I finally found a great LHS!

Nice to hear of a positive LHS story for a change, glad you found that place and may they stay successful for many years to come.

Years ago, I had a local village LHS and due to lack of customers it closed. So I started travlling into town to the next store, which after another year closed. I now travel to the next city, once a month with my mate and we make a day of it, however the owner told us on our last visit that scale plastic models are not such a profitable line anymore and half his store now looks like a toy shop with new product lines he is seling to stay in business. I hate to say it, but I can see a day coming when I won't be going to a store to buy my paint and models anymore.

If you have a good store near you-support it. Good LHS's are getting to be a rare thing in this age.

Darren.

I've had a different experience with my LHS.  When I moved to my present location and took up modeling again I was so pleased to find a "real" LHS in town (the one of a kind, local-character owned, been there a long time kind of place), and I resolved to give it all my business.  Problem was, the owner wasn't helpful in trying to order items that he didn't have (and that was a LOT of pretty basic stuff), wasn't interested in answering any questions about kits or products, kept product on the shelves until they crystalized, and overcharged me on several occasions.  So, for awhile I did all my buying on-line, but then a Hobby Town USA opened in town.  I knew this was a big chain, and that turned me off (not authentic enough) so I didn't go in.  Then finally I needed something important enough and quick enough that I went in anyway, and what I found was a pretty good selection of pretty good models, a large assortment of paints, material, accessories and tools, all for prices usually lower than the on-line costs when shipping is added.  This is the only Hobby Town USA I've been in, but I bet they're pretty standard and pretty boring like most chain stores.  Nevertheless, I found it to have a lot of good stuff, with the ability to order a whole lot more, and at reasonable prices considering I don't have to wait for most things--- AND I have a place to go and window shop!   Plus, I got to talking with the owner and he said that while it's a chain store, his store is an independently owned francise.  Anyway, chain store or not the guy in my LHS treats me like a valued customer, going out of his way to research and order things, trading this for that, finding me deals, and having cool things for me to look at.  Maybe that's the compromise we have to make in these days of the dying LHS.  It takes a chain (and the basic regimentation and fiscal efficiency that comes with that) to be able to offer a wide enough selection of modeling products at reasonable enough prices--- and then, if that local chain store is owned by a local guy, and he treats you like the guy in the "real" LHS was supposed to--- it's "real" enough.  It's not the paradise of my youth, but the Frosty Shop is gone too, so I'm going back.

TomB

For about 900km in all directions (although i proably live the most far east in north america of everyone on this site, 15 minute walk to the atlantic ocean) there is only 2 LHS's.

One is the size of a large kitchen. It has so many models cramed into this tiney space that it's all in stacks (1/4 cars, 1/4 military, 1/4 RC, 1/4 other), dicent for impulse buying and general supplies, bad for price and ordering in things.

The other is the size of a large bathroom. Small....small seletion but they know what they are talking about, can order just about anything, and have the good [insert term] and good prices.


Between the 2 of them i have most of my needs ment, and since i hate ordering in things I pay the extra cost.


The only other LHS i have been to was 4,000 km away.

I went to a Hobby Town USA in Las Vegas when i was on holiday in the U.S recently.

And i tell ya i thought i'd died and gone to heaven, the staff were friendly, knowagble and

helpful. Prices were on par or cheaper than at my lhs, it's a shame about the little local store

but man i'd be happy with a chain hobby store near my place

mick

Wow!
I can't say I can complain regarding opportunities to go to a LHS. All together there are about 5 in close to semi-close vicinity.
When I was a little boy, there were about 5 shops in town, where I could go to buy modelling stuff. There was only 1 shop which I liked to go to because the owner used to help a lot and always tried to supply me with the things I needed. He had a small shop (about the size of a bathroom), but he used to travel to Brussels every week to pick up new supplies and ordered stuff. Sadly enough, even then, about 30 years ago, he couldn’t profit from a good pension because he had been independent shopkeeper all his life. So, when his mom died (he was single and looked after his mom) he closed the shop and worked as an employee for a few years in order to benefit from a pension.
Afterwards, it went downhill with the LHS's in my hometown, and now there are non left. You can imagine how I felt when I moved to the place I'm living now , and found out there were so many shops.
Sadly enough, it's all but true that the small shops are becoming very rare, mostly due to possibility to order thru the Internet and the lack of younger customers.
Yesterday, however, I saw something that gave me a spark of hope. I went by the nearest LHS, just to have a look around, when I noticed two young boys (I guess in between about 8 and 10) sitting on the ground in front of a pile of boxes. They were very carefully checking all of the features on the boxes. When I came a little closer, I heard one of the boys asking the shopkeeper for the price of one of the boxes. Turned out it was about € 60.00 (75 U.S.D.) for Tamiya’s battleship “Bismarck”. Well, obviously it was a little bit out of their league, but that didn’t keep them from turning back to their pile of boxes and start searching for another German battleship. At the end, it turned out that there was a box of Tamiya’s “Gneisenau” for about € 18.00 (22 USD).
It felt good to recognise those looks on their faces while they were making up their choice, calculating whether they had enough to spent on the object and the excitement they had when they left the shop with the newly purchased model kit.
So, maybe there is still hope.

Happy modelling,
Cheers,
Luc

So this leaves me with two questions:

1. M1, where exactly is this LHS? I've got a relative living on long island that would love this sort of a shop.

2. Anybody know of shops like this is the SouthEastern Florida area? (Ft.Lauderdale is too far away for me)

it is always a great thing to find a hobby shop in a world where so many have closed up

 

So this leaves me with two questions: 1. M1, where exactly is this LHS? I've got a relative living on long island that would love this sort of a shop.

I'd like to know, too. I go to LI for the figure show in Freeport in November an, uh , wait, what am I saying! I already spend way too much at the show that I don't need another place to try to empty the bank account.