I am fortunate. I have 5 good hobby shops within one hour. One of them just increased in size, but haven't stocked up yet. I hope they stock for Christmas soon. Another charges outrageous prices, the conflict is he is the closest to me. We were suppossed to get a club discount of 10%, but I always seem to buy something not included in that. The third has a great selection, but has prices up near the second. Both of these guys are in strip malls which I understand costs them more in rent. The 1st shop, the owner owns the strip mall, convenient huh.
The fourth and fifth are about an hour away, but they are great. Pricing is fabulous at these places. They will wheel and deal when you drop a couple of hundred bucks at once. They both have a lot of consignment sales, which excite me. I like them because I can get airframes, radio equipment and engines at reduced prices. If they do not work right, I can bring them right back too, except for planes, once you take it you own it. They both stock a lot of ARFs and a few kits. I like kits, but ARFs are more popular. They are both single owner type businesses with a hole in the wall store, but they usually have everything.

And last but not least they give you as much of their attention as they can.

I was in Atlanta, GA the other day and saw a hobby shop closing its doors. It was a great shop and the reason the owner had to is because his manager ripped him off for $400,000.00 in merchandise. The guy was convicted, but the stuff was never found. Poor guy!