u2fast

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a few more forgoten hobby shops, meirs models n more, roadrunner north, central, and west, henrys rc cars and racetrack, j&k in conroe. barry

YNOT

2fast pulling out the car stores. Is Henery R/C the Checkered Flag race way? Henery Lee? Geeezzz I can't believe I remember that. Also there was a shop at Beechnut or Bissonet and the loop on a side street. I went there when I was going to summer school at Bellaire in the 80's.

u2fast

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yes it was henry lees at checkered flag speedway before he sold it to rod ward. the bellaire shop you are thinking of is roadrunner central. barry

RCP57

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For those of you who remember Baxter Marsh, owner of Kingsway on Westheimer who retired on May 15th 2005, he past away on May 29th 2005. I don't have any details to the cause of his passing. He was a crotchety old guy who helped a ton of people in this hobby. He will surely be missed!

Pilot Chad

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At my LHS, They have been in buisness for 30 years and are going strong. I have only been there about 5 times, but in those 5 times i have spent well over 400$ They know who I am when i come in. Most of the time i come in I am just getting the regular gallon of fuel and small things. But every now and then i will get something big. I average about 30 bucks for just pickin up small things...

u2fast

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a sad day indeed. baxter was a great guy. no doubt feisty in his older years, but always fun to hang out with. he always went out to eat with the gang after the club meetings. scobee will not be the same without him. god bless you baxter and family, your friend, barry

lymon

That is sad news. Kingsway was another labor of love. I saw more of them when they were on Richmond @ Chimney Rock. I don't know how you would open a brick and mortar hobby shop today and expect to ever make much dough... it is for people who want to spend their days in a hobby shop, and don't mind paying for the privilege or at least working for free.
Everybody needs to go right now to the closest LHS and buy something.

YNOT

Know Baxter for 25 years[&o]

flyerjmr

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>>Everybody needs to go right now to the closest LHS and buy something.<<

That being said, let me explain what it takes to run a sucessful hobby shop. This will not necessarily be in the order of importance----

1. Being there
2. Proper inventory control
3. Product knowledge
4. Cash flow
5. Lots of socializing with the clubs.
6. Decent location
7. Customers
8. Advertizing
9. Rapid delivery of special orders.
10. Keeping your promises to customers.
11. Good relationship with suppliers
12. Good credit rating
13. Making a reasonable profit
14. Having a very thick hide and not getting your feelings hurt when someone is unreasonable.
15. Being able to say no when necessary
16. Being able to multitask-- between live customers and phone customers.
Now, I could go on & on here, but I think you all will get the idea.
I started The R.C. Hobby Shop back in Sept. of '91 after I retired from 35 years of the Automotive business. If you want a taste of a tough business, try that for a while. No one is happy because you are dealing with people who are trying to make people with broken cars happy.
The R.C. Hobby Shop was done in a very business like manner as a start up. There was never any debt and inventory build up was done from profits. There were no expensive toys that came from store money unless it was from year end profits. Attending to the business was primary. Having good help was necessary, and Bucky was very instrumental in the growth of that business after I became sole owner in '95 and moved to the present shopping center.
Last June, after 13 years of owning a 7 day a week business, I decided that I needed a break. I was 71 years old and thought that a few years of retirement would be a nice thing. Bucky wanted the business and I after he came up with the down payment, I financed the rest.
The hobby business is no different than any other business. It can be profitable if done properly, or it can cause you to lose you proverbial butt if done wrong.
You guys need a local place to buy your day to day hobby supplies. Yes, the reason for the business is to make a profit, and anyone who goes into business for any other reason is wasting time and money.
That's enough for now-- off my soap box.
Hello to Steve Campbell--- and the rest of you who shopped at my business for the 13 years I owned it. I'm still active there -- every wed. I let my boss have a day off! How about that!

tpes

Gary, have been out of the country for the last 12 days so some of these post are new to me.

First, Baxter. I heard today that he was in the hospital for surgery and just never woke up. Truth be told the last time I saw Baxter, about 6 weeks ago, he did not look well at all. I just thought is was the closing of the shop and Ted sleeping behind the counter that had him down, guess not!
Baxter was one of about 6 or 7 guys that flew at Alief Stadium back in the 70's. Baxter Marsh, Fred Massey-a dentist, Tony Azaveto-a machinest, Ed Dupaquier-owner of Trains & Planes Hobbies, Tom Hunter-installed central TV antenna systems, Jerry Bills-sold large electrical transformers, and Bob (?), was a sound man at Channel 2. When we were politely asked to leave Alief Stadium we started flying at the Roark Road Field (Sam Houston Toll Road Today) which was the original home of The Alief Airforce, coincindentally named by my son, and the forerunner of the current Bayou City Flyers. After Roark Road we flew behind Brown & Root until they asked us to leave and the group split up. By this time the group was 35 to 40 people and everybody spread to different fields. Some of the guys started flying at the then new Ft. Bend County field, the home of the shotgun happy farmer, some went to Space City, some went to Northwest R/C, and some just went. This was when the Nelson engine was the hottie in the market and Dub Jett would sell you an engine here in Houston just to get the name and engine out there. Anyway thinking about some of those old days sure makes you want them back. The hobby was not as flashy as it is today, nor as easy but it sure made for a great weekend when you got in 5 or 6 flights and came home with your airplane intact. Hope Baxter finds a confortable chair and a steady head wind.

Second, MSCRCC was never a club open to the "public". Anyone, myself included, that did not work at Johnson Space Craft Center was actually flying as a guest of the MSCRCC which was a member of the EAA (Employee Activity Association) at NASA. The field was open to fly on any day that a mission was not up, which in those days ment a lot of days to fly. All we needed to fly was an AMA Card. We would meet at the old Southwestern Savings building across from MSC for the monthly meetings.

Third, lets go for trivia again. Who remembers Dick Booth, Mr. Black Ops himself, never could tell the players without the scorecard when ole Dick was around. Claimed to be retired from both Eastern Airlines and the "company". Only R/C flyer I know that was thrown out of most of the shops in Houston and from what I have heard also many of the fields, including Bomber. Also claimed to be part-owner of a hobby distributor in the Washington D.C. area and supposedly got in to some real s--t for selling radios and supplies here in Texas and not collecting or reporting sales tax. Rumor had it that one of the LHS owners (now out of business) turned him in because he was taking business away from the shops. That's hearsay guys, but most hearsay has a thread of truth somewhere. Will give him this, he was one hell of an R/C pilot! Anybody out there know where Dick is? Or did he, in a true Dick type clandestine move, just disappear in a cloud of smoke like the cigarette man on the X-Files?

YNOT

DUDE!!!! Dick Booth..........I remeber that guy. Saw him at Performance R/C's second location maybe 10 years ago, maybe longer. He was sitting at that table reading a mag. I said hi to him and introduced myself, it must have been 10 years or longer since the last time he saw me and he was...................well........................ .Dick.

I see Jim Mattley at the Bomber Big Bird every year. Don't think he flys much anymore, however still around.

tpes

Dear flyerjmr,
Could not agree more. Everyone should SHOP the LHS. And, if that shop is overpriced, under inventoried, under staffed, with no knowlagable people go to a shop that offers all of that.
Let's face it, some shops and shop owners don't deserve to be in business in today's business enviorment. If a LHS is not doing a good job it SHOULD BE replaced because at some point they will start selling anything to anybody (not good for the hobby) probably below cost just to make a sale so they can make the rent or eat tonight and in the long run that only hurts the REAL shops that are humping it every day, doing it right and MAKING a living at it.
I know of no shop in the Houston market or any market that works as a charaitable organization yet many of the now defunct shops felt the modeling community owned them something, that something was loyalty. Loyalty for what, half-assed inventory, untrained employees (including the owner), and overpriced shopworn merchandise.
Go into the really successful long term shops here in Houston, Trains and Planes and Larry's are two of the best examples of good hobby shops I can think of. Look at the dollar value of inventory, talk to the salesmen. These are class acts when it come to the hobby business. They are not in it for the today sale but for the long haul, they are professionals doing a professional job in a really tough business (you listed all the pit-falls so I would guess that you are/were in some sort of retail business, maybe still are). These two shops will be around now and 10 years from now beacuse they are a TRUE BUSINESS, not somebody's idea of "gee, let's open a hobby shop".
I am sure that Trains and Planes and Larry's are not the only two in Houston when it come to ALL of the criteria for a successful hobby shop, and that includes friendly service which is why one shop is conspicuously not listed, but these two sure stand out.
The law of the jungle, the law of the land, survival of the fittist, and only the strong survive.
Most, not all, that open a hobby shop or worst yet purchase a struggleing shop are just buying themselves a poor paying 52 hour a week job. That's not ment as a shot at those folks out there that don't cut it, but just a reminder of the old Joe Friday line from the TV series "Dragnet", "Just The Facts Please, Just The Facts".

u2fast

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i just talked with jim matley over the weekend at bomber field. he is still flying and also flying full scale. i also had the honors of being a member at nwrc the same time dick booth was. he was a good pilot. certainly carried himself a little higher than most. he was always polite to me, but i did see him at his finest at some of the local hobby shops. great entertainment. last i heard he is living up toward waco? seems that i saw him at a swap meet or an event a couple or few years ago, but i cant swear on that. barry ps now for some more trivia. i flew at delmar stadium in my early days. does anyone remeber dan shae and if so, why?

u2fast

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a third shop probably the one left out on purpose is m and m hobbies. he has been around a long time as well. i find meir to be a very nice man, heck he came to visit me in the hospital when i had cancer last year. also miriam is as sweet a lady as they come. he does not stock a lot of jet or giant scale stuff so he is not my main source for those materials, but i support him and all the local shops as much as i can. barry

tpes

Sorry about forgetting Jim Matley.
Good guy, great pilot, both real and R/C, and possesed the greatest amount of discipline I have ever seen in a person. Jim, then a VP with BFI was the man orignally responsible for the NWRC flying field at the BFI land fill off 529. Jim took me flying in his Citabria once and boy what a thrill, he wrang me out and put me away wet. This was after he had gone to Flordia to learn acrobatics, maybe I should have flown with him before he went to Flordia.[8D] Last I heard he was commuting between Californis and Texas with his job. FYI-Jim graduated from the Navel Academy and flew A-4's from carriers during Viet Nam.

Yes, the other shop is M & M and Meir is very nice especially when compaired to his brother Issac, but lets face it u2fast they do have kind of a reputation for not always being the most friendly folks in town. Ever try to return ANYTHING or get help when you did not buy the item from them, and they don't know you? Don't take my word on anything, ask around!

Hey don't get me wrong. they run a very successful shop and have been around for a long time in one form or the other (Issac's, I & I's, and now M & M's) but god man the least they could do is smile or at least aknowledge you when you walk in. I was on Gulfton about two weeks ago and stopped in. I walked around for about 20 minutes, not a hello, not a goodby. Two guys behind the counter in the R/C car department with their own agenda that did not include helping me. Meir and I guess his wife and a small child in that front check-out area more concerned with something under the counter then helping a customer, of which by the way I was the only one in the store. Sorry u3fast you have not convinced me, but that of course is just my opinion.

grbaker

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I flew DFs with Jim Matley at Bomber. His wife had an A-4 model built for him that looked just like one he flew in the Navy. I don't think he ever flew the model.

Dirt Daddy

.........ERRRR [:'(] I would rather go the dentist

u2fast

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tpes, where do you fly now and were you a member of nwrcc in the 80s. i was a member at the old landfill off of addicks fairbanks and at the 529 field. i still go to their spring flinf day. good people there. as for meir and isaac, they have always been kind to me, but i have no complaints about any of our local shops, i am friends with them all and support them all. lets hook up and do some flying and shoot the bull about old times. barry

r-man

I know I'm new here, but I've owned my own businesses for 20+ years, and I see LHS' demise as being almost exactly paralell with MANY 'hobby' businesses...

I don't mean hobby in that they're related to r/c or other hobbies, I mean they are often started as a hobby or end up being a hobby.


Much like the couple who save $50k, quit their day jobs, and open a little "Pool table" store, or a "Party Merchandise store," only to find 3 months later that there's a REASON that the previous 5 tennants of that space went bankrupt, and that there's a REASON that for the last 40 years, LHSs have come, and gone, come and gone, and come and gone again.

Are the reasons identifiable, and repeatable? Absolutely. But the reasons are also VERY dynamic and vary from place, but the BASIC underlying reason is that much like Fast Food Restaurants, it's VERY hard to turn a reasonable profit (reasonable being put the same money and time as investments into different businesses, and where does the Bell curve lie?) on a SINGLE store... economies of scale, coop advertising, etc, all contribute to turn this industry into a semi-representiave example of an industry based on disposable income for what are essentially entertainment items.

rcav8or

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Wow, small world - I hail from Indiana, but go to school for work, in Norman OK for a few weeks to few months every summer...Mike's South is by far one of the BEST inventoried Hobby Shops I have ever been in! If he has one of something, he has 20 of them. And there are very few things he doesn't have. Our LHS has zip-point-squat!! I went in for 10X6 props, not a one in the place - nor was there any CA, and the wood is just the dug-through leftovers over the last 10 years. Wouldn't put a single piece in any of my planes. Mike's was VERY refreshing!

And while you are there, visit Mike's North. It's up the road a piece (don't know the addy, just how to get there). It's owned by Sean McMurtry's dad. Also has quite a bit, but it's been there for a long time, and has a lot of old (antique??) stuff in there, you can spend an afternoon just looking, and listening to the old-timers that meet there. Of course, they also meet at Mike's South, so overall, it's a pleasant experience. You can also visit the Realm of Hobbies, in Moore, just before you get to OKC, they also are very well stocked, at least with ALL the staple. I don't walk out of either Mike's South or Realm, without spending at least a $100 bill, usually a lot more!

R

geish

May he rest in peace. I'm pretty new to the hobby and Kingsway is near my house. He was a very nice man. I consider him to be my very first mentor when it comes to R/C planes. Heck, he helped me tune my old KB 45 engine. I'll finish building my plane and dedcate it to him. It's not looking so pretty, but hey, it's my first plane.

God bless Baxter.

DadsToysBG

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Try this one. A teenager fakes a store front and opens a account with Horizon and sells out of his trunk at the field. Ever time i talk to some one I see him talking to him right after. Then I have to prove he doesn't have a store to stop him. Jump to this year. Same thing different kid. He tells everybody he doesn't have to make a profit. This guy is still in high school. Here I go again. Dennis

Skymac

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Interesting...

FLYINMIKE-RCU

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Do I know these guy's ?

pittsman

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i think so mike!!!!!!!!!!!