Bummer, another old hobby shop struggling to survive.

Stopped by my favorite hobby shop yesterday to get a few items and was amazed to find a note on the door saying they had moved. Went to the new location and it was in a very small and out of the way place and they are clearly cleaning out lots of the plastic scale model stuff. Looks like the focus will mostly be the RC car hobby. These folks have been around for decades and they are just the latest in our city to either shrink or close the doors all together. I wish them well with the RC cars and hope they survive, but I will miss the days of having a hobby shop where static scale modeling was a big focus. You know the ones, when you walked in the door it was crammed with every kind of kit imaginable and had the faint aroma of Floquil paint and liquid cemet wafting from the back room. And you were likely to find lots of model railroad stuff on display as well. And there was always an older guy at the counter to answer questions and encourage you to join the local model club to help learn and improve your skills. I guess it's tough to compete with the Wii and X-box 360, but somehow I think there are things to be learned from building a model that are a bit more useful in life. I'm not knocking the gamers, I enjoy them too. I just can't help but think the scale model hobby is seeing a paradigm shift and may never be the same in many areas. The advent of the internet and "virtual communities" like this one are invaluable and enjoyable, and I am grateful for the internet hobby stores but will always miss the local mom and pop places. If you have one in your area that you enjoy, stop by and give them some business, even if it means shelling out a few more bucks.