I understand your pain.

Many of the physical stores are disappearing.  In their place are home Internet stores.  On a Christmas trip out to El Paso my sister's family took us over the state line to Las Cruces, New Mexico.  I got the great idea to visit the Fifer Hobby Supply Store.  Fifer Hobby advertises with MRH.  Well, to make a long story shorter Fifer Hobby is operated out of a home.  The Fifer's were great hosts and allowed me to see their layout and to buy a few items.  There are many videos online about the layout.

This weekend I am headed over to Dallas, Texas.  I noticed Dallas Model Works, another MRH advertiser, and I thought that would be a great place to visit.  Remembering my visit with the Fifer's, I sent an email to Dallas Model Works and asked about visiting their store on Presidents Day.  I did get a response.  Unfortunately they are not a public walk-in hobby store.

So, my advice to the MRH membership, contact the advertiser before you go to visit.  You might end up in front of someone's home.

Of course I just thought about the days when I lived in Northern Virginia.  You could always test out a locomotive before you bought it.  Now I do not know of a hobby shop in my area that has a test track for you to test before you purchase.

So, anybody know of a good hobby shop that carries a good line of N-scale in Dallas that would be open on Presidents' Day?

Den

Can't really blame them...

WHERE IS THE MOTIVATION ???

Every once in a while, I think how neat it would be to own and run a hobby shop. Then I think about things like loss prevention, ever increasing property tax burden (internet retailers usually have to comply with other tax obligations) and complying with all of the hundreds of societal whims and realize just how unmotivated I or anyone else might be to operate a "bricks and sticks" business. As it is said, to make a small fortune, start with a large one...

Furthermore, inviting the public into a place of business further complicates the picture. While insurance covers most instances of mishap, people can always sue... What about some "nice kid" thinking the till is flush with cash and robbing the place? A customer suffers emotional trauma and sues... What about that super sized drink some lazy person spilled on the floor but did not bother to clean up or tell anyone about? The hobby store owner did not purposefully create the problem but now he/she gets to pay for someone else's misfortune, etc. While speaking of insurance, let's not forget the new requirements to provide health insurance, etc.

Add to the shrinking margins due to competition of lower overhead business models (e.g. internet "stores" and hobby show vendors, or removal of the middleman such as ExactRails move)

Now, I did not go to some fancy business school and it probably shows... The big name schools and most elected officials all are saying that the nation's economy is healthy  and the stock market is booming, etc...   So, reason should indicate that emptying shelves are only a result of poor management, right ?

...

A Great website with a side avenue to Ebay for the "Specials" ensures everything sells at a great price and your stock remains in good shape...and you can further offer more than just what you have on hand, too!

Former hobby shop owner here.

As a former hobby shop owner, I would say that it is the customers own fault that the shops are closing up.

I always put my customers first, tried to have what they wanted. Could order what they needed.

However, when I closed my shop, I had several special order items sitting on my shelves.

"Why" you ask?

Because the customer would come in and ask about the product, they would order it, but later in the week, or the next week, when it came in I would phone them and then get their answer: "Oh, I ordered it last week from XXX online and it will arrive soon, but I did save $3.00.

Or you get the customers that come in and look at your product ask you all the questions, then on their next visit I ask if they are still looking for the item and get told no, I ordered it online and saved money, but when it got here I had to send it back, it was damaged in shipping. But they are replacing it.

Customers not supporting their local shops are causing them to close.

Colonial Photo & Hobby

They have had a change in personnel and the new people don't care about model railroading like the previous guys.  We (Central Florida Railroad Modelers) have been in discussions with them trying to change things but they aren't listening.  I'm afraid it will continue to get worse there.

Dallas stores

Dennis, I just read this thread and it's probably too late now, but Discount Models in Addison is a great shop with lots of selection. Addison is a suburb in North Dallas. I go there all the time as well as one closer to me in Denton TX. Their problem right now is out-of-stock items from the manufacturers. Anything Atlas or Athearn that was made in a factory in China that they claim Bachmann purchased. I cannot verify this. They were also both hurt by Exact Rails decision to pull out of the LHS business. There's a lot of Walthers and Intermountain stuff available, which I believe is made elsewhere.

willie

Stores are still healthy in Portland, OR

I guess we are fortunate here as we still have 4 stores in the Portland area.  2 are fully stocked model train only shops, 1 is a general (but good) hobby shop (RC is 1/2 the store, trains about 1/4), and 1 is in a rural community this is unfortunately too far to go to just window shop.  We recently had the O scale shop close as the owner is 82 and it was time to retire. 

They all price match Walthers and I buy most of my supplies from them. The exception being model railroad books. I learned years ago to support my local store.  The advice one gets by chatting up the salesperson or other customers makes the slightly higher price worth it.

Like Will_Annand said in his post, some customers order and don't pick up.  The stores I've special ordered through here always required at least 25% down.

I also tend to get good prices on rolling stock from some stores as I model PRR and east coast cars don't sell well in the NW to they usually give me an extra 10% off.  So there are benefits to going to stores.