Support your local hobby store...for this??

[Coelacanth]

We've gone over this debate many times with people urging others to support their LHS instead of all those evil online e-tailers...well, here's one experience to the contrary. Today after work I decide to stop by not one, but two local hobby stores close to my work. I'm looking to pick up an assortment of Parma FasKolor paints, some X-Acto blades, and an antenna tube...and if I see something interesting at a good price, maybe some additional tools. Pretty common stuff, you'd think.

One place had only about 3 sets of X-Acto blades that weren't including the tool. At least the other place had a great selection. Neither place had antenna tubes, FFS, except for those butt-ugly semi-clear ones. WTF, 2 places that sell radio control gear don't have antenna tubes?!? And in both stores, their FasKolor paint displays were barely a THIRD full, and that's exaggerating because they only seemed to have plenty of multiples of all that "neon vomit" crap paint like flourescents & color-change paints. One of the stores had only like 4 kinds of pearls and 3 solids, the other place wasn't much better. They didn't even have ANY of the arguably most important colors of all, black, white or silver! It's ridiculous, you need those colors to back just about any other color! I ended up coming home with one...ONE bottle of red pearl paint and some X-Acto knife blades.

At that rate, why bother driving here and there, wasting gas only to find such a sorry paint supply in TWO stores? If places like that lose sales on stuff like that every day, no wonder the beloved "family-operated hobby store" is going the way of the dinosaur. What a pain in the ass.

At both stores there were guys in their 20's (or possibly older) who had brought their truggies for the hobby store employees to figure out why things weren't working right. The end-result of people buying RTR's, I guess...clueless about how their cars function. One of them had a servo steering problem and instead of bringing in just the servo, the guy (if it was a teenaged kid I would've understood) brings in his truggy to be fixed, and even more amazingly, the guy at the counter tells him he'll "send it out for repair" instead of just testing the servo with another unit.

Nonsense like this only confirms my motivation to buy stuff online. Shameful, really.

[Hcp22]

Sorry to her this and I agree it’s a shame that they don’t carry the most common parts.
It’s almost a year sins the last of real hobby shop’s for RC closed down in our town. And for the last 4-5 years they didn’t carry much spare parts, you have to preorder everything. And they mostly sold RTR for the last 10 years.
I remember when they sold 250 Optima MID’s a year alone. A few years later people figured out it was cheaper to make a mail order, mostly from England instead. After that it was downhill for most of the local hobby shops in Sweden.

[Charlie don't surf]

Antenna tube? Traxxas are all 2.4 and don't use them, so we don't carry them anymore-

[SRTracer121]

took the one lhs not 15 minutes from the track 4 years to start carrying tires we use there and not till after they moved to over 40 minutes away in another part of the county. they dont carry servos from hitec or futaba, they dont have wide paint selection, they dont carry associated or losi. they put out customer orders on the store floor....

tell me again why i should buy from them over a-main hobbies? i mean i go out of my way to buy from that lhs because they are near a friend's workshop i visit and they do support our track to some degree but i mean at this point its just out of courtesy and respect that i shop there. the guys are nice enough and they have competitive prices.

[8rad]

Its true. My LHS rarely has what I need. Maybe its because my needs are usually pretty specific.

They are all really nice and will always order what I need but I can do that myself from the comfort of my living room.

At least the Faskolor rack is usually full.

[GoMachV]

The problem is that we are looking for a hobby store in a world where the hobby part is gone. These are just toy stores now and because of years of people not shopping there the stock dwindles to nothing. The best hobby store in Oregon, Tammies, still carries a very impressive array of parts and kits, but still I hear my friend beg me to not buy the last of anything on the wall cause he can't reorder for several weeks. When I worked there it was weekly or better.

Online stores have helped kill the hobby store just as much as rtr has killed the hobby itself.

[kaiser]

everytime i read one of these threads i appreaciate my lhs even more. they have everything.

the only things i buy online now are vintage parts/car, batteries (sorry but i'm not paying top dollar for "name brand batteries" when i can win with turnigy) and motors/esc's.

parts, kits (cars, planes and helis), paint, supplies, and most tools are all bought at my lhs.

[RC10th]

You can use airplane push rod tubes I used to use them because all the other tubes were too short.

Soon there will be no hobby shops, the customer can order it themselves and get the parts for the same price delivered to their door in the same time the LHS can get it in.

A hobby shop should at least stock the basics.

[Coelacanth]

I mean, I totally understand if a hobby store doesn't carry two-decades-old parts...but modern paint, in the most important colors?? X-Acto blades?! One of these places had a huge plastic can of multi-colored antenna tubes with rubber caps, just a year or so ago. Now there were none. Hint: MAYBE THEY'RE SELLING. And the profit margins on those things is huge, I bet they make a buck or two in pure profits from each $2.99 antenna tube or $5 X-Acto blade or container of paint.

You can use airplane push rod tubes I used to use them because all the other tubes were too short.

That's exactly what the one shop suggested; those ugly opaque tubes. I color-match an antenna tube, whether it's cut down to 2.4 GHz size or not, to a car's color scheme. I just couldn't believe that a place that had a huge container full of tubes no longer carries them.

[Orange]

Yep, I have yet to see those problems with the hobby shops around here. Of course there is around 5-6 for me to choose from less then 15 mins from my house. But most of them are very friendly and knowledgable and if I can't find it at one, another will have it.

I would like to say to all the nay sayers... Go open a hobby shop and prove that you can do it better. I don't think you can. It takes a special breed of person to own a hobby shop. I already know I am not that person and I have a huge amount of respect for the people that do their best to keep their doors open in that business. Not trying to make anyone mad, Just sayin!

Thats all I got to say about that.

[slotcarrod]

What colour tube you looking for Marc?

[SRTracer121]

Yep, I have yet to see those problems with the hobby shops around here. Of course there is around 5-6 for me to choose from less then 15 mins from my house. But most of them are very friendly and knowledgable and if I can't find it at one, another will have it.

I would like to say to all the nay sayers... Go open a hobby shop and prove that you can do it better. I don't think you can. It takes a special breed of person to own a hobby shop. I already know I am not that person and I have a huge amount of respect for the people that do their best to keep their doors open in that business. Not trying to make anyone mad, Just sayin!

Thats all I got to say about that.

i wont for a second disagree with you but some practices at the lhs i picked on in my previous post are not acceptable, ive worked retail enough to know you dont put special orders out on the floor, you put them in the back with the customer's name on it. if you called me up and asked me to grind 8 lbs of 80/20 ground chuck or prep/clean 2 whole 3lb rose snapper and then proceeded to put that out in the self service cases would you be too keen on that? id want to talk to the manager to say the least.

credit where its due the guy built that business from the ground up and has done very well. he has good business sense for the most part but sometimes it seems like they just... idk.

that said they are the best one around here and like you ive got a ton of them within a stones throw, the one shop has some of what is needed but they run their own show as well and the guys are clueless which is fine for someone who knows what they are there for but everyone else, good luck. another is an on site shop for an indoor track and is excellent for racers but is a trip for a lot of us up north, the other is huge, bought plenty there myself but again, hit and miss staff, a lot of nothing as selection goes. the last one just recently closed their doors and imo a lot of us couldnt wait for it to happen, they are the type that give a bad name for the rest of them, shame is they used to be the happenin place for dirt oval around here but thats another story for another day.


now the hobbytown usa i first walked into back when i got started in philly, that was a sweet setup, they steered me right

[Coelacanth]

What colour tube you looking for Marc?

Blue with a black or blue rubber cap, but it'd be nice to have other colors, too; red, pink, green, purple.

[Lonestar]

What colour tube you looking for Marc?

Blue with a black or blue rubber cap, but it'd be nice to have other colors, too; red, pink, green, purple.

tamiya bags of antenna tubes...

[artfull dodger]

Our Hobbytown, Castleton(Indianapolis) location has an awsome RC dept and for the most part, excellent staff that are into the RC scene as well. Then we have one here in Kokomo, the younger gentleman is deep into RC stuff, so he knows his stuff. Then we have one in Lafayette that also has a carpet track. Another great shop. We are lucky to have 3 great shops close by, 2 of which take in trades and have used gear available for sale. Now on the model train side, we do have a couple duds with either clueless or arrogant owners and I will only go there as a last resort. The owner of the local RC shop can be a buzz kill, whines about the online compition, whines about anything that is hurting his business, Im sorry but I am not there to listen to his troubles. I am there to support his business, but his attitude is a huge turn off. So I just deal with the younger helper who knows his stuff and is glad to help steer you the right way. Cheers Mike