Well, I certainly wont’ mention what must not be mentioned…if I knew what to mention…[:#]
Down to two Hobby Town USA stores in the Chicago area though the three that closed did sometime after 2001 while the two that exist opened about 6 or so years ago.[^o)]
Barrett, Wild Bill’s is a gas to hunt through. There’s stuff buried in those stacks that hasn’t seen the light of day in years, or there used to be, haven’t been by in a couple of years.
Which means I need to go… 
I feel blessed to live near AAA Hobbies in Magnolia, NJ. Best hobby shop I’ve ever frequented (aside from the old Squadron Shops which no longer exist).
I just recently moved to the DC area and was surprised at the fact there aren’t any Hobbytown USA stores here. There used to be but now the nearest one is a hour or so away. I figured being such a populated area there would have been enough folks that build to keep those stores open.
Sprue-ce, I visited a pretty good LHS in Chicago last year called Chicagoland Toys and Hobbies on Northwest Hwy. I thought they had a pretty good selection of WWII stuff. They didn’t look like they were going anywhere any time soon. Have they closed?
You’ve been told .
When you move to a new place , make your first purchases at your local Hobby Town and LHS.
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.
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.
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.
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.
eBay also destroys a regular model hobby store.Many model stores incorporate the RC hobby to make it.Thats been going on for a great while.Just a model alone hobby store must have a large modeling community to support like the one at Seattle Washington called Skyway hobby.Lots of Boeing employees are avid modeler’s who shop there.Also they have the Seattle model club there who holds an annual contest every April w/ outstanding models and vendors.It’s alive there.Another model hobby shop is at Elpaso Texas called Hal’s Hobby Warehouse.The only one there in that city.They also specialize in RC.
Also what makes the hobby less interesting is when you are modeled out .Bought to many kits and have to many built .No more room and so on.I personally have just over 3,000 kits in one of my storage sheds ,and have a large home display in my 3.000 + sq ft home.Thats how the hobby is.
Hobby Town where I am at has other related hobbies like model railroad and its modeling equipment and paints.
In relationship the other modeling hobby of “Warhammer” plastic figure and vehicle gaming platform has a similar problem.They make to many armies that the basic to advanced gamers can’t catch up.To expensive to maintain.
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.
I hate to say it because I know it sounds like a “conspiracy theory” thang, but I will not, under any circumstances, buy ANYTHING from Amazon. They are a predatory company, dangerous to the economy, and horribly unethical. I won’t get into it here for obvious reasons, but it’s readily researchable on google.
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?
Something similar happened to (Ad)Venture Hobbies in Wheeling, Illinois; rent doubled (per what I was told IIRC) combined with the recession and - especially- customers buying their RC models on-line.
From what I understand, Al’s Hobby in Elmhurst, IL closed due to customer base switching to on-line purchases of RC models.
Sadly, I could not agree more.
Adapt, or die. I haven’t built a kit in 30 years, but have been very active as a model railroader. LHS have fallen by the wayside, but a few still prosper. Those that do have a strong internet presence to supplement their brick-and-mortar presence. My LHS sold plastic models side-by-side with model trains and R/C. I got the strong impression that R/C was the bread and butter that sustained his business. There’s probably a bigger profit margin selling a (freelance) R/C helicopter than a Hasagawa BF-109. If not on the R/C model, certainly on repair parts!