Local Hobby Shop Versus Internet


I would like to add most of my big orders are placed with LHS. The only thing is they are not local to me. I find they are good at shipping and they save me money. I also like the fact I still support a local hobby shop someplace. I use Becker's In the Twin Cities. They give free shipping and great discounts. They sometimes are not the fastest but I have so many project going I don't end up missing an order if I wait. There is also K.B. Klien's in MD that I like as well. I've been to the store before and think most of his business is mail order. Other orders like electronics or things not model railroad I do some shopping and go with the quality I need at a price I can afford. I've ordered directly from Plastruct and will order from evergreen as well. I've purchased sheets of styrene from a plastics company on-line. That was a big savings like I did with a 50 lgs. bag of hydrocal.
Dave
Dave
 
Ren said:
About a week before this past Christmas I stumbled back into trains, I had a set when I was a kid. It turns out that the best hobbyshop in th city is a 5 minute drive from my house. Trains aside it's the best store I've ever been in in my life. You walk in the front door and they have a table and chairs set up for whoever wants to take a load off and chat with whoever else wants to do the same. All the staff and customers say hi when you walk through the door, it's kind of like the tv show Cheers. Chuck the guy who runs it is extermely knowledgeable about the hobby and so is most of the other staff icluding one of the stores part-time guys who I recently found out has been into trains since 1959. Awsome place and they can order you what ever you want without money upfront. so for me it's the LHS.
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You're very fortunate. My closest LHS is 50 miles away. There's 3 I know of in the city (not counting the Hobbytown USA chain)
One has limited hours and the store is very cluttered. Nice enough guy running the place, but the lack of organized shelving can make for frustrating shopping.
The second shop is nice, but only carries G and N scale. (They stopped carrying HO a few years back) They've been around a long time and have been helpful the couple of times I've been in.
The last place carries HO and N, but is small and has limited supply. He honors Walthers sales and can get you pretty much anything you want.
I try to go to one of my LHS when I'm in the city. I model on an extreme budget, heck I still run DC.
I would love the whole 'Cheers' feel though! A place that was a home away from home and great customer service! My father-in-law suggested once I should open combination business of tavern/model hobby shop. If I had the capital and I would do it. I think it would be a very cool fit.:D
 
Interesting thread that based on response would appear to be a popular topic or area of concern. I have forwarded a link to the guys that work in our store and suggested they read through as there are some good points made.

One of the things I found interesting besides service level issues that others have discussed is the comments regarding kids in the store. As noted by others, kids are generally better behaved when they wander in by themselves than they are when accompanied by a parent. That being said, for every kid that touches something, there are probably 10 adults that should have their hands smacked for touching things on the layout or flipping switches trying to run something even though there is a carefully placed sign telling them not to touch but to ask for assistance and we will be happy to run trains for them.
 
IAinterState said:
You're very fortunate. My closest LHS is 50 miles away. There's 3 I know of in the city (not counting the Hobbytown USA chain)
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My problem is almost identical IA... and I'd given anything to have a LHS to regularly go to... (my wife would never forgive me though :) )

We've got about 5 around the St. Louis area that I -know- of (haven't hit the IL side yet of the river). Only 1 is truly worth going to.

All the others have flaws that just drive me nuts...

#1 is in perfect driving distance for me and good hours, but will not carry .083 stock in store... the HO scenery supply is extremely weak, albeit extremely affordable (although some boxes always seem dinged).

#2 - No .083 in stock, but haven't been in a while, so don't remember what the structures/scenary was.. but remember is mostly "N"... but are closed before I can even leave the office, so I can't confirm.

#3 is a little further out, carries .083 in stock (limited supply, and only behind the cashier's desk), but very limited scenery/structure supplies.

#4 - Lionel and O-Scale only...

#5 - Longer drive (almost all the way out to St. Peters - about 25 minutes for me without rush hour.. 40 minutes if during rush hour), but probably the one store that keeps both an excellent supply of track, stock, structures, and scenery, albeit a little more expensive - but other than one employee who seems to love his job (he is about the only reason I keep going back to them), not exactly the friendliest bunch I've run into.

The ones on the Illinois side of the river are pretty much an hours issue (one shop is only open Thursdays through Saturdays, and only til 4 PM (I think) at the latest... so I'm never going to get a chance to get to that one, unfortunately due to other Saturday obligations.

I just keep getting the feeling that the Merchant Gods are trying to tell me to get away from my HO.... (Anybody know a ritual sacrifice that would make the gods like me again?)
 
bob_suruncle said:
Interesting thread that based on response would appear to be a popular topic or area of concern. I have forwarded a link to the guys that work in our store and suggested they read through as there are some good points made.
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Excellent idea! Maybe not all stores would take the feedback well, but I think many would welcome it and try to do what they could to keep their customers and attract new ones. Also I think it's important to keep the hobby growing. The Worlds Greatest Hobby program and swap meets/train shows are wonderful for wide eyed kids of all ages, but there has to be other ways to get the word out on our hobby. Many argue that it's expensive and that puts people off, but then those same people will put out $500 on the next video game system. I can start building a nice little layout for $500. Then again, I still run DC! :D I tell everyone that I still play with trains. I'm taking my nephew (in his early 20's) to his first train show in April and I'm think of buying a small train set for some friends of mine just to see if I can plant the seed of interest.
I think it's important to keep the LHS alive, along with online shopping. It's the only way to keep things strong and maybe help keep prices down. Spread the word and if anyone shows interest, do whatever you can to help them get started.:)
 
Took my 7 year old to the LHS to give an idea of what was out there and to see if they had any free catalogues, well, we didn't buy anything but man was it fun to see his excitement at EVERYTHING! Nothing beats that feeling as a kid seeing something like this for the first time. His head was full of buildings, trains, waterfalls, trees, etc and his excitement was through the roof! You can't quite get that from the internet sales pages.
 
When ordering from a local hobby shop, always keep in mind that unless your order is a large one, they will likely not be able to place the order until they have enough orders for stock or for other customers, to place the order. Many suppliers have minimum order amounts, and lower discounts and higher shipping charges for orders below the minimum. Without the discounts they would get by combining your order with others, there wouldn't be enough profit left to make it worth the effort. But that also means your order may just sit un-ordered in the LHS's file for days, weeks, or even months before they actually have a large enough order to place. This is true of any kind of small retail business from furniture to books and gifts, not just hobbies.
 
My advice... don't get married to the local store just because you want to help support them or you want to buy quicker or local.

Let me digress a moment.
I don't have any local shop. The few Shops I have been to I had to make a special trip to. And I never went back, not because of their location, but mainly because of the attitude of the owners.
I was brought up in a rough way and can endure a lot of crap. But I have raised my kids very different. So happens that my kids love trains like dad, so the few times I went to a "hobby shop" they went with me.
At one shop the owner was walking around smoking a cigarette and cursing like a sailor. Embarrassing! Why not to throw in a couple of burps and farts to top off the experience?
A couple shop owners snapped off at my kids for touching stuff. I understand hobby stuff is fragile. But don't bite the hand that feeds you either! Use discretion with control. Not all kids grab and destroy. Mine are mannered, very gentle and have an easy touch. Don't you know when the five year old leaves the store he turn's to dad and say's: "why did he yell at me dad?" You yell at my kids you might as well yell at me too! Not getting my business bub.
At another shop, the owner had been broken into during the night, and he was eyeballing everyone in the store like they were thieves. Never stole anything so quit staring at me out the back of your head.
Finally, nearly every shop that I have been to had a special focus (this type of rail, that brand of trains, etc.), very limited supplies (low inventory or empty bins) and have been disorganized (items scattered about here and yonder). Please! Give me a reason to return!
Maybe my experiences were just chance. Surely there are better shops and owners.
Now back to your question. My advice is if they have what you want and you like doing business with them then do so. But if you have bad experiences at a shop then don't patronize them. When you just look at your project you want to have good feelings about it; but if some shop owner caused headaches over this or that item... then that item will bring back that bad experience when you look at it. Best Regard, aj
 
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I don't really have a local shop. I live in the middle of nowhere, which means a trip to the hobby store is something that doesn't often happen. If I do go, I'll be paying the MSRP and a bit more in some cases, and that's if they have what I need in stock.

However, this summer, I returned to Toronto for the first time in 12 years for a visit. Went to four hobby stores. For me, three of them were totally new experiences (one had no trains, but was still a great store)...never had been to them before. And all of them treated me very well. They wanted my business and talked to me like I mattered.

But the fourth, John's Photo and Hobby...I hadn't been in that store in 20 years. The woman behind the counter remembered me as though I had been in the store the day before, and treated me like a king. I didn't buy much, but I will be going back and I will be making sure to pick up a lot from them.

I don't do a lot of online shopping, but I have had good luck with two stores in southern Ontario who do great business online. I don't really like eBay, but it is the one place I can get Kaslo parts from the guy who runs Kaslo Shops. And he's quick with the shipping.

Timothy Dineen

p.s. I do have stories of stores that were not good to me or members of my family. They never, ever got my business again. And they didn't get much of anyone else's either. All belly up.
 
sd50f said:
But the fourth, John's Photo and Hobby...I hadn't been in that store in 20 years. The woman behind the counter remembered me as though I had been in the store the day before, and treated me like a king. I didn't buy much, but I will be going back and I will be making sure to pick up a lot from them.

.
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Thats the experience I always had at Gilbert's Hobby Shop in Gettysburg, PA when I was growing up, and in recent years, Tommy Gilberts Hobby Shop (also in Gettysburg).

My dad would take me in to Gilberts Hobby shop once every two or three years, and they always remembered us. Over the last ten or twelve years, I have started stopping by Tommy Gilberts Hobby Shop now that the orginal Gilberts is gone. They remember me there now too even though I only stop by a couple times a year (they remember that I stop by on my way home from car shows in Carlisle, PA).
 
Good grief guys, I must be extremely lucky! In my travels over the past 40 years or so, I've NEVER, NEVER had a bad experience at a hobby shop, with the owner or their staffs. I've had worse experiences at some regional NMRA conventions.

Every store that I've been to, whether it was a chain type store like the old American Hobby Centers, (This was an start-up chain in Mobile Al, during the 1970's. I thnik they went out of business in the 1990's) or a Mom & Pop store, I have always been treated with the utmost respect. Maybe it was the fact that I always approached the owner/sales staff, (I never waited for them to come to me), with this type of opening line, "Good Morning/Afternoon Sir/Mam. My name is Carey Jenkins, and I'm from Hoover, Alabama. I'm modeling the Southern Railway in steam, during the mid to late 1940's. I would appreciate any help you could give me in regards to.....(engines, cars, structures, whatever I was looking for at the time)." Using this type of approach, I've never been disappointed in the way I was treated.
 
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No real hometown Hobby shop but not too far from a chain one (Hobbytown USA) and about an hour from a LHS in Bowling Green that I want to check out soon, hope it's good and hope to do some business with them in the future. If it's anything like other niche market stores in the age of Internet sales, they better have the common sense to offer great service or their days are numbered (and frankly too many with great service are out of business anyway).

Okay, so I live in Western Kentucky but travel pretty often to Indianapolis and then pretty much everywhere in the Southeast (Nashville, Atlanta, Mobile, Pensacola, even Orlando in the future). Any "oh you can't miss this place" ideas?
 
I am in the same boat as many others, no local hobby shop. Living in Montana, we're pretty spread out, and the closest shop to me is in Billings, over 150 miles away. Whenever I happen to be in Billings I will stop in to see if they have anything I need, or even use. The majority of the time I get told that they can order it for me. Makes no sense for me. Why should I have them order it in, and have to make a 300 mile round trip and pay retail. I can order it myself and have it shipped to my front door, and also save by not having to pay retail.
Back in the 80's I had a Walthers dealership that I ran out of my house to modelers all over the state. I didn't mark anything up to retail. Most of the time it was cost plus shipping just to keep merchandise moving so I could keep the dealership going. I also had access to many other distrubutors too.
It was always frustrating when I tried to put an order in and find out that an item was out of stock or back ordered.
I am to the point in the hobby that I need rather specialized items, detail parts and such that are almost always special order, even from a large shop such as Caboose Hobbies. I always try to get by there when ever I am in Denver, over my wifes' objections, but she is usually pleased because even they don't stock what I need.
 
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montanan said:
Caboose Hobbies. I always try to get by there when ever I am in Denver, over my wifes' objections, but she is usually pleased because even they don't stock what I need.
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At least you've found the secret to a successful marriage :rolleyes::eek:
 
I guess I'm really lucky. there are no less than FOUR Hobby Shops in a five mile radius and several more within a short drive. I'm not a big buyer since there is very little I need. I do appreciate that I can get small items and paint locally. Service and personalities are a mixed bag but they know me at all of them so I get treated OK. My biggest complaint (and I fully understand why) is that a lot of the stock is the same as it was several years ago and is never updated. The good thing about that is when I do decide I need that item, the price is that of several years back. Recent years I find myself buying once a year at the Wheaton swap meet and about as often online.
 
I'm going to give a LHS that I've just done internet business with (because they are still a LHS) and I think I might have been their first international customer.

Jesse and Beulah Bell
J. AND B. TRAINS
2 West Water St
Smithburg. MD 21783
Ph (240) 420-4930
Email: JBTRAINS@YAHOO.COM
www.jandbtrains.com

Excellent service, quick response to my initial inquiry (I was looking for MTH HO 60' wood deck flat cars (machinery)), very friendly and easy to communicate with and resulted in a very successful purchase and a new record for delivery time from the US of 8 days inclusive. So if you're in the locale, pop in and see them and tell them I said Hi and thanks again.
 
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