I'm afraid the traditional hobby shop is fading away. On line shopping gives the buyer an almost unlimited choice of products, something no hobby shop could hope to do. I prefer to buy from my local hobby shop when I can, but they have a limited stock. Another factor is that the majority of plastic modelers are getting up there in years, (myself included) and you just don't see that many younger people getting into the hobby. My local modelers club has over 70 members and we only get one or two models (on a good month) from junior model builders in our monthly contests.