I support my local hobby stores as much as I can but at some point I have to say I won't buy it from you because your price is out of line.
Couple of examples off the top of my head.
Hanger 9 foam safe CA, 1 oz.
LHS price= $13
Tower Hobbies= $7.99
I bought a gallon of glow fuel the other day when I picked up stuff for a donation and paid $15 for it.
Finding out I needed another gallon I went to a closer LHS and was charged $23. Same brand and nitro lvl.
There are more examples but at what point do you say I wont pay you that much?

Keep in mind, part of what you are paying for is for him to be there with what you need when you need it in a hurry.
The 50% difference in price for fuel I can't explain, wouldn't tolerate either.
How much do these businesses contribute to your club, both in time and donations?
What is their attitude toward those who do occasionally shop on-line?
Just food for thought,
KW_Counter

I think that's a personal decision. I have been lucky around here because the LHS's I visist the most will meet or beat the online places. For example, my last purchase from the one LHS I go to the most, cost me less than at Tower. And that is not including shipping charges that would have been tacked on. The other place I go, if I bring in the internet listing then they will match the price.

I can sympathize with your frustration. I feel I should support my local LHS but I also have to support my wife's jewelry habits.

I have two observations. One, you seldom see the "LHS vs Online store" comparison but in the Beginner forum. Not good or bad, just an observation.

Two, when I decide whether to pay a premium at the LHS, there's more than that 50% markup that goes into the decision. I have to decide, do I really want to support this guy? How far can I drive to support him? How far can I drive for that $8 savings? Will the extra few bucks really make a dent in my budget? Will I spot something else I need, while I'm there? Will friends be there loitering, waiting to talk to me? And (probably most important) Is this guy someone I really want to support, or would I drive the other direction and pay even more markup to buy from someone else?

I can think of a hobby shop I once patronized, fuel was not expensive, 20 mile drive, and I'd still do it if the guy wasn't such a jerk. The other hobby shop, I can walk there, he has the fuel (and other stuff) and I don't mind paying a premium. In fact, in January, I can buy in bulk at a big discount.

All been said before, I've made my decisions. I guess you'll make yours, based on the things that are important to you.

Best wishes,
Dave Olson

What I have done is take in the ad from tower hobbies and I have seen that most owner operated LHS will match that price. Try it. When it comes to fuel, that is another problem. For some it is mark up for others it is quantity pricing. You may not be able to get a discount for fuel.

I too get torn with this decision. I do feel a need to try and support my LHS's as much as possible. Mostly for selfish reasons I must admit. Plain & simple I want him to still be there when I need him. I don't want to be in the position of having to order & wait for delivery of every little item that I might need. In other words I don't want to have to order things like props & glow plugs from Tower or any other online source. I like the luxury of knowing there are 2 LHS within a short distance of my house. Both are owned & operated by very nice people that I have become freinds with so I do try to patronize them when ever I can. One store is new, they just opened up a HobbyTown USA shop this year. They are right here in town less than 5 minutes away. The owners have proven to be very nice people & I like them a lot. They recognized right away that I am heavily into these airplanes & have treated me as a "special" customer from the day they opened the doors. The other shop is owned by one of club Instructors & his wife who both have also become very good friends to my entire family. Their shop is about 20 minutes away in the next town east of me. So I try to support them as much as I can too. I don't bring in adds & try to get them to price match. What I do is buy any & all the smaller items I might need locally trying to share my business between the two shops as equally as I can. I am on a very tight budget right now though because I have been on dissability for coming up on a year now. So when it comes to bigger purchases like ARFs I shop around & buy from the best price I can find. I have to. That usually means buying online. I'd much rather buy an ARF from the LHS because I like to open the box & inspect it very closely, especially the covering job. But if it means saving a substantial amount of money by purchasing online then that is what I have to do. If I could afford it I would buy everything locally but I just can't do it. So I spread it out as best that I can & I think they know & understand my situation because I am still treated as a "special" customer at both shops.

This is tough. For my LHS guy, we have talked a lot about this and his thing is, he cannot afford to sell stuff any cheaper and stay in business. He HAS to sell the fuel at a 50% markup because he does not sell enough. He sells screws, nut and bolts and stuff for about 5x what I can get it from www.mircofasteners.com . For a small town LHS, there is no choice, so on those things that are a 1 time purchase I go to him, that includes buying an ARF. BUT, when it comes to fuel I must admit that I will not pay $25/gallon when I can get the same stuff for about 40% less from other places. I understand why he has to do it, but when I am spending up to $800/yr at $15/gallon, it would be foolish to spend more for me. Now if I only burned 10 gallons a year, eh, I think I would stick with him.

The other thing is that my LHS does not carry what I prefer to use in fuel and other stuff. I have suggested companies for him to switch to that would save him on cost and he could get the same markup $$/gallon. Also,he would sell more because we would buy it even if it were a few bucks more per gallon, if he carried the right fuel at the right price. But he just downright refuses. This goes for covering and some other stuff too. He refuses to carry anything that he cannot get from "one supplier".

I agree that all LHSs have to make a profit to stay in business but the question is how to make that profit?
Lets compare the 2 LHS I have recently bought fuel from.
LHS with $23 fuel= I was going to buy 2 gallons but once I saw the price I only bought one. The shop was more conveniently located. I was the only customer in the store. I bought the gallon of fuel and nothing else.
LHS with $15 fuel= I bought a gallon of fuel and spent $120 on other stuff (most of his stuff is competatively priced. The shop is a bit out of the way but is packed with people every time I go there.
LHS no.1 trys to profit well on most items but sells few items.
LHS no.2 makes smaller profits per item but sells alot of items.
I don't know which shop makes better profit but the lower priced shop is also the shop that donates items to area clubs for their Fun Flys.

in small towns and areas of the country that dont have a hobby shop your choice is to shop on line. from what i see, is that on line shopping for hobby products will dominate local hobby shops. nobody can compete with tower and horizon. they will soon take over and thats all that what will be left to do. sad but true. its too damn expensive to own a hobby shop and have to order $5000.00 a month of items. unless your a million aire.

I don't know how they do it, but my LHS beats Tower's and Horizon's prices on almost everything, given they cannot beat it if you add on the online coupons. For example, a Mach 427 engine is $150 on Horizon, but $135 at the shop. ARFs are also competitively priced, and 10% Omega fuel is $10 a gallon, and they have at least two dozen different fuels to choose from, including heli, airplane, car, and boat fuel. They also are the only hobby shop within 40 miles, and serve the entire north county, which is full of hundreds of RC pilots and drivers. They also give hundreds of dollars of raffle prizes to our flying club for the huge RC and full scale airshow we put on every year, and are one of our main sponsors. Guess everyone here in the north county lucked out.

The next hobby shop 40 miles away is full of people that want your money, and nothing else. Their stuff is way overpriced, and the staff is anything but knowledgeable. I remember one time this guy was buying a T-Maxx, and the guy at the counter said, "Okay, after you break in the engine, then you can bring it back as soon as you finish and buy a new one. These engines suck anyway. The OS .18TM is a good buy (it is $270 there), but you will need CVDs, better diffs, and a lot more to get your truck to withstand the engine." The next customer that walked in looking for a RC truck I helped before the sharks could bite at him, and he told me what he wanted, and I showed him to a Savage 25 Limited Ed. and he said it was exactly what he was looking for. Then I showed him all the stuff that he would need to run the truck, and he was about to buy everything when the shark found out that I was going to sell him a half decent truck, and he kicked me out and showed the guy to the T-Maxxes. The guy left, and outside I gave him directions to the hobby shop in the north county and he bought the exact same setup I showed him, at almost $150 less expensive. By the way, the first hobby shop in the north county has at least 5 customers in there at any one time, but me, the two other guys (that came at separate times) and the sharks were the only ones in the shop in the south county.

Sorry for the car story, but I don't have any airplane stories that can relate to the topic.

I'm a builder. For years I would find all of those little weird nickel and dime things I needed to finish a project at my LHS. So, to repay them, I would buy as much from them as I could, even a few big ticket items. But now, the LHS's have almost nothing that I need but fuel. SO, I don't see much point in their existence at all. I shop on line, I buy from ACE hardware, Hobby Lobby, Tower, almost everybody BUT that darn , no-good, LHS. They don't support me and I don't support them. My advise : start looking now for alternative places to find the things that you need. The LHS says they can order this or order that for me. WELL, SO CAN I. Only it comes to my door and I save 2 hours driving and 7 bucks worth of gas and my valuable time. They seem to think that a person's time isn't worth anything. After spending thousands of dollars worth of my time TRYING to buy at the LHS, I realized what THEY cost me. DEATH to BAD LHS's. RC HOLY WAR !!!!![>:][:@]

So .............support it if and only if its a good LHS. Kill off the rest by driving past.

I only go to my LHS for little purchases like fuel and glow plugs etc... I find that the arf's are just too high priced for me( example: they had an arf I liked for $180 w/o taxes, while when I bought it online I got it for $130 thats including taxes and shipping with the shipping being only 1-day) I like to support him, since he does own the field we use and do some maintaining but when it comes to high price items I just don't have the extra money to dish out when online store's quality and service have been getting better and better.

I did a quick calculation. Due to his stubbornness, he's losing out on about $80 a year in income, just from you. Sticking with his 50% markup means he brings in about $8/gallon. However, this markup prevents you (and probably plenty of other people) from buying there. So, he get $0 from you. If he'd go with a lower markup, perhaps sell to you 10%, and use fuel as a way to get you into the shop, he'd bring in $80. The important thing he probably doesn't even realize is it's amazing how many of us will walk into a shop for something like fuel and walk out with a new plane, radio, engine, etc. Heck, I went to a motorcycle shop for an air filter one time and ended up buying a new bike! Prices for supplies like fuel should be set at a price to encourage people to stop by.
It's amazing how many people will choose to make their lives easier rather than making the customer happy. Of course it could be that his volumes are not large enough so he has to stay with one supplier to be able to meet their minimums, or some threshold to give him a certain discount.

There is a Hobby Town U S A not to far from here. There prices are not to bad on some things. BUT the people working behind the counter are any thing but helpfull. If you are not in ther little in group, you will not be helped. I saw a guy knock on the door go in and get a bunch of stuf, meanwhile 4-5 people are waiting outside for them to open.

I would be more than happy to support my LHS if they would just learn some coustomer service.

My LHS Is Fair They Will Set Price At MAP +Internet Shipping Cost( The Price U Would Pay From Tower Any Way) +Tax

My LHS is having problems with his dealers they keep dropping him because his volume is not there. Had Futaba gone, Top Flite gone, etc.. So it’s a double edge sword, I try to spend as much as I can, but it’s got to be what I need. Lucky it’s not his main income so his prices are equal to Online stores but the dealers are causing all the problems they are going to the big online places and leaving us local yo coes out in the cold.
Rich

This is really too bad. I have only dealt with two HobbyTown USA shops, the new one right here in Tracy, Ca & another one last year up in Chico, Ca. They both give me excellent service, or at least they try to. I must admit that the new one here in town doesn't have all that much knowledge about planes but at least they are freindly & willing to learn. Whenever I come in & one of the two owners or their wives are there they allways play 30 questions with me. Mostly trying to find out the kind of things I would like to see them stock on a regular basis because they know I am a local plane guy.
They also try to get involved with our club functions & I think they will be supporting the club to some degree at our raffles & thinga like that. I know they have already invited all of our membership to customer appreciations days that they have had with free food & drinks & $5 off coupons. Things like this are not a huge deal but at least they are making an effort to get involved & to get to know us which I think is good business. It's working too. I rarely walk in there now without running into someone I know. Usually one of our own club members.

The store up in Chico showed me a way to save some money on my fuel when I was up there. I went to the counter with some name brand fuel that was close to $20 a gallon & he tells me, " hey let me save you some money" then he walks me back to the fuel & shows me this stuff for $11 a gallon with the same oil & nitro content. I told him I saw that stuff but didn't know if it was any good. He assured me it was. Told me some local boys were making this stuff & that it was all that the local club in Chico uses. So I saved the money & tried the fuel. True to his word this fuel was as good as anything I've ever used. Fact now that I think of it, I need to make a run back up there & stock up on that good fuel for cheap.

The point is I think these HobbyTown USA stores are generally pretty good. They are franchises so I guess it kind of boils down to the attitudes of the people that buy them. Both of my experiences have been good. I would not let one bad store turn me off to all of them. I know for a fact some are run by good people.

Elenasgrumpy

True, one bad store will not turn me off from the whole company. The next Hobby town is an hour away.

I think that they are more into cars and buggys than planes. Mabey that is why the service is the way it is. They might be briliant when it comes to cars and stuff.
There is a small shop on the way to the field where I fly, there prices are reasonable and the people are helpfull. A lot of our club members go there.(I bought my trainer from them)

I gues you just have to hunt around for the place that fits your needs.

We recently lost an LHS due to customer service issues. The staff was rude and unhelpful to the point that most if us simply stopped doing business with him. Fortunately, we have two HobbyTowns in Austin, plus several other locally-owned shops, all of which have excellent service. The HobbyTown folks are more knowledgeable on cars/trucks, but not bad on aircraft. I use the one closest to me for small items. My preferred shop is in Georgetown, about 30 miles through very BAD traffic, but the prices and service are worth it. I have bought on-line, and will again, but I'll use the LHS whenever possible.

How true. The first LHS I visited here had a few planes but they were more focused on trains. That by itself is not a bad thing but when I approached them with my plane questions I received blank stares and the 'cold shoulder'. I felt like they didn't have any experience with planes and for that reason didn't want to help. They lost a customer for life. Another LHS was the same way, but they treated me like I was important to them. For that reason, even though they are further I will patronize them if I decide to expand my RC hobby.

I think it's outrageous that convenience stors sell a bottle of water for a dollar.

But if I had been in the desert for 3 days with no water, I would gladly pay $100 for a bottle.

So it really comes down to - How badly do you need it?

I try to support my LHS (also a club member) whenever I can. His store is not organized in any fashion that you can make sense to. You are stepping over items in the aisles, squeezing by a stack of planes, etc. It is more like that old dark hardware store that had all of the odd ball items that you need. The best part, is I can call him and place an order and he will bring it to the field on "club night". He will even run a tab if you want. He says I know where to find you. He carries mostly the Horizon Hobby catalog stuff and sells it for the same price you find online. I only buy items that he does not carry online as you can not ask for much better customer service. The only downfall, he does not have the shop open on weekends.

Rob

C'mon, do you really need any of this stuff?

Well, right now, it costs $10 in gas to go to the LHS and back. Shipping on Tower Hobbies is $7.99, or $3.99 for Parts Express items. If I buy all Parts Express items except for one, they will charge the $7.99 shipping. In that case, I'd rather go to the LHS and buy there, since I can get it the same day. If not, I'd gladly order from the LHS and have it shipped there, because they don't charge for shipping, it will probably be there in two days, three days tops, and since I go there so often, I get a 10% discount so essentially whatever I see on the box is what I'll pay. And most of their stuff is below Tower Hobbies or Horizon's prices, given they cannot beat it when you include the online coupons. But its good enough for them to sell me hundreds of dollars in merchandise.

The only thing I have against them for their shipping when I order something from them, it takes 2-3 days to get there, but when Sun_Kissed_Girl orders something, they next day air it at no charge no matter what time the order was placed, and give her anywhere from a 10-20% discount.

I do a little of all three. My LT-40 trainer was purchased from LHS #1, my Futaba 6XAs radio was purchased from LHS #2 (they had a great price) and my Thunder Tiger 46 Pro was purchased online (no LHS carries the TT).

Supplies such as glues, paints, coverings and fuel are usually bought locally. My last batch of ARFs were also bought locally because you can open the box to inspect the contents for damage before you pay for it. I'll go online to get hard to find specialty items or something occasionally which has a big sale price (got a OS engine on a "damaged" sale because someone pulled the tape off the outside of the box and tore the outside layer of the boxtop off).

I do have a hard time finding the exact size of prop I need locally at times or a particular brand of glow plug.

I fly a lot of control line which is rarely stocked with any variety locally. In fact, a lot of the mail order houses don't carry some specialty C/L stuff so I have to order from one of the many cottage industry suppliers.

I saw on the Hobby Town site, You can open your own store. IF I thought my wife would not kill me, I might give it a try.


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