The craft industry and those retailers who sell such brick a brac work a lot differently than do the LHS. Margins at craft stores is far better than those found in a LHS. Craft stores which carry and stock items such as plastic model kits and accessories do so for two reasons. To attract as many of the family members as possible (they want dad and juniors dollars too) and because they can make a return on their investment with very little square footage sacrificed.
The big box stores eliminated plastics for the same reasons they did so for other categories of products they once stocked. The ROI might have been their but not the volume to justify the retail space those items used up. Sears has eliminated several categories, adjusting their mix to get the best ROI both in margin and volume versus space. Sears used to sell boats, but a boat takes up a tremendous amount of space and if you sell one or two a month, its better to drop them and move on to something that sells more and does use as much space.
Again using Sears as an example, guys like tools and such...notice how little lawn and garden equipment they display and carry? Fewer lines, fewer models and much less physical representation on the floor. You can order a greater variety from their catalog, than you'll find in the stores.
We used to have music stores in our local mall...gone. We used to have toy stores in our local mall...gone. I used to be able to find just about everything I needed at my LHS...many of those items are gone and so too are some of the LHS I used to visit.
As long as Hobby Lobby maintains good sales, they'll keep kits. Wal-Mart was seeing good overall sales on kits but their system was broken. I talked to several area managers across the state specifically about kits. The logistics and ordering system WM was and is using was flawed.
A store here could order dozens of cases of kits and be lucky if they got one. Yet a store elsewhere that had limited success selling kits got them all, all the time. When the management at WM went checking to see if the products were selling they used the overstock/dead inventory information from the store which couldn't give kits away as their justification to discontinue them.
Meanwhile those stores who's shelves were always empty and customer begging for more were not figured into the formula. Store managers were transferring inventory to other stores that wanted them, but they had to go through the WM logistic system which again from what I was told was coded overstock or dead inventory which depending on the day and which way the wind was blowing determined if the items were sent to the store wanting it or returned to the mfr.
Doing business with WM has consequences...you can stand to sell a lot to them and make a ton of money fast. But you're also on the hook to purchase it all back if it doesn't sell. That's why a lot of companies are no longer doing business with WM or are out of business themselves. WM also expects dropping pricing each purchasing cycle that they do business with you. They know what they are willing to pay initially and mfrs try to produce to meet those prices, but they more often than not don't factor in the declining purchasing price WM insists on. So that 50% just dropped to 40% then to 30% then 20% all when you have to continue at a 38% minimum margin to cover overhead costs. FAIL.
Watch for a marriage and consolidation between the craft and hobby industry in the very near future. The two need each other to survive. Both are facing challenges due to changing interests and demographics. When you go to a industry trade show in the not to distant future, the ladies will most definitely want to go with you...there will be both worlds represented...hobby and craft all under one roof.