Like all threads of this type on RCU they start out just fine and always turn into an ARF vs KIT vs PLANS vs SCRATCH, nothing new about it.
Hobby shops haven't helped the builder much these days. I had a great shop here in Vegas and for several years I would go there once a week. The owner was a builder at one point and flew all the time at the different fields, he knew most of us and knew what we were flying so he kept items we would need in stock.
When he sold the store that all changed. The new owner moved it to a smaller building and runs it much differently, it's now stocked like most other shops but he does stock some, not much, of the building supplies I need.
He had a falling out with SIG?? The original owner was on the phone with SIG three times a week placing orders but now we can't even get any of the SIG products off the shelf. Glues and epoxy choices are now slim, even his selection of props for glow or gas are slim.
I'm lucky to have two other stores close by so I hit all three when I go to that side of town. Hobby People has a few things, Hobby Town also has a few things so sometimes I luck out, not often but sometimes. Now I do most of my shopping on line.
The really bad thing is these stores hire people off the street so there is zero help for anyone. I had one fellow that didn't even know what a motor mount was??
Last night I went into the CLASSIC PATTERN forum where people are still building there planes, they have a URL just for builds you can go to to see how and what other builders are doing. None of these builds are in the kit building forum. They are building from kits and plans. One of the fellows even puts some plans into JPG so you can download them for your own use. Some years ago he sent me a couple of them. Of course these are old pattern planes so it isn't for everyone but if you look around there are some nice builds still happening here on RCU.
Too bad ARFs were even mentioned in the first place in this thread, it always makes the thread go in a different direction.