Where we shop , And why

scottrc

 

Hobbyland was my home away from home for many years.  As the Tribune article implies, I pratically lived there in the summer.  

 

That's awesome that you were shopping with Pat back when the store was still in the mall! I can remember ping-ponging between Hobbyland and the toy store across the hall on the weekends when my folks would make the drive into town from Belt. After the shop moved to Central, I managed to make it in every Saturday. Even after leaving for college, the military, and jobs out of state, I could call them on the phone to place orders and I could tell Steve just which shelf to find what I was asking about. Weird to think about, but I've let Pat call me "Timmy" since the fourth grade, around four decades ago. Never bothered correcting her in all those years...

KnightTemplar5150

Here in north central Montana, we have no other choice but to embrace shopping online. The LHS I have been shopping at for the last forty years is closing at the end of the month, the Hobbytown USA stores have been shut down all over the state, and what few hobby shops are left under the Big Sky are 200+ miles from me in any given direction. The local Wal-Marts have taken models and supplies completely out of their inventory, K-Mart has shut down, and both Hobby Lobby and Michael's keep a bare minimum of items for model builders on their shelves. So, all major hobby purchases are done online anymore.

Going to miss the LHS...

 

Somewhat same situation. The 2 mom and pop shop here in Lexington shut down almost 3 years ago. The Hobbytown that is left here is closing at the end of the year. I have spent the last 10 years building a stash of kits and supplies from different trade shows and LHS. Sadly I will join the online shopping bonanza to purchase my kits and supplies. Also, the price difference between online and LHS is also a factor in purchasing items. When anyone can save 10 to 30 percent....kinda hard not to buy online. The big plus to LHS is you can see it, touch it and hold onto it while you browse other kits and supplies.

Now, to indulge in a little nostalgia about local shops, I know three examples of shops around here that are still going strong, even in the face of the online access I talked about above.

One is Trains and Lanes, outside Nazareth, PA.  It is an older store, in a big pole barn, and it handles a diverse selection of hobbies, from RC aircraft to model railroading, to scale modeling, and slot car racing.  The store features an indoor slot car track, an outdoor go-kart track, and even an indoor batting cage.  It's the only place around that has Humbrol paints in stock, as well as anime kits in resin or vinyl, alongside contemporary armor or car kits.  If you ever get to the Lehigh Valley, it's worth visiting the store.  You can browse for hours.  They don't have a website; they maintain a Facebook page, instead (very wise--avoid the cost of hosting and maintaing a website).

Another store local to the Lehigh Valley is Tony's Hobby Shop in Coplay, PA, about 7 miles above Allentown.  Tony ran the shop from 1948 until he passed away a year ago or so.  His son Gerry took it over and kept it going.  He carries a small selection of kits, and model railroad kits and supplies, but it's a much better selection than the craft stores carry, and he has good suppliers, so he can order a lot of things that he doesn't otherwise carry in the shop.

And the third example is Penn Valley Hobbies, in Lansdale, PA.  Penn Valley was my main hobby shop up through high school.  I grew up in Harleysville, about 7 or 8 miles away, and I used to ride my bike over there on Saturdays, and browse the kits.  PVH made the adjustment to the emerging online market, with a website and an eBay store.  They gradually reduced their store hours at the same time, from 6 days a week to Saturdays, and now, they have no hours at the store.  It serves solely as their warehouse for their online business.  Unfortunately, they may fall prey to the problem I mentioned in my prevoius post, and that is, when the owners eventually pass on, if their kids don't want the business or no buyer can be found, it may eventually have to close.  But they've made it this far.

KnightTemplar5150

Here in north central Montana, we have no other choice but to embrace shopping online. The LHS I have been shopping at for the last forty years is closing at the end of the month, the Hobbytown USA stores have been shut down all over the state, and what few hobby shops are left under the Big Sky are 200+ miles from me in any given direction. The local Wal-Marts have taken models and supplies completely out of their inventory, K-Mart has shut down, and both Hobby Lobby and Michael's keep a bare minimum of items for model builders on their shelves. So, all major hobby purchases are done online anymore.

Going to miss the LHS...

 

Hobbyland was my home away from home for many years.  As the Tribune article implies, I pratically lived there in the summer.  When they were located in Holiday Village, I couldn't wait to go with my parents for their Friday evening grocery shopping at Buttrey's so I could bug out and run down to Hobbyland.  Then Pat bought Irenes and moved into that store, then the present Great Falls Sporting Goods store where Pat also aquired all the stuffed animals.  Going back to Great Falls is not going to be the same.  It was a grand 50 years and was happy the old store survived as long as it did.  

I live in Bethlehem, PA.  Where I buy things depends on a couple of things.

Generally, if it is a supply item I need, such as paint, I will buy it from a local hobby shop, unless no shop carries what I need or can't get it soon enough.  For example, among the paints I use are Tamiya's rattle-can aircraft colors.  No bricks-and-mortar store around here carries them or can order them, so I order them direct from Tamiya USA.

If it is a kit I want, I buy it almost exclusively online.  The local shops just don't carry what I want, and in many cases, they can't even order some of the kits I want.  I buy new kits from retailers like Freetime Hobbies, Sprue Brothers, Squadron, etc, or from the manufacturers, in the case of figures.  I buy second-hand kits via eBay and through contacts I've developed on forums and Facebook.  I also buy kits at shows.

As far as lamenting the demise of the LHS is concerned, while I sympathize with individuals who may have lost a business to competition, I'd like to point out that that is business.  You must adapt or go under.  Also, the demise of the LHS as less to do with the rise of the Internet than it has to do with the fact that it was a relatively unique phenomenon in our history, emerging in the Thirties in the form of makers who sold the supplies of the day--wooden kits for carving, supplies for making rubber-band-powered airplanes, and later, they sold plastic kits as plastic replaced wood and paper for the vast majority of kits.  Mom and Pop may have run those shops, but for a lot of them, their kids didn't want the business when Mom and Pop retired or passed away.  Or they couldn't find buyers to take them on.  This was going on long before the Internet revolutionized ordering things from a catalog (we called it "mail order", back in the day).  And before the rise of the Internet, there were larger vendors who pushed smaller ones out of their markets.  We had Allied Hobbies here in SE PA and New Jersey; it was a chain with stores in malls throughout the area.  It might even have reached beyond the mid-Atlantic area.  Triple-A Hobbies is another larger vendor (also located here in the mid-Atlantic), as is Squadron.  In any case, those LHS we remember so fondly probably had razor-thin margins to begin with, and today, it's probably even more expensive, generally, to run a small shop and turn a profit.  But for us modelers, we have better access and availability, generally speaking, to quality kits and tools and supplies, than at any time since scale modeling became a popular hobby in the Fifties.

I'm in kinda the same position as KnightTemplar, NE Washington State has very little to offer. Spokane has an art supply store that has airbrushes, paints,( not necessarily for models but enamel is enamel), and the few model kits, usually nothing new. We have a sporting goods store that is called White Elephant, he has been in business for probably 50+ yrs and used to have a HUGE selection of kits and supplies. Now he just sells sporting equipment. As with everywhere else that has a HobbyTown we have one too. The owner will order anything Corporate will allow him, MSRP + his mark up and up to 8wks for delivery,( on line shopping is marginally cheaper and WAY faster), then there is my favorite place I don't go to often enough, B&B Hobbie, they cater to RC planes and boats but always ALWAYS seem to have something different. Good prices too.

The next time any of you are in the Denver area, checkout the Colpar/Hobbytown stores. They are among the best in the country. I used to travel quite a bit for work and tried to go to local hobby shops around the country whenever I could and found great shops, however, most of them have folded. Colpar's two locations have the best selection I've seen and great prices. They host a wide range of activities and support local contests and shows. It's hard to ask for more. Ken

BlackSheepTwoOneFour

Not much LHS in my area except one that always has the same old stuff. rarely anything new. So I will shop online for my kits such as Squadron, Sprue Brothers, Hobbylinc, eBay (sometimes), and other online shops.

I do know Performance Hobbies in Webster, NY has a fantastic little shop. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go there this year due to the fact they were closed on Sunday. I was in the area for a family BBQ there. 

 

 

You know it's funny.  I live in Los Angeles, and there are maybe a handful of local hobby shops, which kinda surprised me in such a large city.  It looks like online is it.

Here in north central Montana, we have no other choice but to embrace shopping online. The LHS I have been shopping at for the last forty years is closing at the end of the month, the Hobbytown USA stores have been shut down all over the state, and what few hobby shops are left under the Big Sky are 200+ miles from me in any given direction. The local Wal-Marts have taken models and supplies completely out of their inventory, K-Mart has shut down, and both Hobby Lobby and Michael's keep a bare minimum of items for model builders on their shelves. So, all major hobby purchases are done online anymore.

Going to miss the LHS...

Not much LHS in my area except one that always has the same old stuff. rarely anything new. So I will shop online for my kits such as Squadron, Sprue Brothers, Hobbylinc, eBay (sometimes), and other online shops.

I do know Performance Hobbies in Webster, NY has a fantastic little shop. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go there this year due to the fact they were closed on Sunday. I was in the area for a family BBQ there. 

Well,I buy all my kits online now.Me buying a kit every other month isn't going to keep my LHS in business,I really don't buy many kits anyway.I will however miss him for paints, if and when he closes shop.So then I will have to get supplies on line,I will just have to plan projects better.

Thankfully, here in Boca Raton I still have a couple of Mom-and-Pops to choose from, including a Depot Hobby just up the freeway in Lantana with a very extensive selection of Model Trains and plastic modeling parts (also, almost the only store in the area to have an extensive selection of Tamiya... everything.)

As I got back into the hobby these last few years, I was saddened to see that most references to "hobby" in a store description really meant "RC" not "Scale Miniatures." Like you, I've had good luck with Amazon for the most part (thank you, Prime, for getting stuff into my impatient hands) except for almost anything that I order from Japan (Gunze products come to mind, they almost always "fall of the truck" before they arrive. Dunno why) so for those, and Ebay for Gunze products and harder-to-find items.

I hope Depot Hobby stays in business, they are probably the only shop for many miles that I can stroll into with a ridiculously high likelihood of finding what I want, supply-wise, but the owners are aging and I don't see an heir apparent. I'll have to hope for the best, I suppose.