Went to the LHS yesterday to get some turnout ties. I asked the owner where they were and he looked like I had called him a dirty name
He sounded down right hostile and said " I don't stock that anymore, special order only with a $ 5.00 charge ". Then he tries to sell me Peco turnouts. He has always been friendly and helpful before, and no charge for special orders. I couldn't understand his attitude until I looked around some more and saw quite a few shelf's were almost empty. Looks like another place is cutting back on inventory or going under. Tis a sad thing to see.
Loren
I havnt noticed my LHS cutting back so far. Ive only been to 2 of the 3 that are around me within the past few months, one of them, Milepost 38 Trains last week and again later this week, but both of them seem to be still going strong, which is a great thing.
I special ordered a Walthers building from Milepost 38 Trains last Tuesday, placed it with the owner, who has always been a great guy, and he seemed pretty happy to place the order for me, and he even gave me the sale price that Walthers has it listed for
There were also quite a few people in the shop when i was there early morning on a Tuesday, mostly retired guys.
I have noticed the same thing. RTR stuff is in stock, but any detail parts, scratchbuilding supplies, or otherwise is not being restocked. The nature of the business is changed. The owner makes more through online sales, and therefore sees no need to keep the detail parts in stock for the walk-in traffic. Bummer. If I want RTR stuff, I guess I just shop around online for the best price and have it delivered to my door. And I guess I have to do the same with things like stripwood and ground throws now.
Hobby shop, or any other business. It is a hard path to tread, that leads to the end of something you've poured your life into.
"Be not too hard, for life is short, and nothing is given to man"- Joan Baez
my lhs is the same way,all the model railroad stuff looks like it hasnt been updated in 15yrs and they is nadda in any form of detail parts.but atleast he has a plastruct rack and alot of stripwood,although most of the wood is for model planes....--josh
Hobby shops will stock what they can sell, if they are run by competent management. My local hobby shop stocks detail parts, but the only rolling stock kits he stocks are Athearn blue box. I'm not sure how much longer he will stock the Athearn kits. The guys in the train dept. do everything they can to encourage people to build something, but the market has shifted to r-t-r. He still has a decent stock of detail parts and they will special order from Walthers without any "handling fee." The only track he stocks is Atlas in both code 83 and code 100. He does not stock ties or rail for handlaying, but will special order the stuff as needed by an individual. Of course they also have "horror stories" about people who special order items and then don't pick them up. They charge 10% down to make the special order the 10% is applied to the total price when the item comes in; but if the person ordering the item doesn't pick them up, they are stuck with either trying to unload it or send it back.
Regardless of the economics, a hobby store owner should be cordial when explaining why he might not have something in stock. Hostility and an abrupt manner of speaking will put you out of business faster than any recession.
Ralph
nomad Wrote:Went to the LHS yesterday to get some turnout ties. I asked the owner where they were and he looked like I had called him a dirty name
He sounded down right hostile and said " I don't stock that anymore, special order only with a $ 5.00 charge ". Then he tries to sell me Peco turnouts. He has always been friendly and helpful before, and no charge for special orders. I couldn't understand his attitude until I looked around some more and saw quite a few shelf's were almost empty. Looks like another place is cutting back on inventory or going under. Tis a sad thing to see.
Loren
This isn't just the hobby, it's everywhere. Anyone who sells non walmart related items is letting the shelves go dry to save money from buying things that might not get bought.
I know. What really floored me was the way he acted when I asked about the ties. Also, this store is model railroad only, and any scale, so you would think he would stock at least a couple packages. But now that I think about it, most of the empty shelves were where the kits used to be, and the rtr stuff was better stocked. So maybe he is following the trend.
Loren
He's probably also very frustrated trying to sell "optional" items, given the way the economy is. When the bank is about to take your house, car or whatever, your wages are rolled back, or you don't have a job any more, hobbies are no longer the most important thing...
Spending is down in many sectors - I'll bet that hobbies of all kinds have taken a serious hit in the last 6 months.
Andrew
It is very sad to see LHS's faltering but what the world needs now IS personal service . While we all can not stock everything we CAN at least be civil .
I still say " what ever happened to the Service in SERVICE STATION "
I still think it could make a comeback.
Mike
That is pretty bad. Especially in todays economy.("You gonna treat me like that...I'll go somewhere else and spend my disposable income")
You'd think that the way things are, he'd been more civil in treating you, whether you're a first time customer, or been going for years.
There is LHS trying to start up about a mile from me. He is operating from a room in his house for now. He is building a shop that is almost finished beside his house. A couple of weeks ago I asked him how the buiseness is doing. He said not bad. Now there is probably 60 mile between him and the nearest shop. There are a lot of model railroaders in this area. Wait I am wrong there is a place about 15 miles away that specializes in DCC and that is about all he does.
Lester Perry Wrote:There is LHS trying to start up about a mile from me. He is operating from a room in his house for now. He is building a shop that is almost finished beside his house. A couple of weeks ago I asked him how the buiseness is doing. He said not bad. Now there is probably 60 mile between him and the nearest shop. There are a lot of model railroaders in this area. Wait I am wrong there is a place about 15 miles away that specializes in DCC and that is about all he does.
Les, I am glad that is not me.
If I had one that close, I would be going there all the time to hang out. And of course then I would see something I just gotta have.
Loren
I was in one of our local hardware stores last week and noticed a lot of empty shelf space there too. More and more, the comment "we don't have it in stock but we can order it" is the the common answer. Jim K