There are not many hobby shops you can go to that are dedicated to your type of hobby be it Trains, Planes, Automobiles and the sort.
Next month the proprietor of Top Shelf Models plans to retire and close his doors for good.
Any of you that live with in a reasonable drive might want to go visit Mr. Stuart at his shop in Awasso,Ok. before it’s to late.
Im near Bowie Texas and headed there today , I’ll be there about 3.
I went into the first hobbyshop in decades…of all places…St. Ignace in da U P der “A”. We drove past it so many times that I just couldn’t pass by it again.
Annnnnd…it was very different than the Squadron shop in Hazeltucky or Bobies in Pensacola.
My LHS is still up and running for the past 50+ years. The issue with him is zero online presence. I still support it with visits 1-2 times a month but most of my kits and PE/AM purchases are online.
The interesting thing going on with online purchases is the issue with many vendors no longer accepting USDs for transactions. Some like BNA and Hannants honour the country you reside in.
BC Hobbies in Victoria BC (formerly BC Shaver and Hobbies) has an amazing store in the Hillside Centre shopping mall.
A great selection of RC, trains, LEGO, plastic kits and all kinds of other stuff. They even had some 3D printers that they could print your projects on. Just bring in a flash drive with the model and they would print it out for you. Three out of four were humming along steadily while I was there.