked shop I know of is in Columbus a 130 mile round trip. I was down there two weeks ago and spent around $70.00 for odds and ends and a Athearn RTR Bulkhead flat. I will admit it felt good to be in a honest to goodness B&M hobby shop. 2285_
Larry
Engineman

Summerset Ry

Make Safety your first thought, Not your last!  Safety First!
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#5
At least the one I can still reach in a days travel - 200 miles round trip, is The Caboose.

Could be worse... :cry:
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#6
MountainMan Wrote:At least the one I can still reach in a days travel - 200 miles round trip, is The Caboose.

Could be worse... :cry:

Far worst. If I had a nearby fully stocked hobby shop like that one down in Columbus, I would drop on line shopping except for locomotives.
Larry
Engineman

Summerset Ry

Make Safety your first thought, Not your last!  Safety First!
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#7
It wouldn't surprise me to see Walmart open a train/hobby department Eek
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#8
That's too scary for words!

Tom
Life is simple - Eat, Drink, Play with trains

Occupation: Professional Old Guy (The government pays me to be old.)
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#9
cn nutbar Wrote:It wouldn't surprise me to see Walmart open a train/hobby department Eek

YIKES! I see enough plumbers butt at train shows and Walmart certainly doesn't need any more of those in their isles. Icon_lol

I am very lucky, I have PWRS just down the road ten minutes away. I put my order in online and stop in and pick it up next time I am out. The isles are so full of everything train, it is like being in heaven. They have my credit card on file, so I can just walk in and walk out with my stuff if I am in a hurry.

I have lots of fond memories of hobby shops as a kid and if it wasn't for those shops, I would not have discovered the R/C plane hobby. I still have several hobby shops within a reasonable distance, however, it is really hit and miss on the stock they have. Most things that use to be in a hobby shop has now been moved to specialty shops and frankly, I prefer it that way. I have four train only shops within a half hour drive, so I am lucky. I have a large R/C shop twenty minutes away that has huge amounts of materials for scratch building. I am lucky.

Brent
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#10
cn nutbar Wrote:It wouldn't surprise me to see Walmart open a train/hobby department Eek

Hobby Lobby used to have one, until they screwed up and priced their 2-6-0 locomotives at $11.00 each - same price as their freight cars! I did well that day! Thumbsup

Problem was, the trains did not generate sufficient revenue so they dropped the whole thing.

I can easily picture WalMart selling the boxed train sets, but they will never put the effort into the hobby that the B&M shops do, they won't make a fortune and they will drop out as well. The problem with them is that they don't see the hobby with the same passion as the customers, but merely as another item to mark up, shelve and make a profit from. Model railroading has a soul, and WalMart never did.

I see the future as a huge mail-order warehouse someplace filling orders for modellers who never see the products before buying, and have no connection at all the to makers or the sellers. When that happens, I'll find another hobby, because I insist that people who make their money selling things to me work hard at making me happy with their products, and just as hard at caring how I feel about them and what I want from them.

Model trains are not cans off beans of the supermarket shelf.
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#11
MM, A lot of those on line shops and e-Bay stores are B&M hobby shops that decided whining about the Internet stealing their business wasn't the best answer if they wished to survive in the age of on line shopping..

The savvy B&M shop owner will have a on line presences or a e-Bay store in order to tap a larger customer base. Those new shops that doesn't is doom to fail.
Larry
Engineman

Summerset Ry

Make Safety your first thought, Not your last!  Safety First!
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#12
There are still three well-stocked railroad stores in the Milwaukee area, along with some of the chains. Thankfully, the best-run is about 1 mile from my house and has great service. I will typically (and blindly) make all my purchases there, unless I stumble upon a fantastic deal elsewhere (usually related to some type of close-outs). One of the other shops, which happens to be a few blocks from a layout I regularly operate, has great prices, but minimal selection. He does well turning over stock, though. The third specializes in toy trains, and I haven't been back since my initial visit, but those tinplate guys swear by it.

Too many people are getting wrapped up in the mystique that was Caboose Hobbies. I visited in June 2015, a "bucket list"-type trip, and the store was already clearly past its prime then. From what I understand, the new "Caboose" is the same in name only, and even then not exactly. It's a new location, with new stock, and new employees. What made the old store famous – brass consignments, books, and a generally overwhelming selection – just hasn't come back from what I hear. That's not to say that the new store isn't nice or won't serve the Denver modeling community's needs, but it's just no longer "Caboose Hobbies" of past fame.
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#13
Brakie Wrote:MM, A lot of those on line shops and e-Bay stores are B&M hobby shops that decided whining about the Internet stealing their business wasn't the best answer if they wished to survive in the age of on line shopping..

The savvy B&M shop owner will have a on line presences or a e-Bay store in order to tap a larger customer base. Those new shops that doesn't is doom to fail.
You are right, we have one store here in Phoenix that has been in three different locations over the years. I guess looking for the best access and best rent agreement. Anyway, about once a week I get an email with their latest sales info and links to their Internet store that, "never closes"... Some sales items are in-store (B&M) only, some are Internet store only....
Don (ezdays) Day
Board administrator and
founder of the CANYON STATE RAILROAD
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#14
Brakie Wrote:MM, A lot of those on line shops and e-Bay stores are B&M hobby shops that decided whining about the Internet stealing their business wasn't the best answer if they wished to survive in the age of on line shopping..

The savvy B&M shop owner will have a on line presences or a e-Bay store in order to tap a larger customer base. Those new shops that doesn't is doom to fail.

This is true. The Caboose ships worldwide, but the smaller outfits often cannot compete, and the Caboose only stocks what really sells. It makes no effort to find out what customers would like to buy - just sells what moves most . I had an interesting conversation with the N-scale zombie one time after he told me that no one bought any of the item I sought so they didn't stock it. I asked him if they had ever stocked it, and he said "No", and then stalled out and short-circuited when I asked him if he understood that not having it meant no one could buy it to begin with, and if they stocked it, they obviously had at least one customer - who knows how many others as well - who wanted it? Icon_lol

I'm not a big fan because admitting I'm N-scale in The Caboose is like entering a Hollywood restaurant dressed like a street person to get a glass of water. A lot of down-the-nose looks and disdain, and the guy in charge of the N-scale section is some sort of ambulatory sleep walker without a shred of enthusiasm for the hobby at all.

I suppose I'll become another internet parasite trying to find what I really want without being able to assess it beforehand, but I can't say that I will like it. The round trip to Denver/The Caboose is on the only available route - the I-25 and in average traffic that 200 miles plus getting to the shop after reaching town, parking, shopping and fighting my back becomes an all day trip, about 6 hours minimum plus the joys of nerve wracking kamikaze traffic all the way back and forth. By the time I get there, I'm too tired and wrung out to enjoy myself.

Meanwhile, back to my OP, I'm saddened and alarmed at the loss of both of the MR stores simultaneously with no hope apparently of replacing either one. A catastrophic loss to all of us in a very large area of Colorado and adjacent regions.
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#15
This must be both shops I went to when we were in Colorado Springs almost 5 years ago.

Interesting British term for a certain type of model shop, "box shifter".
David
Moderato ma non troppo
Perth & Exeter Railway Company
Esquesing & Chinguacousy Radial Railway
In model railroading, there are between six and two hundred ways of performing a given task.
Most modellers can get two of them to work.
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