LHS closes! Bad news/good news

[Pete J.]

This is not the usual story, lamenting to passing of another local hobby shop.

After 17 years Hobby Town in San Marcos, Ca. is closing up shop this week end.  They have been in this location for 17 years and are really good people but at 70 years old, just can't do the work full time anymore.  I will most certainly miss them as they are great people.  I could always go in and engage them in converstion and get the latest news.  That is the bad news.

Good news.  No, they are not putting in a tavern to replace them.  Another large local hobby shop(not Hobby lobby) from south San Diego is looking to open a location here in the north county!  Like the old shop, they are primarily plastic, R/C and rocketry. So we could be getting a new hobby shop!  Yahoo!  

[Art Anderson]

Having been in this hobby since I was 8yrs old (WAY back in 1952, which makes me one old geezer now), I can only say that hobby shops, like so many small businesses, do not have unlimited lifespans.  I can say this, having worked my way through college, in the 1960's working for what was, at the time, perhaps the most comprehensive, broadly stocked hobby shop in all of Indiana (and that, while a seemingly "tall" statement, is far more truth than fiction).  

Unfortunately, for us scale modelers, his youngest son was pushed into taking over the store (his oldest son is quite wealthy, having been one of the founders of NAPA,  along with a fraternity brother from Purdue University) and "Mike" wasn't at all committed to that business, being far more interested in cabinet-making (which profession he ultimately followed, to this day).

Now we have a fairly large hobby shop here, but for whatever reasons, while the guy covers all areas of RC,  and stocks perhaps a thousand or more plastic model kits (heavy emphasis on model car kits), trying to convince him to fully stock paint lines, even Evergreen styrene and such, is like talking to the wall--he just doesn't get it.

But, this sort of "story" is nothing new, certainly not to me, at now almost 74 years old--I've seen numerous "hobby shops"  come up, dry up and blow away in my lifetime.

Art

[gtx6970]

fortunately, I have 2 LHS near me. both are less than 20 minutes away.

 

Although one is more RC car/plane/boat  stuff and the other is trains. ( mainly HO scale I think )

 

Both carry a decent model selection as well as  paint and supplies.

 

I try my best to give one or the other all my business

[Rocking Rodney Rat]

25 minutes ago, gtx6970 said:

try my best to give one or the other all my business

Good for you! Support local independent businesses. -RRR

[Renegade]

My only choices are HL or mail order. I do miss the hobby stores of my youth.

[abelaxe]

We have a LHS close by....My only complaint is they NEVER put model kits on sale.....I have been going there since I got back in the hobby 4 1/2 years ago.....I have paid thier full price everytime...I even asked at one point if they would work with me on a purchase....Nope!   

[Mooneyzs]

Pete.... That totally Stinks and am sorry to hear that. I actually have been to that Hobby Town and bought a few things when I went to visit my uncle about a year and half ago. They were maybe 10/15 mins if that from my uncles It was a really nice store and had a great selection of items.