New stuff at the Hobby Lobby

[plasticjunkie]

It doesn’t surprise me at the graffiti work that goes on at Walmart. Last month we went to a Walmart to see if the wife could find a particular item while I stayed in the car.

Within 45 minutes, I had two different dudes, at different times telling me the saddest life story of why they needed $10 (just short of being abducted by aliens or being Titanic survivors ).

Then a woman pulls up to the front of the store with a newer very nice looking SUV, parked , got out and began harassing customers for cash! She stood out there for at lest 20 minutes. I mean harassing as blocking your path while she got up close to ask for money.

[jtilley]

That seems to be a problem with Wal-Marts in general. When the company applied for a zoning permit to build a second one here in the teeming metropolis of Greenville, North Carolina, a lot of citizens from the neighborhood stormed the zoning commission’s meetings in protest. (The store got built anyway.)

This thread points up an unfortunate fact about model building in the early (well, not so early any more) twenty-first century. Unless you live in a big city, you have to reconcile yourself to getting stuff by mail. (I wonder if even the folks who live in New York and Los Angeles can drive to their hobby shops in confidence that they’ll find what they’re looking for.)

The other side of the coin is the vast amount of stuff that’s available online. I worked in a hobby shop back in the late seventies. The idea of one such shop carrying the full lines of Vallejo, Testor’s, PolyScale, and Floquil paint would have been out of the question. And can you imagine what it would take for a local hobby shop to stock the full line of Eduard products - and Tom’s Modelworks, and White Ensign, and Gold Medal…

I’m afraid we might as well reconcile ourselves to the situation and make the best of it.

[Sprue-ce_Goose]

… Unless you live in a big city, you have to reconcile yourself to getting stuff by mail. (I wonder if even the folks who live in New York and Los Angeles can drive to their hobby shops in confidence that they’ll find what they’re looking for.)

I live in Northern Illinois and the few hobby shops still open ( two closed in the last year ) vary in stock.

Some shops are beginning to cut back on new stock but have started buying old model kit collections

That may or may not be good depending on how old the kits may be and the price asked.

As for PE , decals or any paint finish weathering products… not available locally…

except for Vallejo AFV US Army Olive Drab at Hobby Lobby and maybe one of the Hobby Town stores.

Even finding some items online can be difficult.

I suspect some online retail stores now only buy newly introduced product but don’t restock .

[MJames70]

I live in Northern Illinois and the few hobby shops still open ( two closed in the last year ) vary in stock.

Some shops are beginning to cut back on new stock but have started buying old model kit collections

That may or may not be good depending on how old the kits may be and the price asked.

That’s usually a sign the end is nigh, when they are taking in and trying to sell a lot of old stuff. It means people aren’t buying much at all locally, and are only looking to ‘garbage pick’. So the shops buy used low and try to sell old stuff to get something turning over.

It happened locally in the recent store closing. They did not have enough incoming to get any new stuff. They had some used stuff people fought over tooth and nail, though. It was all that was selling. This is classic hobby shop swirling the drain - You need new things to attract customers, but you can’t sell anything you have in stock. So you can’t get anything new; no money coming in. So the old stuff just gets older, and they can’t get anything new, so the old stuff gets older…etc.

[Thlorian]

I recently noticed that our local hl is also carrying a lot more modeling supplies such as sanding items, cements, cutters, etc., and all in popular brand names.

[Sprue-ce_Goose]

I live in Northern Illinois and the few hobby shops still open ( two closed in the last year ) vary in stock.

Some shops are beginning to cut back on new stock but have started buying old model kit collections

That may or may not be good depending on how old the kits may be and the price asked.

That’s usually a sign the end is nigh, when they are taking in and trying to sell a lot of old stuff. It means people aren’t buying much at all locally, and are only looking to ‘garbage pick’. So the shops buy used low and try to sell old stuff to get something turning over.

It happened locally in the recent store closing. They did not have enough incoming to get any new stuff. They had some used stuff people fought over tooth and nail, though. It was all that was selling. This is classic hobby shop swirling the drain - You need new things to attract customers, but you can’t sell anything you have in stock. So you can’t get anything new; no money coming in. So the old stuff just gets older, and they can’t get anything new, so the old stuff gets older…etc.

Well, then. I know of one shop still open that has been selling out their old kit stash but not getting new stock, so I suppose I can expect another closure within the year.
Because so many shops have closed - even in the metro Chicago area- I am now buying some items in the internet.
Even then, the internet dealers are either permanently out of stock or simply do not carry the items / kits I want.
Ergo, I’ll be spending more at local swap meets.
At one time, the dealers at swap meets sold new items along with the very old stuff, but last show most were trying to sell off their old kits.
…and I still don’t understand why dealers try to sell AURORA kits for collector prices.
I’ve never seen a dealer sell an AURORA kit.[^o)]