Hobby Lobby cutting models back again

I've yet to airbrush much with it, since I generally use rattle-cans and masking for overall painting...  Airbrush cleaning is a PITA so I seldom use it, except for complicated cmouflage patterns...

But I thin it with rubbing alcohol... 

"Createx" is a fairly good airbrusher though, but it's along the hobby-brand price-range.. It's plus is that it's half the price of Tamiya and Testor's, but you get a 3 oz bottle of it...   You will have to mix colors though, from time to time, in order to get the right shades...

Getting good with a color-wheel is something to consider...

At our club meeting Saturday there was about a 30 minute discussion on Hobby Stores cutting back and even more about the price increases. It was all very interesting. In a nutshell.... Buy while you can and build up a stash if you haven't already...

The local Hobby Town instituted a layaway program to help with the high cost of models. They have also told us that if the kits were ordered or put in layaway now, before the big price hike in a couple of weeks, that would lock in the price... Pretty cool of them really.

More discussion about Hob Lob revealed some long term plans apparently gotten from talking to several different store managers. They are cutting back yes, but long term the evidence shows they they will probably get out of plastics all together because of the cost of stocking them... Apparently Michaels is following the same trend.

Yupper, just came back from mine after talking with Deb again... That's the deal...

Inventory costs are too high to continue to stock kits...

Thanks fer nothing, Dragon, Trumpeter, Tamiya, Italeri,  et al...

Depending upon amount of price increases vs. future of world economy.....

If Revellogram keeps prices low enough, long enough they may be one of the last standing.

Hans von Hammer

Yupper, just came back from mine after talking with Deb again... That's the deal...

Inventory costs are too high to continue to stock kits...

Thanks fer nothing, Dragon, Trumpeter, Tamiya, Italeri,  et al...

 

well that sucks! I guess the days of my 40% off deals are going the way of the dodo

Sales tax is a consumption tax collected at the point of sale.

The purchaser PAYS the tax. The vendor COLLECTS the tax and ultimately pays it into the government. Why? I'd imagine because businesses are typically far more stringent in their accounting practices and it's easy to say "you sold $XXX, so you owe X% in collected sales taxes".

Hans von Hammer

Yupper, just came back from mine after talking with Deb again... That's the deal...

Inventory costs are too high to continue to stock kits...

Thanks fer nothing, Dragon, Trumpeter, Tamiya, Italeri,  et al...

Last I checked, Michaels stocked exclusively Revellogram. Last I checked, both Hobbytown and Hobby Lobby were very heavily Revellogram as well. I've never seen a Dragon or Trumpeter kit at HL, and only one Italeri (Spit IX American Aces).

Blaming the model companies is like blaming the movie studios for the DVD sections at Borders and Barnes & Noble for failing.

Yes, inventory costs are probably too high relative to revenues coming in the door.

Why? I'll focus on Hobby Lobby, but this is applicable to Michaels and HT as well.

1 - Piss poor inventory mix and pricing. As many others have pointed out, ordering the same kits over and over again leads to stale inventory. That, and the kits chosen are so at random. The $80 Tamiya Swordfish? Really? Why not the P-51, P-47, Corsair, Wildcat, Fw 190? And when kits are laughably overpriced versus even at a local hobby shop, of course the higher priced and more eclectic ones won't sell. That's a no-brainer.

2 - Ceasing to be a one-stop shop. HL, Michaels etc have never been able to stock the inventory a LHS can manage. Understandable. But I do remember back in the earlyish 90s one could go into a Michaels and find not only a full aisle stocked with kits, but the entire line of Testors, Model Master enamel, Model Master acrylic, and even some PollyS paints. Airbrushes, thinners, spare bottles, glue, styrene. Streamlined, but more or less everything you need in one place. Hobbytown used to actually stock a selection of aftermarket decals. The one nearest to me? One decal sheet, locked in a display case. 

Once a place stops serving the general needs of a hobby, there's nothing to drive repeat patronage. There's no "I just came in for a bottle of paint and left with a P-47N" - which happened at my LHS the other week. 

As revenues on that aisle drop off, the cost-benefit analysis changes. The people who buy are the increasingly rare casual buyer or gift buyer, or the serious modeler scoping for deals. 

The problem at Hobby Lobby and others isn't that "OMG Tamiya's latest release is so expensive!", it's that over time, gradually, they've denuded and actual, useful modeling aisle into something that barely even passes for a modeling section, and kicked off a vicious cycle slumping sales lead to shrinking selection and shelf space, which lead to slumping sales, etc. Eventually it becomes just not worth it to continue the lip service.

I don't know. Maybe another aisle filled with a ****ton of beads or cheaply made, overpriced decorative trinkets is exactly what Hobby Lobby needs. Garden Ridge seems to have an entire business model built around the latter. But in my opinion they have absolutely no one to blame for the death of their modeling sections save themselves and their own gross mismanagement of them over the years.

/ as an aside - last time I was in my local HL I noticed that they've started stocking Tamiya's 1/48 P-51. And at a relatively reasonable price. Imagine that.

DoogsATX

...that barely even passes for a modeling section, and kicked off a vicious cycle slumping sales lead to shrinking selection and shelf space, which lead to slumping sales, etc. Eventually it becomes just not worth it to continue the lip service.

Well said!

What is wierd is that last summer they cut back on kits, but greatly increased the paint and supply section. It looks like they are keeping this increase, so I am happy about that.

jdice1980

I hate it that HL can’t serve my needs anymore but I can’t see any logic in blasting their decisions to move on to something they can obviously make money at better.

 

Agreed. Looked at from the perspective of a modeler who can't rely on them stocking the materials I would purchase, I can grumble about doing this or that, but at the end of the day, they're managing a crazy inventory, and the stuff that doesn't perform gets shoved out in favor of stuff that does.

My point is that, somewhere along the way, chipping away at the model section eventually reduces it from pretty good to useful to marginal to useless. I would say Michaels, these days, is useless. Hobby Lobby (at least mine) is marginal.

Problem is, this is one of those long-term, creeping types of issues. It's "oh, let's take up some shelf space for slot cars". Then it's "let's consolidate the paints a bit". Then it's "let's get rid of styrene, nobody buys that stuff and it's a pain to stock". Until, eventually, the fate of the section is inevitable.

I don't fault Hobby Lobby in the least in the general sense. They're doing what any large retailer would do. BUT from a modeling perspective, I can still blame their increasing failure at offering a viable model section on their own long-term decisions, and not those dastardly model makers for charging too much. 

I have a sneaking suspicion Hans Von Hammer and I go to the same HL (Bettendorf, IA), don't think we've met though....  Anyway, they used to have one full aisle, both sides, one side packed with cars, the other with military, and there was plenty of overflow into an aisle on either side of the main.  Now we're down to that original main aisle, but they could probably get all the kits on one side of it.  Their prices have gotten nuts.  Even with a 40% coupon, they're too high.  Over the years I've talked with department people and they say they are locked into doing what corporate tells them , with no deviations.  I had one tell me they ordered kits with boxes that would fit the corporate designated shelf slot.  As has been mentioned the same Tamiya kits sit and sit and get older, but I've noticed price increases on them.  Maybe they're going for that vintage collector kit someday.  I had one person actually speculate why the stuff doesn't sell, all the while putting higher price stickers on them.  I told her, "Well, go downtown to Major's (our single LHS that's left) and get the same kit for less."  As President of our local IPMS chapter I buy stuff for raffle prizes for our club, but  I couldn't tell you the last time I bought a kit there, with a 40% coupon, or even off the clearance shelf.  Last time I was at our Michael's it looked like they were putting everything out on clearance.  Like everyone else of a certain age, "I remember when...."

They have to make room for more Christmas stuff. It is out already in my HL. If they get rid of plastic kits they can keep it out all year.

I noticed that they've started stocking Tamiya's 1/48 P-51. And at a relatively reasonable price. Imagine that.

Your "reasonable" and mine are about 20.00 apart...  Imagine that... 

Ok, I'll focus on H/L too.. I don't go to Michael's (too far) and don't know of a HT anywhere within reasonable driving distance... The one that WAS here moved out after they got stupid and opened a store in the SAME strip-mall that H/L was located in.. They lasted only about four years...

When 1/48scale  single-seat/single-engine fighters go above 25.00 MSRP, they are officially out of my price-range for a model, Doogs...  I will NOT pay that price...  Even though they've marked the Tamiya A6M5 Zeke down 40%, I ain't touching it, becasue at 32.00, it's the same price I paid for a 1/32 scale Revell Zeke not three weeks ago... 

When Revell-Monogram can keep issuing a 1/48 B-25 for 18.00-20.00, a P-61 for 16.00-18.00, and a B-17G for 32.00 and Tamiya goes in at about 70.00 for a comparable aircraft-type, there's a definate problem...

I don't CARE about "quality" that much... I've been building those "low-end" kits since the 60s and they fall right into my groove...  If I have to use a little putty, or a little sandpaper and elbow grease, so be it... I don't need a "blue-print accurate" model, I wanna have fun, and the fun is the stuff I add to make a kit MINE... But that's another thread and subject altogther...

H/L could keep ME happy simply by stocking the Revell catalog, and let the other LHS's stock the high-end stuff...  But, I ain't the HMFIC...  I've spoken to the store managers, and the tame one I dealt with in the past (before the current clown that runs it came in) was very interested in my feed-back, since I was in the store pratically every day, buying diorama stuff and other supplies...  Even offered me diplay-space for dioramas I'd built (using 100% H/L products, that is)...  But that ended with this MBA-dumbazz that's taken over... However, I digress..

My point about Dragon, Tamiya, and the "et al", was that they've gone to the extremes in their kits, adding a few bells & whistles to their kits in order to justify the prices of kits that are, in reality, not "all that and bag of chips"... A few P/E parts and a seamless metal gun-barrel just don't get it... I can make the detail-parts if I need 'em, and I can sand a plastic gun-barrel seam without leaving a flat-spot...

For those that can't, well, that's what the after-market thingies rack is for...  And if they insist there's a market for it (obviously is), they could damn-well do what Eduard does and offer a cheaper kit of the same thing WITHOUT the added junk... I'm tired of not being able to build new stuff becuase it's so damned expensive, and I'm tired of having to pay for stuff I don't NEED or WANT...

If the poulation of modelers want those parts, then let 'em PAY for them, leave me and those like me out of it... 

So yeah, the manufactureres are to blame, but moreover, so are the "average" modelers foolish enough to get sucked in with trinkets and beads...WE're supposed to be the ones controling the damn model-market, yet we're not... 

And there's no way we're gonna ever get the younger ones, the ones who have to buy kits with their allowances or depend on Mom & Pop to pay for a kit, to spring for a 56.00 Zero or an 80.00 M1A2... My grandson is nine, and by the time I was his age, I'd been building "glue-together" kits for three years...  He's had three "snaps" and he's on a Monogram P-38 that I gave him, simply because he wants the "real models" but his Mom ain't buying a damn thing at a LHS... And I don't blame her...  Hell, she's cheaper than I am, if you can dig THAT...

Ah well.. At least there's still Ebay.. Doesn't change that fact that if I ran H/L, things would be different...

In spite of HL downgrading......at least one local Hobby Town is marking down some kits 50 to 75 pct off.....picked up a Quad 50 & trailer for under $6.00.....and am now missing the Monogram half track kit of my youth.....

I keep threatening to cut back on my model inventory as well, but it never seems to happen. Why should you believe HL either???

Hans - I'll have to double-check when I go back by, but I'm pretty sure the Tamiyastang was priced at $25. Maybe, maybe $29. 

I have a feeling we could argue all day about manufacturers and the prices they charge. I definitely feel there are some that are justified in charging a premium because they go WAY beyond a PE fret and a metal barrel. The Tamiya Spits and Mustang are expensive, but they actually go a long way toward earning that price. The Storch...pricey...but the engineering on that thing is very ambitious. Pretty much anything WIngnut makes is worth it, IMO, especially when you have good-but-not-great Roden charging more for similar subjects.

On the armor side, I actually think Dragon and it's subbrands offer pretty solid value over some other makes (Tamiya armor continues to be kind of silly for the newer kits). And you can pretty reliably snag all but the absolute newest kits for around $30. But I've also found armor is typically the more expensive of the subject areas.

But that wasn't my point at all. 

My point was that Hobby Lobby chose poorly when picking the kinds of kits it should stock. The $80 Tamiya Swordfish is case-in-point. A relatively obscure (in the sense that most people who walk into a HL couldn't identify a Spitfire, much less a Swordfish) aircraft, a very high price tag. The $70 Mossie is the same story. They'd have done better, I think, with a solid stock of low- and mid-price kits of well-known, popular subjects. Heck, my HL has ONLY JUST started carrying 1/48 Mustang kits.

A solid range of kits priced from $15-$40 would have done them far more good, in my opinion, and moved kits and kept the stock fresh. 

Instead I just waited until that Swordfish never sold, got chucked down to $30, then snagged it.

jdice1980

I completely agree with Hans that Dragon should go the Eduard route and offer their kits in “weekend format.”  

Orange Box...

I just stopped by our HL yesterday after work..... what a dismal mess.  About half the plastic was on the clearance table (though almost bought the Tamiya Mossie but have a nice Revellogram already) at any rate it would appear that plastic is not their gig.  I guess it's ordering from the LHS or The Bay.  I did see this beauty at the LHS:

I didn't have the heart to ask how much it was.

jdice1980

Haha...ok. I was wondering what the orange box was.

I'm not into armor that much but I can tell you that the Orange Box at least in aircraft left me a bitter taste. He- 162A-2 Salamander to be exact and their 1/48 Me262A-1/U4 Bomber Interceptor is currently painted and decaled but the front canopy simply wont match the fuselage. I would rather have Dragon keep the darn PE frets and give me better fit. Both kits were a lemon, compared to the Tamiya Salamander.

I have in my stash the Eduard La-7 weekend edition and that's a beautiful kit for $18. A *true* weekend edition. The 1/48 Me262A-1/U4 Bomber Interceptor from Dragon is unfinished taken the well deserved space of a finished model. These are static models, but I think I'm gonna make the Me 262 fly, trust me

Haven't built any Dragon aircraft (got two 110s in the stash...but I just don't have the thing for German aircraft the way many do), but from what I've seen of the Orange Box armor, it's not bad.

Basically you get an older kit dressed up with some newer touches, sometimes with a figure set thrown in. For example, I've got the Orange Box Firefly Vc, got it for something like $25, and it comes with a newer-mold .50 cal and a set of British paratroopers.

Some of the others update with DS or magic tracks, etc. 

Think is, though, it's hard to "de-complicate" Dragon kits. A lot of Eduard's weekend kits are repops of old Gavia kits (that La-7 included). The only weekend I've built of theirs so far has been the Yak-3. Decent little kit, but one thing I hate was the decal sheet. Awful. Thick, yellowish, uncooperative. Makes me wish Eduard would sell their sweet Cartograf decals as standalones like they do everything else, instead of forcing you into the ProfiPack if you want them.

If you have a smart phone, pull up the 40% off coupon, show it at check-out and they will honer it. I've done this numerous times with no issues.

jdice1980

 

arnie:

 

If you have a smart phone, pull up the 40% off coupon, show it at check-out and they will honer it. I've done this numerous times with no issues.

 

 

That's suprising.  I worked managment in a retail enviroment for the Holidays last year and people were amazed that we wouldn't accept that. Frankly, attempting that is a bit female hygine product-y.

I've seen Michael's advertise the same thing up here. Saves you printing the thing, or looking for a flyer with a coupon...

jdice1980

Well if the store advertises and openly encourages it that's a completely different thing. My mind just jumped to people standing in lines on their phone surfing for some coupon to show the cashier.

Ha - I could actually see that happening, as a customer sees someone ahead of them in line doing the same thing.

I've been doing the phone-coupon scanning at Michaels for almost 3 months now. They have it posted at the entrance. Yeah, some ladies have looked a bit amazed when the cashier is scanning my phone. I'm glad to know that HL is doing the same. I haven't printed coupons for a while now.

I believe that the coupon code is all that's needed at H/L's registers for the phone coupon to work.. H/L is old school in that they don't scan.

tankerbuilder

..Let,s face it most of us in two to ten years (GOD WILLING) will be buying most everything from HOBBYTOWN or on line. So Much for neighborhood stores ! SAD BUT INEVITIBLE !!!          oldcarguy

Actually, most of us probably already buy the majority of our kits online, whether retail or via online auctions, at shows, or at an existing chain store, like HobbyTown, as you noted, or at some other specialty hobby store, even an old-school LHS (they didn't all disappear).

HobbyLobby seems to have entered our market here (Southeastern PA) only recently, in the past two years, and they have to try to take customers away from HobbyTown, which is pretty well established as a source for model kits, and to compete with Michael's and AC Moore, which seem to have increased their efforts in that same time, to catch the scale modeler market.  I'm not surprised that HL is scaling back, if they're losing the battle with the rest of the competition.  I'm curious to see how our local AC Moore (Airport Rd, Allentown) does, too; they expanded their model kit/model railroad section just before Christmas 2009, but that was the last time I stopped in there.

Best regards,

Brad

When I went to HL yesterday, I found they had made a second reduction in hobby kits.  Practically nothing left but cars and a few Revell planes and ships.  I guess that's what the kids are buying.

By the way, you can always print out a 40% coupon from their web site.  But they are dated, and only good for the weeks they are accepting coupons.  And they can't be used on "sale" mechandise, which they are constantly changing.  It's a stupid game but I have used it to my advantage.  I got 40% off (saved $132) on an air compressor yesterday.  It was "on sale" for 30% off so by the rules that's all I was entitled to, but I looked for a rookie cashier, as someone suggested earlier, and sure enough, she took the 40% coupon.  Hah!

Cadet Chuck

By the way, you can always print out a 40% coupon from their web site.  But they are dated, and only good for the weeks they are accepting coupons.  And they can't be used on "sale" mechandise, which they are constantly changing.  It's a stupid game but I have used it to my advantage.  I got 40% off (saved $132) on an air compressor yesterday.  It was "on sale" for 30% off so by the rules that's all I was entitled to, but I looked for a rookie cashier, as someone suggested earlier, and sure enough, she took the 40% coupon.  Hah!

Sounds like a real steal.

Well, I have given up on HL.  It was fun while it lasted.  Internet is where it is at (matter of time before the politicians ruin that too, but that is another subject); for instance, Squadron is running a 25% off everything sale...that is added to kits that are already reduced...I got a few kits at a steal....

Took advantage of the clearance to pick up a Tamiya F-16 (Arkansas Air Guard decals, yeah!), and a couple of the Testors quick build kits for the boys. That little Testor Spitfire is really cool for a snap kit. I wish I could get some more of that paint they put in there.

Glenn

hutchdh

Well, I have given up on HL.  It was fun while it lasted.  Internet is where it is at (matter of time before the politicians ruin that too, but that is another subject); for instance, Squadron is running a 25% off everything sale...that is added to kits that are already reduced...I got a few kits at a steal....

 

Squadron is about overpriced as Hobby Lobby is, even with the 25% off.