Originally Posted by
init4fun
Well said Ira, and I'll add that when hobby shops were in their heyday each one had at least one if not several employees who actually participated in the hobby and were there to answer any question the customer may have. At least in my area, this devolved into employees who didn't give a poop about anything but the paycheck, eliminating one of the best reasons for hobby shop purchases.....
And I would have to agree with you completely on this. There used to be four really good hobby shops in the Seattle area that were that way. Some of the sales staff flew, some floated and others rolled. Have a question and there was at least one of the staff that could answer it. Then the unthinkable happened to each:
- The owner of one shop decided to try something new. He brought in a commercial airliner cockpit simulator and was going to charge people to use it. It had software issues and, trying to get it to work and pay for it bankrupted the shop, forcing it to close
- Second owner had a very successful shop, but was getting old. He decided to retire and sold the shop to another hobby "enthusiast". The new owner's first move was to relocate the shop to a smaller location and cut the inventory to save money. Less than a year later, the new owner fired the staff claiming they were stealing from him and closed the shop down a few months later when he found he couldn't handle it alone
- Third shop was, like #2 above, very successful. Like the other shop, the owner decided to retire and sold the store, though he did stay on as an "advisor" and sales clerk for a while. While the shop was still doing well, some of the staff had left to do other things and the new employees weren't as knowledgeable and some long term customers decided to take their business elsewhere. This happened about the same time as the lease needed to be renewed. The rent went up and, with customers going to other places, the owner was unable to afford the higher rent and was forced to close down
- The last shop was the saddest of them all. The owner decided to get out of the business and sold the shop to one of the staff. The shop was still doing very well and, being one of the last hobby shops in the area, had a fairly large clientele. Then, one day, a prospective shop owner went to the properly ownership groups office and asked about getting the hobby shop's location, offering considerably more money for the space than the hobby shop was paying. The hobby shop owner was given the chance to match the prospective shop owner's bid and, when told they couldn't afford that much, the ownership gave the hobby shop a "be out by" date. The hobby shop was basically evicted, even though they had a significant amount of time left on their lease