When I went into my LHS on Friday looking for the latest issue of FSM, I was informed by the owner he was no longer carrying FSM or any of the other Kalmbach Publications. When i asked him why, he simply told me he wasn’t making enough money selling them so he decided to drop the whole line.
What kind of hobby shop stops selling the very publications that help keep him in business? Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like he’s cutting his nose off to spite his face. I’ve always been of the mindset the model publications help sell products and vice versa. I also never really considered magazines to be “money makers” in the hobby business, but to each his own. For me, this was just another nail in the coffin when it comes to me doing business there. Over the past several years I’ve watched his model selection and quantity slowly decline to the point it’s almost not even worth my time to go in there anymore.
Long story short, needless to say, FSM has a new subscriber.
I think you may have answered your own question. You said, “Over the past several years I’ve watched his model selection and quantity slowly decline to the point it’s almost not even worth my time to go in there anymore.” What has he replaced the model inventory with? Maybe he’s just seeing that models are no longer selling in his shop and is going to concentrate in other areas. And if he’s not selling models, why sell modeling mags?
This shop also deals in R/C stuff and dabbles in model railway stuff as well. It’s obvious his passion is thre R/C side of things, but there was a time when his model selection was second to none.
It makes it doubly frustrating that the next closest hobbyshop with a decent selection is almost 2 hours away. The attitude the plastic modeler gets when they go in leaves alot to be desired as well. All in all, it’s turned into a place that most plastic modelers stay away from now and it’s a shame. At one time it was THE place to go to get anything related to plastic modeling.
I know what you mean. I’m into sci-fi stuff, and I love Gundam models. There was a japanese toy store here that had the greatest selection. I went a few times over a year or two and then one day I walk in and the owner tells me I can’t come in. He says he’s only doing business online and was really rude to me. I guess local kids kept coming in and stealing from him and he got tired of it. Now when I drive by he has a sign on the door saying not to come in. It’s a real shame because he had the best shop and his prices were great. My local Hobby Town has a crappy selection, the owner’s an idiot when it comes to running a business, and he has steadily raised his prices to ridiculous levels. I feel like the hobby is kind of dying and I got into it too late to see the glory days.
Guys, I hate to play the “old” card, but the first time I noticed a recession was in 1959, so this isn’t exactly new to me. EVERY time the economy takes a bad hit, we lose small businesses of all sorts, not just hobby shops, and economists are calling this one the “Great Recession”!
Like it or no, hobby building of models is a luxury …
My old boss got rid of magazines at his LHS about 10 years ago.He got sick of the minimum order and the hassle with returning unsold issues. Plus the profit margin was tiny. So he took the money he spent on magazines and bought more models. Anyone who came in looking for the magazine, he gave them a subscription card showing them the cheaper price.
I guess I might feel better if i saw where he was putting the money he was saving from carrying mags into the model section, but that’s just not the case. It also doesn’t help that he’s pricing himself out of business ether. I’m sorry, but when you’re gouging the customer for $64.99 for the 1/48th Revell A-6E intruder, there’s a real problem there. I find it very hard to give him sympathy when his prices are that high to begin with.
There is your answer… he obviously prefers one area (R/C) of the hobby over another (plastic scale). Looks like you’re one of those folks who has no real option but the internet to get what you want and need. With the occasional 2 hour drive to go on a binge[6]
Also, I know I’ve asked it elsewhere, but I’ve never received a satisfactory answer. How can R/C be pushing other forms of modeling to the far corner in shops like these?
I just don’t get it. R/C is 1) far more expensive 2) harder to just “pick up” 3) if it involves things that fly, finding venues is a beast if you live in a populated area, 4) R/C stuff typically takes up way more room than static plastic. Also, there’s plenty of cheap R/C stuff out there that doesn’t require dedicated shops (I’ve seen the kiosks in the malls)…so what gives?
I will say, when I do make the 2 hour trip to the other shop, I do end up sinking at least $200 there, but I only go there maybe once every 6 months or so. He does love seeing me walk in though and I really do enjoy chatting with him and going through all the new stuff he gets in since my last visit.
There are modelers who found that its cheaper to have a subscription than swing by the LHS for a copy. Also there are other venues which stock FSM on their shelves such as Barnes & Noble.
Magazine publishers have changed their return policies, unsold copies meant if the store operator was willing to take a little time they could get credit. This usually meant sending back in the covers or part of them anyway. The rest was tossed. Time and the cost of mailing them in to claim a credit wasn’t necessarily good enough to warrant doing it, so many who saw sagging sales along with minimum copy requirement decided to stop selling them.
There too are those who wear out those in the rack and never purchase them, leaving a dog eared copy that no one else wanted to buy. You know we modelers want it pretty and untouched!
Those items not returning a solid margin which take up valuable space are often discontinued for items that do sell.
Oh yeah, lets not forget about the internet too. It is the cause of every LHS failure since its inception. [whstl]
I’ve always subscribed to model rags, never even looked at the mags in the LHS, except the old back-issues of aviation or military mags that were marked down to .50 cents a copy…
Heck, I remember when ALL scale models were WAYYYY cheaper than R/C cars and planes, too… Ain’t that way anymore…
My local guy did the same thing, cutting the magazines, about 4-5 months before he closed up shop. Up until then, it was rare for me to buy FSM anyplace other than his shop. I figured even if it didn’t make him a whole lot of money, I’d rather see the markup go to him rather than one of the big distributors.
I can see why R/C is pushing plastic models to back shelves in the LHS. When I was having the magazine discussion with the owner, a gentleman walked in and started asking questions about R/C stuff. Well, needless to say, my trivial magazine gripe fell by the wayside when he saw the opportunity to make a potentially hefty sale. Long story short, before the other gentleman left the store, he had spent over $500 on a new R/C car and radio setup on an “impulse buy” as he so lightly put it.
When the owner came back to me, all he did was smirk and shrug his shoulders. “What can I say?”, he asked. I had no reply. I just thanked him for the years he did dedicate to this side of the hobby and wished him the best of luck. Now, I know customers like that are rare and the exception to the rule, but when someone dumps that kind of money all in one relatively short visit, how can I argue the point of him not carrying magazines anymore?
It’s more frustration than anything else. We get preached to everyday about supporting our LHS, but it makes it danged hard when the LHS owners won’t support US!!!
That depends upon the shop. The shops I frequent do not carry any R/C. When someone walks in or calls asking for that sort of stuff, they refer them to the R/C shops in the area. There is a definite divide in the branches. The shops I have seen that carry both do not serve the scale modeler well, so there is no point going there when there are other shops in the area that dont carry R/C that do support us well.
It is an unfortunate state of the times… many local shops are cutting specialized inventory and concentrating on selling to the masses.
So many (me included) have switched over to web purchasing… although, I did begin subscribing to FSM way back in the 80’s. I just found it easier than purchasing at my local HS.