Yeah youre right

Ever since this wonderfull thing called the internet showed up, everyone has gotten a serious case of "LAZY BUTT"

Sit at home and order everything...even groceries! What a joke. And we wonder why the unemployment rate is soaring.

Geez, I have never had a

Geez, I have never had a LOCAL hobby shop. The internet is great. Driving always over an hour and a half to a shop and finding nothing has always been my lot. "I can order that for you" was their mantra. Now I can do it myself.

Tired of hearing this crap about LHS's.

Harold

You make a good point Harold

But going to the hobby shop gets you away from the wife for a few. To me its worth it

Then you shouldn't be

Then you shouldn't be married.

Harold

That is why I buy on line as a last resort.

When I want something, I usually want it today.  I also want quality over price.  I figure that if I don't support local businesses, they won't be there when I need them.  My biggest frustration is that so many people buy on price alone, that it is really difficult to find quality products anymore.  Everything is just plain cheap even if the price isn't. 

Hobby shops are not a big deal in the final analysis.  After all, it is a "hobby."  I can live without a hobby if I have to.  Finding quality in necessary or essential manufactured products is almost impossible.  People buy on price and the easiest thing to take out of a product in order to get the price down is quality.

Amen Russ

You hit the rail on the head Russ. And Harold, I dont mind marrige, i just like to have an excuse to go for a ride every now and then. Besides, My wife lets me play with trains!

I'm not sure what the end result will be

I have a feeling that all retail bricks and mortar mom and pop stores days are numbered, to be replaced by a few big box distribution centers in local areas for goods that too bulky, heavy, or perishable, to ship. 

1984 and "Brit-Lem" ???

But. . . .  Remember when telephone service had long distance charges?

Successful internet mail order depends on cheap fast delivery services that are not priced or taxed by location. If that goes away or becomes some form of corporate monopoly,  (e.g. Fed-Ex buys UPS and the USPO gives up parcels) then everything could change again.

True that

Only things guranteed in life are death and taxes, so i figure they will find a way to tax us to death

Another way to look at it

Saw this response to the CNN article in the comments section.  Thought it was very well written and presented some great points. . .

How a LHS might survive

There's one thing that an internet store can't provide and that's the ultimate hands-on experience.

My suggestion to a LHS would be to have in-store operating layouts and the bigger the better. You have to have something to draw folks away from the boob tube and that just might do it. It might even get some kids interested in the hobby as well. Since I'm into S scale, I've always had to rely on mail order or shows to get "S"tuff, but still enjoy visits to the 3 excellent LHS's within an hour of my house to get scenery material, etc. and to just enjoy the atmosphere. I'd hate to see them go.

Hobby Shops

                     I went to my local hobby shop the last week to order some items that were on sale from the

                     Walthers catalog The owner told me he cuold not place the order for at least 3 or more weeks

                      because he did not have an order of $200.00 or more for a minimum for Walthers to ship

                      I thought I would help my local shop by  ordering thru them. the owner said busines was slow

                      I was the only one in the store.So i think that the suppliers are controlling and setting steep

                      limits on the smaller shops. You would think the way the economy is today you would go

                      after any amount of order And then that brings up another issue the shipping charges are

                      getting out of hand I have ordered things on amazon with no charges at all an got them

                       in 2 or 3 days. So what is a small shop to do?                ron netti

Marriage and trains

I'm on a budget

Probably going to draw the ire of some with this post  but I get really tired of the "support your LHS" refrain. Maybe some of you have enough disposable income that you can afford to pay  more for a loco or whatever else  from your LHS in the name of "supporting" them but I don't.  I get darn good service, fast shipping and the best price from places like MB Klein and Fifer Hobby and any questions I need answered about a product can be answered by fellow hobbyist online. Why would I buy a loco at a LHS when for the same amount of money I'd spend I might be able to buy the same loco plus a freight car or two online?

Michael

Hobby shops

LTS, Local Train Shops are pretty much gone.

LHS, Local Hobby Shops slowly going away and many still around deal in much more than trains.

Lots of RC and other hobbies.  Times are changing. Deal with it.

I buy a lot of stuff on line because of the price of gas and the convenience, plus I do research on line first.  a am retired on fixed income. I belong to about twenty model train and DCC forums and most of the info is available on line.

I work out every day so sitting is not an issue.

I buy from a LHS once in a while, also. He has stuff for kids, different scales and lots of RC stuff which is big in our area. A fellow in our local club does the DCC stuff for the shop when required. The owner strictly runs the place but knows how to select the people who will help him the best. He also has enough knowledge to show a DCC train on some ten foot test  tracks

The lazy cannot even try to search out the 'Net and want to be led by the hand. We have a lot of power at finger tips if we take time to stop texting or yakking on the cell phone.

Rich

Mr. Minky, where is your............

...............sense of humor!?

I am not married and I go to a local hobby shop to get away from my girlfriend!  Ha ha, just kidding!!  I do buy supplies from him as I'm an O Scale and he's strictly HO and N.  Wood, plastics, brass, wire, paint etc.  It's amazing how quickly you can drop 80 bucks that way.

Peter

Ha...

Like everything else, retail must adapt or die trying.

And guess what: it's still true!  The customers have changed.  So change with them or die!

The way you get people in your store is by offering them things they can't get anywhere else.  Ad if that's not enough people willing to pay high enough prices, then you make your items available via something like Ebay.

I know lots of hobby shops who do this - and I presume they are doing very well indeed!

Those who refuse to adapt, who's customers are all dying or dead, will soon be like their customers!

I agree with you Roy

When the hobby shops have operating layouts it helps everyone. It helps the sales of the shop because a customer can actully see a product work before he or she purchases it, and, most importantly of all it, it enables a prespective customer to "touch it" . Try doing that online. If a customer can put their hands on a product, the chances of making that sale just went way up! And then try to ask a computer questions about a product.lol. A knowledgable sales person is the key to a successfull buisness.

daddys trains: YOU...

...will live a long and happy life!

Combine both worlds

In my younger days it was a lot easier to be in the model train hobby business. You could just stock atlas code 100 track. You had to stock 9 different types of switches #4L, #4R, #6L, #6R, Y, Snap L, Snap R, Remote Snap L, and Remote Snap R. Now just stocking the full atlas line could break the bank. back then if the dealer did not have it he could get in about 2 weeks.

The limited runs and just the shear magnitude of items are impossible for the local hobby shop to keep in stock.The deck is stacked against them, and the middle men are making it harder to compete. Their minimum orders and the profit margins are killing the local guy. Then, to top it off, the middle men do online sales direct to the customer.

The local hobby shop business model just does not work except in the largest cities. The option for the smaller dealers could be a combination of website, EBay, and local sales.

Regards,

John

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Show me a good loser, and I'll show you a loser.  Vince Lombardi

It's no different in publishing

Publishing is no different. In 2008, we masterminded what has become MRH. Now we're masterminding the next generation of MRH and it will be making it's debut in January 2013 (still free, only even better).

The point is, you can't stand still. Change happens, and you need to keep up if you're going to serve your customers well.

no "Combine..."

The world is too big to combine both together.  Get a niche and develop it - it comes down to the end line: You must have something so unique that buyers come to you - be it through ebay, getting the lowest price as a dealer, etc.

It Can Be Done

Hobby shops can and do survive, at least those that are willing to adapt.  Two business models continue to work.

First is the combination of brick and mortar and online store.  The ones that do well have: clean stores, pleasant staff,  well done and up to date websites, and fast order fulfillment.  Local examples include Mainline Hobby Supply and ModelTrainstuff.com

The second model that works is the well run, multiple line hobby store.  These are the ones that split between rail, military, r/c etc.  Sure, I won't find that new release of xyz structure but they're darn handy for paint, styrene, cork and tools.  There is a very busy strip center in my suburb.  The hobby store is the longest standing tenant.  Interesting to me is the broad demagraphics they serve, lots of moms with kids in tow in the science section, lots of fifty somethings in the military aisle, lots of twenty somethings in the r/c aisle.  It's always busy.  On a recent visit I joked with the manager as I was paying for my paint bottles saying I hoped he had more profitable customers than I.  He laughed and said I would be stunned by the volume of paint he moves.  

I will say I have little sympathy for either the consumer that whines about paying full retail at brick and mortar stores nor the stores, which in most (but not all) cases are just poorly run.

Lance

Caboose Hobbies

I spent the last four years working in southeast Colorado.  Both my wife and I have family in the Denver area.  When we traveled to Denver I would usually make the trek to Caboose Hobbies.  It is a great well stocked store with good customer service.  What was interesting, I did not buy much on these trips. (I did spend a lot of time looking.) My wife even commented about this. Over time I have limited my buying to items that fit may layout plan.  I have purchased lots of items from Caboose Hobbies from the Internet.  When I think back to the times that I lived near a local hobby shop, the value was a quick trip to the LHS could provide the paint, plastic, glue couplers, section of track, needed to finish the MRR project right now, which was a great convenience. If I need to wait 2-3 weeks for an order from the LHS, I can usually get shipped directly to my home from an Internet vendor in less time, and for a better price.

 When I think back to the

Jim,

You nailed it - most of what we get from an LHS (when we have it) is the bread and butter sort of stuff we need to keep going.  That lag in shipping times that the LHS often has for stuff - because they have to wait for the distributor who in turn has to wait for the Manufacturer - is a big driver in internet sales.  Who among us hasn't ordered something off Amazon and had it two days later?

That said, everytime I walk into a LHS somewhere (local or on the road) I buy something.  Even if it's only a magazine or some small airbrush part.  Seems only fitting if they let me browse.