I have a somewhat odd question Id like to here some feedback on.
Your ideal LHS would what? If you order online, what would it take for your LHS to get the bulk of your business? Etc etc…If your LHS is already getting your business, what could they improve on? No ones perfect…right, so what could they do to better serve you the customer?
What would they carry? Etc…
My ideal LHS would…offer a discount on purchases starting at $10.00 and have somewhat of a graduated scale for discounts…They would also carry more specialty detail items instock instead of having to order them…after all if I have to order them 9 times out of 10 I can do that from the comfort of my home and the price isnt nearly as bad! My LHS would actually be a “model shop” with maybe some RC stuff mixed in but none of that arts and crafts crap…if they could get rid of this it would after all allow them to possibly carry more “specialty items”…Besides they cant complete with the other Craft stores especially the chain stores so why bother?
The problem with specialist items is that they are expensive and cater for only a small percentage of the total number of people buying kits… Let’s face it, other than ‘garage’ manufacturers and maybe a couple of brands (such as Accurate Miniatures), big names like Airfix,Revell, Italeri,… are mostly selling to the ‘occasional modeler’, or to grand-parents buying a big model for their 7 year-old grandchild… That sort of customers… There’s no way they would last long on the sales made to the ‘experienced modelers’.
So unless you are lucky enough to live locally in regards to a shop like Hannants in the North of London, you’re gonna have to do without the rare and exotic kits, the folders full of PE parts and decals, the resin bits, the resin kits, the vacus, the metal accessories and figures,… Since a lot of those accessories are made to fit a single particular kit, one can not expect each local hobby shop to carry them all…
LHS are simply not for geared for us. But I’ll still support mine by buying most of my supplies (glues and paints, brushes) and basic tools there.
I have to say that my ideal LHS would be directly next door to me so i dont have to go very far. Also, they would be organized into store sections, such as planes, armor, cars, etc. They would sell every different color of paint in acrylic as weel as enamel. They would also have every model building magazine out there, along with manufacturer newsletters for those of us who dont want to pay 10 bucks at the book store. And last, for any specialty parts, they would have a countertop devoted to catalogs we can order from.
Actually my local hobby shop is ideal. They carry only scale plastic kits (well, a few odds and ends but no trains, no R/C). They stock a decent amount of resin, p/e, dio accessories, magazines, books, wide paint selection, styrene & brass stock, etc. They do give a discount to frequent customers and IPMS members. They will order anything they don’t have in stock. They are friendly and helpful. They are only 4 miles from where I work (I’m not sure that’s a good thing [:p]). They are modelers themselves do that makes a difference.
My local shop sounds a lot like the one erush describes. Pretty fair selection, I’d like more variety but half the stuff he stocks now doesn’t exactly fly off the shelves.
The biggest thing I want in a shop is expertise, I can go to any Joe Blow hobby shop or the internet and order stuff. But at the local shop I can talk with the owner and other customers about modeling and get tips and ideas. Kinda like these forums but a little more interactive.
Well, then, my ideal LHS would specialize in all things 1/144 scale.
All the kits would be 1/144, all the aftermarket products would be 1/144, and they’d carry all the tools and stuff that we micro-scalers need!
Oh, yeah, and there book selection would be second to none!
Oh, and if they didn’t have something, they’d special order it for you and have it in stock by the very next day, at no extra charge!
Finally, every last employee there would be very knowledgeable, and friendly too! None of this,“Well, this the train department, you have to check with someone in Aircraft” BS. Every last employee would know every last square inch of the store!
Oh, and it’d be clean, and they wouldn’t make fun of us RPGers! There’d be a LAN center in the back, and a second floor, which would have gaming tables so you could set up you dioramas(if you’re a modeler) or your battlefieds(if you’re a RPGer) right there! There’d be a snack bar and pizza parlor, soda fountains(with free refills!), and airbrush stations, that you’d rent time on, which would be stocked with every color of paint imaginable, and the very best airbrushes and compressors, so you could simply waltz on in, rent a booth, and airbrush away!!
And on the third floor, they’d sell PC and video games, and RPG minis and sourcebooks! Oh, and on the fourth floor(there would be an elevator, of course!) They’d have in stock all the other scales of models you could possibly want, plus aftermarket sets! Finally, on the fifth floor, would be the world’s largest BONSAI SHOP!!!
Yeah, that’d be MY ideal LHS!!
(And if any of you were wondering, my stepdad and I are actually intending to make a store like this someday, we’re gonna call it “Gamerville”! We should be opening by 2010 at the latest!)
My LHS is really good already but not perfect. They do a good job on customer service, paint selection, tools and accessories, and literature. What they could improve is their selection of kits, their speed for filling orders, and their knowledge of the plastic kit industry.
Selection: The store orders kits from only one distributor. This distributor has kits from only the largest manufacturers, and then not even the full lines. For example, they carry Hasegawa, but not Hasegawa’s sci-fi lines. They carry Revell kits, but not Revell-Germany. It is inexplicable.
Speed of orders: The store only places orders twice a week instead of every day, and shipping takes well over a week.
Product knowledge: The employees are compartmentalized. Half of the store is devoted to trains, and so are half of the employees. They know virtually nothing about plastic kits. I was actually told to come back on a different day to get an answer from their “armor guy” on my question about a plastic kit they didn’t stock.
It wouldn’t take much to fix the problems, but how do I tell them how I feel without hurting feelings? They are all really nice people!
My ideal hobby shop would be one that carries all plastic models. Even though I also love my RC planes and cars, I would not have them in there. There are just too many other places that cater to them and not enough that specialize in static scale plastic models. While I, too, would love to see more of the “exotic” kits, working in a hobby shop has taught me that there just isn’t enough of a demand for it to keep a place afloat. It would be too specialized.
Oh, my ideal LHS would also carry other essentials like milk, eggs and toilet paper. It would really be a one-stop shop! Laugh now but think about it…
Eric
PS. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to have different people who specialize in one area at a hobby shop. I’d rather talk to someone who knows their stuff inside and out about plastic models only rather than talk to someone who only knows a tiny bit about that and everything else. I feel terrible if I have to tell someone “Check with us tomorrow to talk to our train guy.” but I feel better knowing that they will then get an ocean of information from them rather than my piddly knowledge of it. I don’t have the time, the room in my house, nor the money needed to delve into every single hobby out there. Wish I did though.
Plausible or not, I love to riffle through boxes of old vacs, PE sets, decals, resin parts, and white metal bits. My perfect shop would have a great selection of all kits and supplies. In addition to current and rare kits, I would have it stock old rare collectable kits. Good discounts for good customers wouldn’t hurt either! This was our ideal LHS right? LOL
The local Hobbytown has a pretty good idea of my hobbyshop. The only thing I would change is to carry more aftermarket stough and more figures.I do agree that the average model buyer doesnt buy that stough. But maybe he would if it was there. The average model builder isnt going to take the time to order it online, or even know what to order. The Hobbytown here in Kennesaw provides a great selction not only for the model builder, but to collectors, kids of all ages, and most importantly, the wives( pizzles and doll houses and girly stough like that) which keep them off our backs while we look around deciding if we should get this kit, or that kit, or those kits…etc …