Of gone hobby shops and gone mail order shops.

[The Zod]

With the posts in the latest acquisition thread on long gone hobby shops,I thought I would start a thread about them,as well as some mail order shops no longer around.

Lancaster,PA area.

Park Hobbies. That shop was in the Park City Mall for some time. They later moved closer to downtown Lancaster,and renamed Triangle Hobbies. That was circa 1985. A great selection of kits and paints,and other supplies. When I came home on leave between PCS move in October 1987,sadly the shop had closed down.

There was a decent hobby shop in a small strip mall,Eastown Mall as well. I have forgotten the name of it. Great selection.

Kaybee toy and hobby. Remember when they used to sell models,supplies,and model railroad stuff?

Smitty's Hobbies in downtown Lancaster. Another shop that closed down some years ago.

Phil's Hobbies.
This place was located on the very upper north side of Dallas,TX. He closed down in the summer of 2003. Whenever I had the chance,and I was not under a time constraint,I would park my rig at a hotel a few miles south of that place,get a room,then take a taxi to that place. It was one of the best hobby shops I had ever been to out on the road.
Early July of 2003,shortly before he closed up,I was able to visit that place. I met Bruce Culver there. You may know him from Panzer Colors I,II,and III,as well as the early In Action books from Squadron Signal.

When I was based Norton AFB in the early 1990's lot of great hobby shops in that region. I then moved to Moody AFB. The hobby shop selection sucked. So I found out about a place in Jacksonville,FL called The Kit Bunker. This was the mid 1990's. Place was only open to the public on Friday nights,and Saturday afternoon. Placed did mail order as well. That place rocked. It was sold in 1997. From what I could find,the shop never reopened.
Old and gone mail order places.

APC Hobbies in Virginia. Anyone who did business with them,remember the political stuff on his monthly fliers he would send out?

VLS. I did quite a lot of orders from them over the years. Great place.

 

[moon puppy]

My hometown Greenwood had the Hobby and Garden Center, well we still do but kit selection is nothing, no tools to speak of or supplies. Gardening is the bread and butter now.

Up in Greenville there was the Great Escape, they just recently dropped their kits and focuses strictly on bicycle sales. Back in the day there was World Hobby up in Simpsonville but they long ago sold out, not sure what year. It was actually a nice store with wall to wall kits. First store I went to when I got back in the hobby.

I think you all know me well enough to know I'm all for supporting the brick and mortar stores but...it should be a two way street. Another store that's fairly local to me really let me down. I use to really brag about the store and the selection he had. I can't do it anymore. I had asked him in the past about Tenax7 and he told me way back then that they went out of business. Then I saw it here and there and well, guess it was one of those things. So not long ago I was in there picking up supplies and a kit and asked him if he had any Tenax7. Again he tells me they went out of business. I found that odd, very odd, because I knew I could get it from Spruebrothers.

So I got back and looked up Tenax7 on the internet..found the guys email and asked him if he's still making the product. I got a reply pretty quickly that he's making so much he can't keep up with orders and to tell that LHS to get it from Stevens International.

So next trip down to Augusta I go to the store again and ask him if he's stocked up on Tenax7 yet. Again he tells me they are out of business. I told him about the email exchange and to get it from Stevens and he mumbled something and walked away from me..I was at the check out counter with some stuff. I figured he walk away from me, I should turn in kind and I walked out the door.

I mean, if the man doesn't want to carry the product then don't carry it and tell me so. Don't LIE to me and tell me they are out of business. I have no intention of darking the door to that shop again but I'm not going around telling the internet that he's out of business.

I'm not against LHS, love them, but I think they need to be mindful of how they treat the customer or there's going to be more closing.

 

[The Zod]

Well said Bob. Great Escape eh? I forgot about that place. I know/knew of the one a few miles away from the truck stops in Duncan,SC. Off of exit 66 on I-85 I think it was.

 

[moon puppy]

That was the Spartanburg store Chad, that was a nice store also. First time I went to a model club meeting with Mike and Chris. Last time also...

That one closed up completely now.

 

[The Zod]

Sorry to hear that one closed up Bob.

I can also remember when Sears and Woolworths sold models.

 

[phantom II]

Chad I don't recall anything close to Moody ... Ever ! The shoppette was more exciting and had a better model selection :facepalm

Cheers, Christian B)

 

[Hawkwrench]

Here in the cincinnati/ northern ky area, during the 90's and early 2000's we had a hobbytown USA. They had a good selection of models, supplies, and some RC stuff, but just like all the rest of the brick and mortar stores, it too fell by wayside.
The only hobbystore left around now is a small store in cincinnati called Boardwalk hobbies.
He's been around for a long time, so I hope he stays in business.

Tim

 

[The Zod]

Chad I don't recall anything close to Moody ... Ever ! The shoppette was more exciting and had a better model selection :facepalm

Cheers, Christian B)

Christian.
At first,the only shop close was a small Hobby Town in Albany,GA. Sometime in 1994,a small hobby shop opened in Valdosta. But,there was an active duty tech sgt who opened up a hobby shop with limited hours. I did my best to support him.

I guess model building was not real popular around there.

 

[phantom II]

Chad I don't recall anything close to Moody ... Ever ! The shoppette was more exciting and had a better model selection :facepalm

Cheers, Christian B)

Christian.
At first,the only shop close was a small Hobby Town in Albany,GA. Sometime in 1994,a small hobby shop opened in Valdosta. But,there was an active duty tech sgt who opened up a hobby shop with limited hours. I did my best to support him.

I guess model building was not real popular around there.

There was too much fun to be had fishing, hunting and chasing college girls . The rest of the time was spent fighting with the locals.

There was a slot car track they were not as serious as the folks back in Ohio.

Much time was spent in Jacksonville and Jekyll island .

Cheers, Christian B)

 

[Swordsman]

Guys I run a Hobby shop on Beer Money with Champaign tastes ... I've been told that the people here on MA don't want to know that or that I might try to sell you something. Now my Shop is a small pop Store ... I wish Mom would Join in ... she just enjoys spending the money. Right now the social Security check is supplying the place because the economy is very slow ... most of My customers have gone on or quit the hobby, I had a new War Gamer yesterday, so with school being out maybe it will pick up, as far as a man with attitude goes, I just checked my supplier Stevens International ... No Tenax ... so I check one of my other supplier's Hobbytyme.com ... I have to buy 12 bottles at a time, so Bob if you are the only one who asks for Tenax ... Maybe He didn't want to have 11 bottles left until the next time you come in. I do Have it in stock. Now I've never tied to sell ya'll anything ... unless you asked for it ... right now the Hobby Shop Has become a mail -Order place ... and I'm going to open a on-line store to be able to supply My modeling Needs ... Bob (The Other one) knows the plight of small time Mom & Pop shops in America. The Big-Box stores including Amazon, eBay, can sell products cheaper than We can Buy them ... So There is the rest of the story.

 

[phantom II]

I for one miss the mom & pop stores

 

[moon puppy]

Gerry if he had given me that reason I would have been ok with it. He didn't.

 

[Heavens Eagle]

I think we can all understand what you said about ordering in the Tenax Gerry. It's one thing to be upfront about that and mybe work something out to make the sale. It is a whole other bag of worms for the owner to just flat out lie. I think that is what Bob was mostly distressed about.

As to purchasing from you Gerry, I think at this point we all know that is not why you are a member here. However, if you coul some how set up a list or place where we can see what you have (or can obtain) I have no problem with ordering from you. Spread the purchases around to vendors is what I say. I think our biggest problem with ordering from you is we don't think about it. Most of the time when I think about ordering something is to hit SprueBros, then FreeTime, then it slides to oddball suppliers or manufacturers.

Something you might do Gerry is add some contact info for your shop to your signature. That way we might think about you a little more. :hmmm

 

[ausf]

When I was a kid, the only kit selling places in Schwinn range was Woolworth's a Wright St toys. Woolworth's had a decent selection of Monogram, so that was my go to place to fulfill my Saturday afternoon build fests. A card table setup in front of the console TV with 'World At War' reruns on channel 9 and the AC was put together in a few hours, sometimes blown up before bedtime that night.

When I saved a bit and could catch a ride to Port Richmond, I'd go to what was then, and still is in my mind, the epitome of a LHS: Brownies.
A small family run business (the sons were around my age) on the first floor of their house in what was the main shopping district (before malls). You couldn't even see the ceiling there were so many stick and tissue and styrene beauties hanging over your head. Mr Brown ran a RC racecourse Saturday nights and even got the NYC parks dept. to build a RC airfield with grandstands.

For me, it was the old Aurora monster kits that hooked me in that place, the RC was high end, nothing I could ever dream of buying with lawn mower money.

Every time I stepped through that door it felt like Christmas morning. Every time I did I was also greeted with the same cheerful 'Hello young fella!' from Mr Brown. I stopped buying kits when I discovered girls, but years later when I started doing makeup effects, I rented a building a few blocks away and was a frequent customer for K&S and servos, etc. The best was 20 plus years after that, while visiting friends, I took my own sons to Brownies and all three of us were greeted with the same ol' 'Hello Young Fella!'. We're talking nearly 40 years at that time, same wonderful man, same shop, although the neighborhood went downhill and Horizon Hobby planes filled the shelves.

I've been back since and the sons are still running it but the Mr Brown had passed.

As for other LHS's since I moved upstate, it's been nothing but disappointment. I'm with Bob, in terms of customer service, that's the only thing they've got going, better cherish it. I can deal with mistakes like asking at the counter if they had K&S and be told no, only to go down an aisle and find a full display, but not belligerence. There was a store about 15 minutes from me (long since closed) that had the makings of a good LHS: semi decent selection, always the regulars talking hobbies, good supplies, etc. On my last trip there, I had my two year old son with me and was stocking up on a few kits as well as brass, tools, etc. To buy myself some time, I hand my son a bottle of paint (I'm carrying him mind you) and ask him to keep shaking it as I need it mixed well. You get the picture, Dad holding a kid while making trip after trip from shelf to counter, amassing a pile of stuff. When I go to check out, the owner looks me in the eye, points to my son's hand, then taps a sign behind his head reading something about shoplifters and prosecution. I gently pried the bottle loose from his grip (I told him hold it tight), put it on the counter, looked the man in the eye and walked out, leaving him to put everything back on the shelf, no sale. They closed within a year of that.


There's a Phil's Hobby online that is great. It has (or had) physical locations, not sure if it's the same, but great service and selection. My go to these days is Omni Hobby (some arm of Tower) since they ship fast and mostly for $1.99. I get a lot of stuff from them whether through their eBay store or website.

That was the thing that I couldn't compete with no matter what, back in the VLS and Stevens days, or now with MMD, shipping from me to the customer. I was never doing enough volume to get a good discount so I'd only order kits when I was doing AMPS or AMPS East. Paints and supplies, then PE were the only thing since it could fit in a Priority Mail box for under $5. Who would pay $15 shipping on a kit, even if I passed it on wholesale, you could still get it cheaper with free shipping from GMW or Squadron.

 

[moon puppy]

I think we can all understand what you said about ordering in the Tenax Gerry. It's one thing to be upfront about that and mybe work something out to make the sale. It is a whole other bag of worms for the owner to just flat out lie. I think that is what Bob was mostly distressed about.

Bingo...except I'm not that stressed about it, just done with that store. Now that being said, I'm looking forward to being able to hit the stores up in Fayetteville NC, the one Chris and I found up in Spenser or any other one where the owner doesn't feel like he has to lie.

Even looking forward to the chance to hit your store Gerry. :dude :drinks

 

[The Zod]

Gerry.
I too would like to see a link to your store.

 

[Tojo72]

All within a 1/2 hr of me, but all gone.

Avenel Hobbies Colonia NJ
Dick's Hobbyland Cranford NJ
Dana's Hobby Bloomfield NJ
Highway Hobby Ramsey NJ
also
Squadron Hobby Siver Springs Maryland

All mom+pop and top notch

There was a nice mail order guy in NY State,cant remember the the name,he always had 2 page ads in FSM ,was very good with good prices.

And,Great Models was my got-to mail order before Spruebrothers bought them out.

 

[Barney]

Cleveland used to be a hotbed of LHS's. Unfortunately, over the years they have all closed down except for a couple and one of those is is serious trouble with the city for back taxes and building maintenance, lack of stock, no knowledgeable personnel and just a generally crappy attitude. :vmad

But there is hope! :yipee

There is a "rumor" that a new store is opening up in the 'burbs of the west side. I have talked to the "owners" and they already have accounts with many of the wholesale operations and are looking at a building to purchase. Will the prices be competitive with online? No. But this will be a place where plastic bums can come together, bs, and work on projects. I have been doing business for a couple of months with the "new" store and am quite pleased. When I ask for something, if he doesn't have it in stock, it is there within 7 days.

I got the new Airfix Defiant when it came out and both of the other shops hadn't even thought to order a couple...

This is a joyful thing... A ray of sunshine... a breath of spring air... :drinks

 

[moon puppy]

Hopefully that new store will open Barney. :zen

 

[Jeeves]

Growing up in Plattsburgh we had a Hobbytown and that stayed open until the late 80s...and soon after it closed the local MJ Designs (like a Michaels or AC Moore) had a great hobby section with a whole wall of models- that section was overseen by an ex-Air Force gentleman who ran the local IPMS chapter- Frank Baere I believe his name was. They eventually were replaced by Michaels...and it disappeared.

Locally here near Saratoga, I went down to grab stuff from the Hobbytown in Albany and found it closed. Damn shame- but the woman who ran it really didn't know the first thing about running it. All we have left here is a Hobby Lobby, a railroad/hobby shop/pool store that's really trying to be just a pool store, and a RC track/hobby shop that's not even trying to compete with online...I get my MM paints from him but no longer have a local source for Tamiya paints.