Local hobby shop is closing.. another victim of the economy :(

[mkrusedc]

I think Jerry has the right idea. I am going to retire with my hobbies. Either a hobby shop, Bonsai sales over the internet or something to keep active and fun....

[JERRY2KONE]

Yea thats me alright. My wife calls it temporary retirement. I have worked every single day of my life since I was 14, starting off as a golf caddy. I quit school to persue full time caddy work in order to bring home the bacon for the family, and I have been doing just that ever since.

Anyway when we got married in 2004 I had to travel with her to Korea and could not work that year, because we were going to be shipped off to Belgium within ten months. Then I had to wait for a security clearnace and that took over a year to acquire, even though I had a top secret clearance in the military that did not matter to the State Department. I worked for two years there at USNATO, and then took custody of my 3 youngest kids, so the wife and I decided that I needed to stay home and become Mr. Mom for them for at least 6 to 12 months. Well I have done that for 6 months now and I am over it. We whipped the kids into shape and now I am ready to become a working man again. Within reason of course. I do not have to work, but we have plans for our retirement and I want to speed things up a bit finanacially.

So the good news is that I just received word from DC that I am going to become a Goverment contractor doing background investigations. I decide what cases I want to do and I control my own hours working out of our home. So that will be a first for me, and I am loving the idea of that. So all of my hard work is finally paying off big time. The kicker is that I can easily earn $100K+ a year just gathering data. So now I am set. I have almost everything that a man could ask for after putting up with a lot of Crapp for so many years. I am loving life right now, and my hobby room is not only my sanctuary of peace, but my wife is always looking for ways to help me improve the atmosphere and asking if I need anything to make things easier in the shop. She got me a 19" flat panel TV for Xmas just for the shop. So yes I do think I have the right idea. Finally. Thanks for saying so MK.

I would love to open up an R/C shop/track with a partner, but we still have 6 more years of international travel to get out of the way first. Trust me I am enjoying that as well. Owning a shop and running a race track would be a great way to spend my retirement years. I have some pretty good ideas that I have seen and learned along the way. Location, location, location is the key.

As one who works at a "successful" hobby shop, I thought I would chime in on a few things that I think makes a hobby shop work. Think of these as suggestions for those of you who want to open a LHS.

1. Stock as many parts as physically possible. It doesn't matter how many kits you sell, (cars/trucks, planes, helis, boats, or whatever), if you don't keep stock parts, and hop-ups in stock.

2. This kind of works with 1. Diversify as much as possible. We sell, planes, helis, boats, cars/trucks, models, diecasts, rockets, trains, pinecars, slot cars. There are employees who are knowledgeable in all of them too. I'm mostly into cars, but we have a "plane/heli guy," and a "train/slot car guy," and a "model guy."

3. Cater to what your customer base is. In our case, there are not a lot of racers, mostly bashers, so stock what they want. Therefore we do not stock a lot of Mugen, Kyosho, etc. because we sit on inventory and that costs money.

4. You do not need a track to be successful. We do not have a track and it works out very well for us. Unless you have a well known track that can bring in big races, the owner is probably losing money on the track part, more than likely they have it because they really support the hobby.

5. You have to be competitive with online pricing, whether that means really low margins on kits/RTRs, or buying in major bulk and storing kits. If you look at all our kits, they are priced within $5 of Tower/Horizon, or any other major online seller. As you all know, replacement parts are where there is any margin anyways, Electronics and kits do not make a shop money.

6. Your employees have to be excited and knowledgeable about their job. They have to want to work there. I've been to plenty of other hobby shops where the employee didn't know what they were talking about, or didn't want to help customers. Minimizing turnover will help with that as well. I've been working at this LHS for 4 years and I was the newest employee until just a few months ago.


Sorry for the long post, but as I think of more things I'll add it to the list. Right now I have to go to work at my LHS.

[ssspconcepts]

I hate to see any small business go under...heck, when I buy stuff from Mike, I don't use his cupon codes...because in the grand scheme of a $2K-$3K build, the $20 that I save in the parts that I buy from RCM Mike is minimal...and I want to see him in this business for a long time. However, with regards to the LHS situation there is another side to the story. Example: I am the market to buy a new Jammin X1 CR buggy. I have checked several LHS in the DFW area and the prices range from $519-$559 for just the buggy kit. I can get the same kit online for $374. I don't buy this crap that the LHS profit margins suck. I also recently converted all of my RCs over to Ofna (except my G3R) because I want some standardization of parts and so it would be easier to buy parts locally--no good there either because all they really stock is TRAXXAS. Its kind of irratating when I go into the LHS and they look at me like I am speaking in a foreign language when I politely ask if they have a 5mmX109mm turnbuckle. And forget about asking them for any info about hardcore brushless applications. I travel all over the country for work...and I have lived a lot of different places...and I am here to tell you that it is the same song and dance everywhere. A lot of...no scratch that...MOSTof the LHS that I have visited don't even know what a Neu motor is. They say "ya, all we sell is new motors." If you ask them about brushless conversions they say "ya, I heard something about Novak puttin some kits out but we dont sell them yet."

Now I understand that that we are in the "high performance" and somewhat exclusive side of the RC hobby...BUT, I also understand that owning a hobby shop IS NOT A HOBBY. It is a profession...which obviously some rely upon to put food on the table and a roof over their head. And like any profession, and in particular, retail businesses...it is in one's best interest to pursue higher levels of performance, knowledge, skill, and capability...and to do so with alacrity and a good sense of customer service. Maybe you all have the benefit of living close to better hobby shops than where I have found myself visiting and if that is the case then I apologize to those shop owners for offending them. But until I find such a place, I will continue to drive right on past and buy my RC stuff online. This is just my 2 cents.