Another HobbyTownUSA Bites The Dust

the doog

 

 

Devil Dawg

And, it has happened again!! Another HobbytownUSA has closed in North Carolina. This time, the one in Greensboro, NC, closed this past weekend. It was located on Battleground Avenue. I stopped by there this past Friday to look around, and, after seeing their prices, I can see why they closed. 

 

 

 

 

 

Bummer, but yeah, I can understand this with the prices. Bottom line is, you just can't financially compete these days with the Internet big retailers. Kinda frightening in a way. Of course, you have to figure on shipping on most purchases, and UPS just raised shipping costs by over a dollar on model sized boxes. 

 

If anyone is near Danville, VA, just over the northern NC border, the tank museum there has a pretty killer model shop inside it. Very competitive pricing too; I think they gave some deal with Tamiya...

 

This particular store had it's prices way above MSRP. For example, a 1/72nd Hasegawa Zero (very common kit) was priced at $29.95! It should be priced around $17 - $18. A Tamiya 1/72nd Zero kit (one of the early ones, 1970s time frame) was also priced at $29.95. Ridiculous! The same kits can be had at Hobby Lobby for $17 - $18 (well, the Tamiya version can, anyways). Granted, they were selling everything at 30% off, but that obviously only brings the price down to MSRP. And, some trivia for you - On the Tamiya kits, the last numbers in the kit number, just after the asterisk, are the price in yen. The exchange rate is roughly 100 yen to the dollar, depending on what day it is. So, if you see 1400 for those numbers, then expect the price to be close to $14 - $15 (which deoends on the exchange rate the day the price tag was applied to the box). I think the Hasegawa kits show this, too, but I'm not at home to look at one of my boxes.

We had two in the Boise, ID area that I used for years.

I could always get my supplies (pints, thinners, tools, etc.) at them, and now and againn they had great deals on the kits.

About 2-3 years ago the one in Namap closed.  It was the smaller of the two.

Then, last year, the one in Boise closed too.

I was really sad to see them go.  Sounds like it has been happening all over the country.  Wat shape are they in in general.  Of they filed fro bankruptcy as a corporation, or is it just particular franchises that are having issues?

Seems like if enough of them fail, the whole place will go down.

About the only place left in terms of bricks and mortar for that type of thing around here now is Hobby Lobby.  It has a few things, but the selctin is very limited.

Doing it all online now.

The Hobby Town serving the Albany NY area is also closing. I didn't find out until the going out of business sale (up to 50% off) was almost two weeks old and everything was well picked over but still managed to buy loads of paint and a half price air brush. There's only one store left in the area (not including Hobby Lobby that's usually an utter waste of time going to) and their focus is mostly trains.

Devil Dawg

And, it has happened again!! Another HobbytownUSA has closed in North Carolina. This time, the one in Greensboro, NC, closed this past weekend. It was located on Battleground Avenue. I stopped by there this past Friday to look around, and, after seeing their prices, I can see why they closed. 

 

 

If anyone is near Danville, VA, just over the northern NC border, the tank museum there has a pretty killer model shop inside it. Very competitive pricing too; I think they gave some deal with Tamiya...

And, it has happened again!! Another HobbytownUSA has closed in North Carolina. This time, the one in Greensboro, NC, closed this past weekend. It was located on Battleground Avenue. I stopped by there this past Friday to look around, and, after seeing their prices, I can see why they closed. 

Good idea Stik.....anything to help boost the "local shop" and to that owners lively hold would be great. Hobby Lobby is a great place but very limited on what it has. They mostly carry Revell with just a few Tamiya and Acadamy. As for paints and supplies not much. I have 1 HobbyTown which is about two and a half hours away.

The internet stores and sites have definetly put a hurting a on the local hobby stores. 

I know the hobby town you r reffering to I worked at AAA right down the road from there gone very suddenly. Iv contemplated along with my wife opening a hobby shop but money wont allow it. It s a shame I spent alot of money at hobby town.

Thanks, panzer! I'll definitely have to get up there and check them out. It's a shame that three of them have closed in the past two years, though.

That sir,is a human failure,not a store failure.

I hate to say this but the Hobbie Town in my area sucks. The last time I went there I picked about $200 on HO rolling stock, and several model kits. Once I made my selections I had to wait at the counter for 15 minutes. After that the dude said he would got to me in a few minutes. He was with a bunch of kids looking at rc cars. I left without getting any thing. I now get all my models and trains on line. I discovered that several craft stores sell a few model kits. Not as many as the hobbie stores, but the prices are lower. Plus the craft store always have 50% off coupons which means I was about the get a 1/45 scale B 25 for about $12. So if they do not even want my money, me and my money will go some where else.

And when it comes to pricing: the owner told me( after I complained about the internet pricing vs. store pricing) to go to my favorite website,look up an item,add shipping,then check the HT price. It was close enough I stopped griping.

I work at the HT in OK. The store selection depends on the input each store is getting from employees,customers,and distributors-regardless of what department. When I started working there they had a lot of stuff coming in that I knew nobody would want. Between myself,several friends, and the other employees, our store has gotten much better at bringing in what people are wanting to build. Management admitted that they were bringing in stuff the distributors told them would sell(because it was hot on a website,a WORLDWIDE website). 

Not suprising. We had one just recently open here. Went in there once. Got followed around like a criminal while a perused their horrible selection with about a 20% markup. Won't be going back. I'll stick to ordering online where I have any product or tool I could dream of at my fingertips.

Delivered by Amazon Drone?!

My local Hobby Lobby currently has a better selection of kits than my semi- LHS (who's selling out because his building is for sale, but promises to open up in a new location). They also hosted a local chapter of the IPMS. They have a fair selection of paints, as well, including Vallejo Model Color (I wish they also had Model Air colors, though), and an excellent selection of tools and scratchbuilding supplies.

the doog

In the end, what modelcrazy just posted points the finger at us all--we're all to blame for the demise of local hobby stores. If we can "get it for 5% less online" we do it, without even considering the ramifications of our own myopia. Human nature, I guess; will we ever learn? 

 

Sadly, I could not agree more.

modelcrazy

Wow, OK, we just lost ours here in Boise ID. 

Here is a quote for their Facebook page................We also got forced to move to the other building by our landlord in 2012. Although our new space looked very nice we ended up having conflict with our landlord regarding a couple of points in the lease and as a result had to do without about $40,000 for six months after that move. That seriously hampered both our moving advertising, our holiday advertising and our ability to keep bringing in cool product for our customers to consider for purchase. 

 

Silver

On line ordering on just Amazon alone killed many hobby shops in major cities and local areas .In my area their is a hobby shop that stays alive by purchasing modeler's collections.Hard to find kits and then some.

 

In the end, what modelcrazy just posted points the finger at us all--we're all to blame for the demise of local hobby stores. If we can "get it for 5% less online" we do it, without even considering the ramifications of our own myopia. Human nature, I guess; will we ever learn? 

Wow, OK, we just lost ours here in Boise ID. 

Here is a quote for their Facebook page.

"Friends both old and new,
I have sad news for you. With all the trials and tribulations that HobbyTown USA, Boise has faced lately I have not been able to save her from the giant iceberg impact of the recession. Everyone here has been trying hard to bring things back to normal for the last several years and it seems that each time we patch a hole we find a new leak in the hull. In about 2008-9 folks in the valley began to have a lot less to spend on their hobbies. Obviously mortgages and car payments had to come first. After that there were things like the power bill or repairs of the air conditioner and that didn't leave much left over for the fun stuff. 
Its not all on the recession though. We should probably not have tried to increase convenience by opening our Nampa location, at least during the recession anyway. We also got forced to move to the other building by our landlord in 2012. Although our new space looked very nice we ended up having conflict with our landlord regarding a couple of points in the lease and as a result had to do without about $40,000 for six months after that move. That seriously hampered both our moving advertising, our holiday advertising and our ability to keep bringing in cool product for our customers to consider for purchase. The new side of the parking lot also happens to be a lot less visible from the street and not near any other normal retail location that we could share customers with. Do you remember the good old days of Moxie Java being next door? How about Ace Hardware or even Coast to Coast Hardware? They and our other wonderful neighbors helped make business better for all of us over the years. 
That brings us to where we are now, behind on rent, not earning enough to bring in all of the great new product out there and continually being faced with "showrooming" that practice where people spend hours questioning our staff about various products and then still go and purchase it online because it is 5% less on a website. We still pay our people for that time, well not anymore I guess. Please don't worry about your friends here at the store.

Huey, I live in the DC area, too, and it's pretty bad in the District. There are some good shops around, though. If you live on the north side, which I know best, there is a Hobby Works store in Laurel that is about as good as a decent Hobby Town.

Tanker, I'm not sure I get your point. Do you mean that you paid $4.25 + tax for a bottle of paint at a LHS? I can believe that. They have to charge more in order to have a location people can go to and get their supplies immediately. If you mean you paid that on the Internet, I don't know where you are shopping. It shouldn't cost that much by itself. However, a bottle of paint will cost you more than $4.25 total on the Internet unless you can get free shipping, and to get free shipping, you'll usually have to buy a lot more than a bottle of paint.

tankerbuilder

BD;

When was the last time you bought a bottle of paint ? Last one I bought was $ 4.25 + Tx.

Good heavens man. What paint?

Because of the lack of the LHS in my area I have to rely on the ol' interwebs. I was able to get MM Acrylic for $2.59 each.

BD;

When was the last time you bought a bottle of paint ? Last one I bought was $ 4.25 + Tx.