How do you feel about the stock, service, and availibility of "special ordering"

I worked part-time in one until a year ago. Did it for about 18 months. Moved 1000 miles.

Back then:

1. Service, stock, etc, depended on the interests and competance of the owner and the staff.
2. On two days of the week, an order could arrive at the store faster than you receive an order from that big mail order place.

The Hobbytown web orders were from Horizon.

Don't know what has changed.

BTW, the Hobbytown in Indianapolis is one great airplane shop!!!!!!! Lots of all kinds of airplanes. A really great shop!!!!! (That is not the one in which I worked)

Ken Erickson, AMA 19352

Support your local Hobby Shops, the ones that support you!!!!

I looked into a franchise a few years ago. Talked to a woman in corporate 3 or 4 times, first time she told me I didnt have the population base. I told her we had 100,000 in this county, 130,000 in the next county, growth rate of 17 per cent per year, and no real hobby shops here.
I called her back and she said, well ok, you have the population.
I seem to remember her telling me I'd have to stock what corporate wanted me too. I told her we had two rc aircraft clubs here with over 150 members. She didn't even care.
Finally she told me I'd need $250,000.
No mention of any kind of help, in short she had a could care less attitude.
if coporate won't help themselves, imagine how they'd help their customers
I finally gave up

if you are into RC cars or electric fun flies then the hobbytown we have here is great,they do have a reasonable stock of glues but the local hardware store has more variety.they seem to stay in business though so something is working well.as far as kits they Hadley exists they stock a few arf's,and say we can order anything.i wanted to put a few models up for sale in their store and told the manager that i would give him 20% and was told it was against corporate policy.we have one other hobby shop in this area and anytime i have asked a question there was someone there that could answer it or if i wanted to sell something they were very happy to accommodate.if i would have to rate hobbytown for the aspect of the sport i am into (RC airplanes)on a scale of 1 to 10 i would say 3.

Ours Hardley never has anything in stock and we ordered a retract servo 2 months ago and they just got it in the past week but no worries we ordered one from tower 2 weeks on a monday was expected the next monday got it in the following thursday 4 days who can beat that so towerhobbies is the way to go when you want something ordered

I'm happy with my two local Hobbytown USA stores. They both have a good variety of everything, and they usually have a reasonable supply of those "right now" items that we all invariably rush to the hobby store to get. I haven't talked to too many R/C flying experts at my local stores, but overall they do a good job and the prices are fair.

I try to support my local hobby stores whenever possible. Hobbico and Horizon will get their cut of whatever I buy regardless of where I get it from. I'd just as soon keep a local source around for those "right now" items so I don't end up having to wait four days to get propellers or replacement clevises or whatnot.

The one near me is OK. I bought a roll of monokote and a switch/charge jack there Sunday. They don't have everything I'm interested in, but, neither do any of the other shops in the area. Each has its strengths.

As far as "special ordering," why bother? I can do that from my house without even putting on my shoes.

It's hard to beat Tower Hobbies. If you play your cards right with the promotions and pay no sales tax and never leave home, what more could you ask for? I would like to support our local HS more often but some of the prices are just to high.
chopper man

towerhobbies merged with greatplanes some time ago, so if tower has it there is no excuse why any hobbytown cant get it as g/p is one of thier major vendors..the prices should be the same as tower to if they arent then your getting taken for a ride! although tower was sold to the employees but the whole thing is part of the parent company we all know of called "hobbieco" though the promotions tower offers are great! i love them saves me tons of $$

one of the reasons to special order for me is because the store is right near me and it saves me the shipping fee's after a year that adds up at the rate im ordering stuff!

I rarely order from tower or anywhere else online. My LHS is a family owned one. Many people in my club work there and, for me, it is cheaper to pay sales tax the shipping in most cases. Also, things arrive very fast prices are identical to all online retailers and the staff is extremely friendly and knowledgeable. Also I go by there every day coming home from school, so its no trouble to stop and buy stuff. And they donate thousends of dollars worth of items every year for my clubs fun flys. I would give my local hobby shop a 10 out of 10.
Karter

The one in my city always had products marked up over MSRP and had a made up MSRP on the sticker to to act like they were giving you a good deal. As far as cars go they had all the parts and guess did ok. But for R/C planes they had those cheap little electrics that would bore you after 5 minutes. The guys the had working behind the counter in the R/C plane section had no clue about the hobby and always would try to steer to buy somethiing they had instead of ordering anything. I never did order anything as their prices were to high and wanted to charge a special fee for ordering.
I shop at a locally owned hobby shop that has been around for close to 50 years. The staff know their stuff and are friendly and know you by name. I bought a Hanger 9 Pulse Xt last month that they ordered for me. Going price online was 149.99, they sold it to me for 139.99 and I avoided shipping fees. Plus they gave me $10 off a O.S. 46 AX.....Go local instead of franchise.

Ours lasted about a year or so before it folded back in 2001. About the same story as above. This guy was an idiot. He stocked that store with every giantscale plane on the market but had no takers. Most guys just order as necessary , so he sat on them forever. Counter boys were nosepickers with no clue. Fortunately we have a few other great LHS in the area, so he was not missed at all.

I've been in three of them, had the same impressions in each one. The guy behind the counter could care less if you bought something (apparently wasn't the owner), said person behind counter didn't know s##t about the products on the shelves, shelves had little in the way of anything except starter level stuff.

I figure that their entire sales was based on one visit per customer, and those customers who bought really didn't know what they were looking for, and once they purchased, based on whatever misinformation and vague promises they were given, went home and couldn't figure it out, and revisited for assistance and couldn't get it, never went there again.

Give me the local Mom-and-Pop LHS where the guy has a real interest in: 1- the hobby, 2- the customer, 3-good service (will follow as long as #1&2 are fulfilled). It's a damn shame that the big distributors have it to the point where the little guy can't make crap for a good living because of having to compete with the same people he is forced to buy his stuff from.

BTW, none of the three H.T.'s I've been in is in business any more. I wonder why.

Wow, I guess the one near us is somewhat special. The selection is getting larger in the plane section. The guys behind the counter are actual flyers. They give sound advice and are rather helpful. Sometimes the selecttion does run a little thin but you can usually expect things in by Fridays. However, like everything else in this world it does have a few flaws from time to time. Some things do have to be ordered but there is no addition charges.
Well other opions are being mention so I gotta say www.AdvantageHobby.com online is very helpful and great prices... As for shipping, free on most items..Thats right FREE !!! As for time for shippng. Ill. to Knoxville, Tn. 3 days to the door. Great dealings so far.

The one here doesn't have the best selection for airplane stuff. They have a few of the popular ARF's but no kits. The covering selection is limited. They have a variety of hardware but normally only one of each item which means stuff is commonly sold out. It's funny, I often hear the employees dealing with someone asking for a kit. They usually tell the guy that "nobody builds kits, take alook at this RTF electric foam thing". If nobody builds kits then why are guys asking for them? Why is the hardware sold out so much? If nobody scratch builds then why does the balsa wood sell? Why are they often out of CA and epoxy? You can't tell me that nobody around here is interested in building.

I can't complain too much though; the service has always been great. I've bought a couple ARF's from them, an engine or two and ordered a kit. The guys behind the counter may not always be plane experts but they help out with whatever I ask for. It's tough to always buy from Hobbytown though because Tower's west coast distribution center is a 5 hour drive from me. If I place an order in the morning before work, it usually arrives on the UPS truck the next evening. That's hard to beat. I still want the Hobbytown to be there though when I need that piece of hardware or something at the last minute. I try to support them for just that reason.

I also have a good independent hobby shop 45 minutes to the south. I stop by sometimes if I'm in the area for work. There's another really good one about 1-1/2 hours north of me too. If I really want to go to a cool hobby shop though, I drive up to San Jose and go to Sheldon's; that place is hard to beat.

I have only been in 1 once, it is 60 miles from my home. I have an L.H.S. 22 miles from home, 7 miles from work. This guy only cares about the rc car guys that race at his track. The next hobby shop is 40 miles from home, in Vermont, and is very fair on prices, knowledgeable staff and he also is a flyer. There is a great hooby store in Massachusetts the isles are 18" wide due to everything stacked up and sticking out off the shelves. I called hobbytown late on a Saturday a few weeks ago looking for a new engine, so I could fly the next day, the fellow told me I don't stock that engine {os 46 ax} but there is this place in Mass.,if I were you, I call him.
When the employees start recommending other locations, it tells me where the store is heading.

The one close to me is mostly stocked with car stuff. I did ask some questions about a couple different radios and was at least politely told by the counter person they didn't know much about anything other than cars.

Luckily I have a couple of great local shops nearby!

Greg S

Im not real impressed with Hobby Town. I do a fair amount of scratch building and the wood selection at HT stinks. Luckly I have A LHS thats been in business for over 25 years that has most of what I need and good quality contest grade balsa. No real rc car stuff but an excellent selection of aircraft and associated building supplys. RC from 1/2A on up, C/L, Free flight, Epower, Rubber, static and so on. It's a couple of miles further away but worth the drive. If any of you all get to Denver check it out.

Thompson Hobbies 16th Ave. and Wadsworth Blvd.

Darren

anyone else?

I think KingCrash and I have visted the same HobbyTown in the CrossPoint Shopping Center, and they do have a wide verity of stuff, only a fair amount of plane stuff. And as King said they are very honest about not knowing too much about RC Airplanes, but they will order anything you want real quick and it comes in pretty quick. They are looking for someone to be their airplane guy or gal so that their service is better to the clients. I'd give them a B+ all things considered.

Buhler, Buhler, anyone, anyone,.............

We've had 2 or 3 of these in the OKC. One on the southside has moved from Moore OK to Norman Ok, about 15 miles south. Don't know if it was the same store moved or two differernt teams altogether. The owner of the north OKC store told me that when he bought the franchise he was required to stock what they told him to for 3 years. Then he could start deleting their stuff that didn't sell. Sadly he was only 2 miles from our RC field and repeatedly expressed no interest in working with us on our training programs or stocking things you'd need on the way to the field. Hired RC car and D&D figure guys who knew nothing about airplanes.

He lasted a total of 4 years, the store is now empty.