Why a local hobby shop is dying


Hank4014

Member
I live in New York City. My boro has no hobby shops that sell trains. There are two hobby shops in Manhattan that I am aware of selling trains. One is a suite in an office building. Nice guy, nice selection, but of course, his prices reflect his location. Another shop has a large eclectic collection, much of it old and covered in dust, or behind glass, also covered in dust. His marked prices are reasonable. I managed to find something I wanted (a set of older, out-of-production cars) in this shop, price unmarked. I asked the owner for the price, and he gave me one that made me very happy. I put my selection under my arm, and continued to browse, hoping for some buried treasure. After a few more minutes of looking, I found nothing else, and proceeded to check out. Suddenly, the price has changed. It has gone UP. And not by any reasonable amount, either. What was a bargain find was now more expensive than buying new stock. I'll be doing all my train shopping via the Internet in the future.
 
funny im talking to my son on facebook & he said hes helping the local hobby guy pack up cause his current store is to expensive & hes looking for smaller place
 
I live in New York City. My boro has no hobby shops that sell trains. There are two hobby shops in Manhattan that I am aware of selling trains. One is a suite in an office building. Nice guy, nice selection, but of course, his prices reflect his location. Another shop has a large eclectic collection, much of it old and covered in dust, or behind glass, also covered in dust. His marked prices are reasonable. I managed to find something I wanted (a set of older, out-of-production cars) in this shop, price unmarked. I asked the owner for the price, and he gave me one that made me very happy. I put my selection under my arm, and continued to browse, hoping for some buried treasure. After a few more minutes of looking, I found nothing else, and proceeded to check out. Suddenly, the price has changed. It has gone UP. And not by any reasonable amount, either. What was a bargain find was now more expensive than buying new stock. I'll be doing all my train shopping via the Internet in the future.

What about Trainland in Brooklyn? Its right at the Ditmas Ave Station on the F line.
 
Boy, do I know exactly what you're talking about. Back in the day we had multiple train hobby shops in the outer boroughs and rarely had to travel beyond the borders. That street in Manhattan you referenced (47th, I think) had train shops right across from each other. In all fairness, it's not easy holding on to a small brick & mortar store in the city. At least the website choices have grown, and there are many good sources, like TopHobbyTrains. As frustrating as it is not to look at the engine's paint job from all angles, or check measurements for yourself, online shopping has become the way to go...
 
What about Trainland in Brooklyn? Its right at the Ditmas Ave Station on the F line.

Trainland is awesome, and their prices are great as well, but I have two problems with them; first, they don't display much. I like to put my hands on things before I ultimately decide to make a purchase. I'm sure if I wanted to see something from their inventory, I could ask, but they need to have a customer-facing kiosk in the store to view the inventory. Second, and much more difficult to overcome, is that there's a giant and expensive to cross bridge between my home and their store. It's an hour by subway from my office as well.

That said, I did visit them a few weeks ago to buy a Broadway Limited Class J for my son. Why I bought an expensive locomotive to run on EZtrack that has to be picked up every weekend, I'll never figure out...but the kid earned his reward :)
 
I try to support my local hobby shop. Having a somewhat limited budget it's hard. I think the finds are the used/old stock that they purchase from off the street. I purchase track, paint and scenery materials from my local hobby shop. Occasionally I've found an engine at what I consider a reasonable price. I do feel bad that I can't support them by buying bigger ticket items where they make more money.
 
It seems like a hobby shop in conjunction with a club that has some amount of public viewing (even fee based) will soon be the only way they can stay afloat. They'll have to get it down to "In the moment" shoppers. A father / son pair watches model trains on a substantial layout for a few hours, then walks 40 feet to the store and buys a set, or a new loco, or a pile of cars.

And the selection has to be enormous. The prices shouldn't need to be equal or better to online, so long as they're not dramatically more expensive. And maybe have some additional incentive like dollars spent in the store are put toward club membership. So if you buy a bunch of equipment in the store you could run it on the big club layout without additional club fees.
 
And the selection has to be enormous. The prices shouldn't need to be equal or better to online, so long as they're not dramatically more expensive. And maybe have some additional incentive like dollars spent in the store are put toward club membership. So if you buy a bunch of equipment in the store you could run it on the big club layout without additional club fees.

That is an absolutely brilliant idea.
 
It seems like a hobby shop in conjunction with a club that has some amount of public viewing (even fee based) will soon be the only way they can stay afloat. They'll have to get it down to "In the moment" shoppers. A father / son pair watches model trains on a substantial layout for a few hours, then walks 40 feet to the store and buys a set, or a new loco, or a pile of cars..

The original version of that concept was known as the "Great American Train Show". It went defunct a few years back, and the owner started "The Great Train Expo" and it may be coming to a town near you...

http://www.greattrainexpo.com/
 
The original version of that concept was known as the "Great American Train Show". It went defunct a few years back, and the owner started "The Great Train Expo" and it may be coming to a town near you...

http://www.greattrainexpo.com/

Well that's a traveling thing. Which is great. But I'm referring to something more permanent. More like EnterTRAINment Junction, but where store customers can get access to run their purchases on the attached mega layout. There would have to be significant main lines for automated trains to make it fun to watch and work as a marketing ploy, and then additional isolatable main lines that can be administratively locked out from the rest of the layout so that guest operators could run their trains without interrupting the display portion of the facility.
 
This is why I personally think that, as times change, the economy gets worse and people get more discriminating with their dollars, the LHS has to seriously consider an internet presence to stay afloat. We are seeing (at least from my viewpoint) more LHS close doors than new ones open, yet online businesses continue to stay afloat.

Is the solution for LHS' to have a hybrid brickNmortar/online business model? I think so.
 
It seems like a hobby shop in conjunction with a club that has some amount of public viewing (even fee based) will soon be the only way they can stay afloat. They'll have to get it down to "In the moment" shoppers. A father / son pair watches model trains on a substantial layout for a few hours, then walks 40 feet to the store and buys a set, or a new loco, or a pile of cars.

And the selection has to be enormous. The prices shouldn't need to be equal or better to online, so long as they're not dramatically more expensive. And maybe have some additional incentive like dollars spent in the store are put toward club membership. So if you buy a bunch of equipment in the store you could run it on the big club layout without additional club fees.

You're getting close to KATO's concept in Toyko. As I understand it they have a huge store with several layouts. If you buy a train there you can use it on the layout (that day). People also 'rent' the layouts in 15 minute blocks. This is actually in response to the smaller Japanese homes just not having room for a layout.
 
A couple things about Trainworld/Trainland...

The store in Brooklyn (Trainworld) is larget orientated to O gauge. The LI store (Trainland) has a whole lot more HO guage and alot of O too. This is the store with the infamous scene in the Sapranos where Bobby Bacala 'Bought it' (sign on wall too).

Trainland/world has greatly improved their internet shopping experience. I went in there about 3 years ago and politely pointed out that their site lacked usefulness. Not 6 months later, they had completed a major overhaul. Kudos to them evolving their business.

Lastly, while it has been written and said that they can be terse and a little "New Yorkish" at times esp on the phone, they have improved in that department. Also, anytime I have been there and been a serious buyer of an item, theyve always brought out what I was interested in to examine it before purchase.

No, I dont work there. Im just impressed that such an 'old school' store such as this one has been able to evolve and change with the times. I think that's great and something that will keep me as a customer.

Regards,

Brad
 
It's getting harder for brick and mortar hobby shops to compete with internet retailers. Where I live in Montana I have absolutely nothing locally. There is a shop in Billings, about 150 miles away that I will stop in when I am in the area, but over 95 percent of the time, they don't have what I need I stock and give me the old "I can order it" routine, and would have to pay full retail on it. I really can't complain about retail shops wanting full retail as they have rent, overhead and such they have to pay to maintain the business.

Back in the early 80's I was selling model railroad equipment form a shop on my property mainly because no retailers were in the area. I had no real overhead, and the biggest majority of the sales were out of town. This was a side business, and took a lot of time, but it was a place model railroaders could get what they wanted, although I did not carry a lot of stock and most everything had to be ordered. When the economy took a dump in the late 80's, I gave it up. I guess this was what could be called the fore runner of out present day internet sales, without the internet.

There are numerous internet retailers now, may of them discounting prices. I have had to buy through the internet for years and have had fairly good luck, but I still would prefer to walk into a physical shop and see first hand what I am buying. I occasionally get to Caboose Hobbies in Denver, but even they don't have I stock what I am looking for the majority of the time. I guess it's just the nature of the beast and something that we'll have to put up with.
 
As I had mentioned earlier, my closest model railroad store here on the north side of Phoenix is An Affair With Trains. Click that link to check them out. They have touched on both the large demonstration layout (I don't think it is actually a "club")and internet presence concepts. The layout pictured below is currently being remodeled and they have another smaller one in the front of the store. Somehow this pic does not look right, I think this might be at their previous location, but it is the same layout. Even though they are really trying, I have no idea how they stay in business. I am going to go there this weekend and "make a small donation" (pay a little bit more than I would online for some stuff").

layout1.jpg


P.S. Something that has not been suggested that I would certainly do if I were trying to run a model train store these days would be to have a presence on as many forums as possible.

It's nice to see that a shop like this is still surviving. Years ago I can remember numerous hobby shops across the country having an operating layout with a lot of attention to detail. These displays can help a modeler know what can be done.

If I can walk into a shop and get what I need then and there, I wouldn't mind paying retail at all.
 
Stoker,
An Affair with Trains has been mentioned on the MRH's podcast several times and, while I've never actually been there, I've heard nothing but good things. AAWT was not in business when I lived in AZ, and the only hobby shop I ever made it to up in the valley was Roy's train world. I'm thinking that AAWT has the formula right and I wish them nothing but success!
 
It's getting harder for brick and mortar hobby shops to compete with internet retailers. Where I live in Montana I have absolutely nothing locally. There is a shop in Billings, about 150 miles away that I will stop in when I am in the area, but over 95 percent of the time, they don't have what I need I stock and give me the old "I can order it" routine, and would have to pay full retail on it. I really can't complain about retail shops wanting full retail as they have rent, overhead and such they have to pay to maintain the business.

Back in the early 80's I was selling model railroad equipment form a shop on my property mainly because no retailers were in the area. I had no real overhead, and the biggest majority of the sales were out of town. This was a side business, and took a lot of time, but it was a place model railroaders could get what they wanted, although I did not carry a lot of stock and most everything had to be ordered. When the economy took a dump in the late 80's, I gave it up. I guess this was what could be called the fore runner of out present day internet sales, without the internet.

There are numerous internet retailers now, may of them discounting prices. I have had to buy through the internet for years and have had fairly good luck, but I still would prefer to walk into a physical shop and see first hand what I am buying. I occasionally get to Caboose Hobbies in Denver, but even they don't have I stock what I am looking for the majority of the time. I guess it's just the nature of the beast and something that we'll have to put up with.

I was going to ask you this awhile back based on a couple of your posts, but is the hobby store in the Bozeman mall gone. I guess it must be based on some of your previous posts. I used to buy all of my Athearn blue box stuff from there when I was a teen. It's been a little over 20 years since I've been to the mall in Bozeman. Can't even remember the name of the train store.
 
Our LHS here has a web presence, but as for the idea of being on as many forums as possible, some forums have rules against commercial dealers having that presence. Plus I know that everytime I've been in the shop here, there have also been alot of customers in there. The owners don't really have time for posting on forums.

Next time I'm in there, I will discuss it with them.
 
Stoker,
An Affair with Trains has been mentioned on the MRH's podcast several times and, while I've never actually been there, I've heard nothing but good things. AAWT was not in business when I lived in AZ, and the only hobby shop I ever made it to up in the valley was Roy's train world. I'm thinking that AAWT has the formula right and I wish them nothing but success!

AAWT has been around for a good while. I remember them in their old location on Bethany Home Road which I visited several times back in the early 90's when I would go to Phoenix on business trips. Roy's Train World was a good shop too. I had some of my first discussions about DCC there.

I do conduct some hobby business on line but am lucky enough to live in a city where there are three or four good hobby shops. I prefer them over the net because I prefer a personal relationship. It's also nice to be able to see and touch something before buying. Can't do that on the net! Support your LHS if you can. The small percentage over online costs is worth it for the support you get from a good shop, and if you become a regular, a "bread & butter customer", they will take care of you. In several instances I have seen that small difference between brick & mortar store pricing & online pricing disappear if you are a good customer. You also can't lay away on line that I have found (other than some brass dealers letting you spread payments over a fixed time period).
 



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