Posted: 5/18/2025 4:45:57 PM EDT
[Last Edit: flynbenny][Edited]
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And yes I realize I might be crazy. Especially with this tariff business going on, or the damned government being able to close your business because of a cold going around. My local HobbyTown franchise is done for. They tried super hard, but due to circumstances some of which were out of their control occurred, they weren't able to recover. I live in a large city of almost 1M people, and now our nearest real hobby store is over an hour's drive away. I have been thinking about changing pace in my career, and I really know this space well being an avid scale modeler, one time flying modeler, and RC car guy. I don't know gunpla or table top gaming but there seems to be a lot of crossover. There's a couple gaming shops in town though, so I don't think I'd be too keen on going there anyway. Looks like I would need to rustle up a quarter million to start a HobbyTown franchise. Or if I want to run independent, Horizon will let me in the game for about $10k, and was looking up some of the other distributors I would have to deal with. I don't have f-you money but if I needed to get some capital, I can make that happen. The thing that looks to me to be the biggest problem (and part of what got the local HT franchises) is retail space cost. Basically it looks like you're one big rent increase or government forcing you to pay for the landlord to update crap to code from going under. Unfortunately I can't see a way to run it out of my house with my local covenants and all, unless I went mobile with a 'pop-up' operation out of a van or trailer. I've also been looking into things like shared retail spaces, the flea market, etc. Some distributors and companies will not sell to you unless you have an actual brick and mortar storefront too. The other big issue looks to be inventory. While my heart would think it would be cool to support the local racing scene, there's no meaningful way I could stock the variety and quantity of real racing brands (eg. AE, TL, Tekno, Serpent, Schumacher) to be useful above and beyond what the internet already is, even if I could move my store to the local races on race days. So it looks like one would be stuck doing RTRs from Horizon and potentially Traxxas if I could swing a dealer account from them. There's a local crawler and drift scene too, I wouldn't want to overlook them. Model inventory is another thing. The only stuff I ever bought was an occasional new Tamiya or Italeri kit or nice secondhand Arma and Eduard that the store would occasionally sell. Pretty much everything else just looked like it was collecting dust and wasting shelf space. I think I could nail an aircraft inventory plan that would actually move, but I would definitely need some intel to do the same for armor, cars, and gunpla. I would for sure not stock anything Hobby Lobby sells, they can collect dust on ancient AMT car kits  Paints, glues, tools, and such I think would have a good handle on. What says the hive? What do you think makes or breaks a hobby shop? Am I nuts for thinking of trying this? Any crazy thoughts or ideas that might make it work? One thing I will for sure say is how much more respect I have for folks running a retail business  Update I appreciate all the great ideas. I have run a lot of numbers and different scenarios, and it's impossible unless I was: retired (e.g. not dependent on income) and owned the building and had no mortgage on my home. None of those three conditions apply to me. The shared retail spaces I investigated take a huge rake on sales (10%!), there's no way I can make the $300 monthly rent back and clear profit just holding down the local paint market and selling a few kits on the side even at one of them. The number one biggest problem is the distributors (Traxxas sort of excepted) all compete against you and you can't beat them. So if I need something, I will just have to order it or get it when I go to the bigger city an hour away every quarter or so. A-main is great in my experience, their bike store is GTG too when my LBS won't stock or can't get something I need. I will support a local shop if |
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*not a hobby type person at all. There is a shop in Fayetteville, NC(right outside of Bragg) called The Hobbit. They have a niche business of cutting so as to make foldable and laminating maps. They probably sell hundreds of those a month. ETA: Short article from 2013 on them with their approach to the business. Non paywall: https://archive.ph/xzSHn |
No one remembers your name just for working hard ~ SC
The only thing that keeps the peace are the voices in my head~ BT
The only thing that keeps the peace are the voices in my head~ BT
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Originally Posted By Leisure_Shoot: the ONLY way you will survive is to run it as an online store, that just happens to have a local hobby store front. This. Online will be critical and having a pipeline to get things quickly for people locally. If it were me, I would be looking at a less formal place (lower rent) in the form of a warehouse style space built for the online portion of the business but treat it like an in-person store. |
| There is a reason there aren't any more in business where you are at. You need to ask yourself why they all closed. Once you know that fact, figure out the amount you need to pull in monthly at a minimum and the cost of doing business. |
Liberals are a curious mix of communism and fascism, they want to destroy you but want to use your own money to do it.
I'm getting down to the last box, the others have all been destroyed...
I'm getting down to the last box, the others have all been destroyed...
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Originally Posted By texasjohn: You will be competing against vendors you buy from. They can run sales that you can’t compete against This. Back in the ‘90’s a couple in our flying club opened a hobby shop. I could buy things from Tower Hobbies for less than their wholesale price. I thought they were pulling my leg until they opened the books and showed me the order sheet sitting next to a Tower catalog customers got in the mail. This was back in the day when Tower was king and they started buying up every brand they could get their hands of. Once the writing was on the wall with cheap import ARF’s, it was over. I wish I had a place near me. Getting back into flying. I’m either going to be paying $20 a quart for 15% nitro at a Hobby Town 150 miles up the road where my FIL lives, or I’ll be mixing my own using VP Racing fuels. That will cost me about $200-225 just to get started after buying 5 gallons of nitro/meth 50/50 and 5 gallons of meth to cut it down along with synthetic/castor blend oil. I’ve been looking for an online source of hardware, and just cannot find anything with good descriptions. That was our old local couples bread and butter. Dubro hardware and fuel tanks. If you do, a strong web presence, and not a Facebook webpage. A real website. Going to be hard to compete with Amazon sellers. |
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I am not really a car guy, have a bunch, mainly an airplane guy. Shops used to make it because you would buy a kit for $75 (small markup) and buy $100 in parts at a big markup. Now they spend $300 for a BNF from Horizon. Very little wiggle room in dealing with Horizon. They are a business first, hobby shop second. On top of that, someone buys a P-51 BNF as a first plane and crashes it. They expect you to replace it as "defective". Most HobbyTowns are basically toy and game stores with an r/c side attached. There is a FB group dedicated to the old good hobby shops. Looking through you will discover that most "good ones" were probably barely profitable to begin with. |
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Originally Posted By flynbenny: And yes I realize I might be crazy. Especially with this tariff business going on, or the damned government being able to close your business because of a cold going around. My local HobbyTown franchise is done for. They tried super hard, but due to circumstances some of which were out of their control occurred, they weren't able to recover. I live in a large city of almost 1M people, and now our nearest real hobby store is over an hour's drive away. I have been thinking about changing pace in my career, and I really know this space well being an avid scale modeler, one time flying modeler, and RC car guy. I don't know gunpla or table top gaming but there seems to be a lot of crossover. There's a couple gaming shops in town though, so I don't think I'd be too keen on going there anyway. Looks like I would need to rustle up a quarter million to start a HobbyTown franchise. Or if I want to run independent, Horizon will let me in the game for about $10k, and was looking up some of the other distributors I would have to deal with. I don't have f-you money but if I needed to get some capital, I can make that happen. The thing that looks to me to be the biggest problem (and part of what got the local HT franchises) is retail space cost. Basically it looks like you're one big rent increase or government forcing you to pay for the landlord to update crap to code from going under. Unfortunately I can't see a way to run it out of my house with my local covenants and all, unless I went mobile with a 'pop-up' operation out of a van or trailer. I've also been looking into things like shared retail spaces, the flea market, etc. Some distributors and companies will not sell to you unless you have an actual brick and mortar storefront too. The other big issue looks to be inventory. While my heart would think it would be cool to support the local racing scene, there's no meaningful way I could stock the variety and quantity of real racing brands (eg. AE, TL, Tekno, Serpent, Schumacher) to be useful above and beyond what the internet already is, even if I could move my store to the local races on race days. So it looks like one would be stuck doing RTRs from Horizon and potentially Traxxas if I could swing a dealer account from them. There's a local crawler and drift scene too, I wouldn't want to overlook them. Model inventory is another thing. The only stuff I ever bought was an occasional new Tamiya or Italeri kit or nice secondhand Arma and Eduard that the store would occasionally sell. Pretty much everything else just looked like it was collecting dust and wasting shelf space. I think I could nail an aircraft inventory plan that would actually move, but I would definitely need some intel to do the same for armor, cars, and gunpla. I would for sure not stock anything Hobby Lobby sells, they can collect dust on ancient AMT car kits Paints, glues, tools, and such I think would have a good handle on. What says the hive? What do you think makes or breaks a hobby shop? Am I nuts for thinking of trying this? Any crazy thoughts or ideas that might make it work? One thing I will for sure say is how much more respect I have for folks running a retail business Hey OP- A local guy converted half his vacuum cleaner repair biz over to a hobby shop, been meaning to stop in to check it out. Haven’t had much disposable income the last year so I have avoided checking it out just incase there was something I would spend money on. If you are interested I will stop by to recon his shop and offer you a data point. Give me a shout. |
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Originally Posted By Tweek: Get a big enough place to have a crawler course to bring people in. Even bigger so you can have a crawler course, dirt track out back and even a slot track indoors. Double down and make the slot track an evening bar where guys can drink and drive. 
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Originally Posted By Leisure_Shoot: the ONLY way you will survive is to run it as an online store, that just happens to have a local hobby store front. Agreed. The brick and mortar for a hobby business is a tough nut. Rent can break you. There is less independent brands now a days. It seems like Horizon is the king and bought nearly every brand stifling competition. Hobby King out of Chyna with a U.S. warehouse is the runner up. We had a local hobby shop but they closed three years ago. It changed owners to the son when the old man died and the son only focused on dirt and indoor racers. The airplane side looked like a slowly going out of business sale with nothing but old shabby shelf worn parts stock. I really wish you luck but I am not confident of a successful B&M operation, maybe if you owned the building already. Locally there was a landlord that was real keen on renting out restaurant sites he owned. He’d get them all signed up for the first year with a workable rent. The second or third year he’d slam em with a big rent increase. There wasn’t enough margin to cover the increase so the business would close immediately or drain their savings and then close the restaurant. Amazing how many times he’d do that. I didn’t get it. |
The only hyphenated names I like are cartridge names......30-06, 30-40, 38-55 etc.
| The shop that closed here locally did rent the vacant store space next door to them in the strip mall and had an indoor track. It was popular I guess (not my thing) and lasted a few years. Iirc the kid running it was disappointed. The track users still bought most of their stuff online so the track really didn’t help him. The sad part the track users were supposedly mostly his friends. |
The only hyphenated names I like are cartridge names......30-06, 30-40, 38-55 etc.
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Our local shop is extremely successful. They found success pretty easily. They didn't cater to the racers, they catered to the bashers knowing they are the ones that spend the most and are 95% of the market. They stock Traxxas and Arrma. Pretty much have everything in stock of those two brands, and they carry the complete line of replacement parts. All the way back to Nitro Hawk parts that Traxxas still offers. It works well for them. They do have a few Tamiya, Corally, and random Axial kits, etc, but 90% of their shelves are those two basher brands. It works well for them. They can hardly keep cars on the shelf. Most stuff sits on their shelves a few days at most. When the XRT came out they couldn't keep them in stock, they ordered as many as they could. They had a shipment of five of them when I was there around that time and all five were already sold before they received the shipment. They also have the same prices as online, so which I'm sure helps. |
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Originally Posted By ScottsGT: Even bigger so you can have a crawler course, dirt track out back and even a slot track indoors. Double down and make the slot track an evening bar where guys can drink and drive. Originally Posted By ScottsGT: Originally Posted By Tweek: Get a big enough place to have a crawler course to bring people in. Even bigger so you can have a crawler course, dirt track out back and even a slot track indoors. Double down and make the slot track an evening bar where guys can drink and drive. There is a small local Hobby shop nearby and they have a big slot track. They regular store hours are not so great and they seem to have less eflite planes than a few years ago. Mostly cars. The old store local the first owner had a dirt track outside Something like those things would probably help Also attending the local RC flying club meetings- but those can be so boring. There is a big hobby/toy store north of Pittsburgh in the Cranberry area. I will stop there every other month or so based on work travel and usually get something. That is quite a store. Huge RC car section, lots of mostly foam planes and a few small balsa FF (can be RC) kits. Big selection of plastic models and lots of trains. Lots of other stuff too. Every time I go there there is a decent amount of people and kids in there. And they have a lot of people working in there too. So it seems they can work still. I don’t think they do any mail order |
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Originally Posted By fxntime: There is a reason there aren't any more in business where you are at. You need to ask yourself why they all closed. Once you know that fact, figure out the amount you need to pull in monthly at a minimum and the cost of doing business. Sig line checks out. The first HT franchisee that closed was ready to retire and their rent kept getting jacked. The last one tried to move to a bigger facility and operate a track along with it, but thanks to the landlord/city they got behind and it fell over. I have been working on the numbers side seriously. I plan on sitting down with the guys who operated the specialist shops in the area too, and getting their take. |
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Originally Posted By texasjohn: You will be competing against vendors you buy from. They can run sales that you can’t compete against This concerns me greatly. I looked at several of the distributors who I'd be buying from, and they also sell from their website. It is definitely on my radar. |
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Originally Posted By ScottsGT: This. Back in the ‘90’s a couple in our flying club opened a hobby shop. I could buy things from Tower Hobbies for less than their wholesale price. I thought they were pulling my leg until they opened the books and showed me the order sheet sitting next to a Tower catalog customers got in the mail. This was back in the day when Tower was king and they started buying up every brand they could get their hands of. Once the writing was on the wall with cheap import ARF’s, it was over. I wish I had a place near me. Getting back into flying. I’m either going to be paying $20 a quart for 15% nitro at a Hobby Town 150 miles up the road where my FIL lives, or I’ll be mixing my own using VP Racing fuels. That will cost me about $200-225 just to get started after buying 5 gallons of nitro/meth 50/50 and 5 gallons of meth to cut it down along with synthetic/castor blend oil. I’ve been looking for an online source of hardware, and just cannot find anything with good descriptions. That was our old local couples bread and butter. Dubro hardware and fuel tanks. If you do, a strong web presence, and not a Facebook webpage. A real website. Going to be hard to compete with Amazon sellers. I probably wouldn't carry much beyond Dubro and Sullivan hardware, and maybe some fuel. There's a decent local airplane club going that still has a handful of nitro guys. But actual airplanes: no way, even the Eflite stuff was collecting dust in the local stores. If someone brought in a vintage wooden RC kit, I'd take that and sell it, those sell secondhand very well. I also would be reluctant to touch the RTF/BNF market because as another poster mentioned you get the dumbasses who crash it and blame you. The local stores were very clear that once the plane left the doors it was between you and Horizon from then on out. |
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Originally Posted By ScottsGT: Even bigger so you can have a crawler course, dirt track out back and even a slot track indoors. Double down and make the slot track an evening bar where guys can drink and drive. Originally Posted By ScottsGT: Originally Posted By Tweek: Get a big enough place to have a crawler course to bring people in. Even bigger so you can have a crawler course, dirt track out back and even a slot track indoors. Double down and make the slot track an evening bar where guys can drink and drive. There was a specialty crawler store for a few years in town like that, and there is an even bigger one up in the Denver metro area (Crawl Space in Wheat Ridge) that is well worth visiting any time you're there. It seemed busy enough, but given the retail rents in my city, I don't think I could make a building large enough for a good 1/10 track work cost-wise. Even if you have 4-5 people a day and a dozen on weekends paying $5-10 to drive inside that doesn't even get you to $2k a month on top of your retail sales, which doesn't even cover the extra cost for the square footage to have a good track. It baffles me why my city has so much empty retail space that would be perfect for such things including in the malls, but the landlords are too proud of their space (the dope boom really inflated rents too). So it sits empty. We have an outdoor track at an off-road park where folks race mostly 1/8 electric and nitro, and an indoor horse arena someone runs 1/10 and 1/8 nitro and electric in locally, which is kind of why I had the mobile shop idea. Maybe I could get a Ford Transit and a trailer, and travel between those and local crawling events. I am going to visit one of the shared retail spaces today, and talk to my bicycle dealer about his rent situation. |
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Originally Posted By SteelonSteel: Agreed. The brick and mortar for a hobby business is a tough nut. Rent can break you. There is less independent brands now a days. It seems like Horizon is the king and bought nearly every brand stifling competition. Hobby King out of Chyna with a U.S. warehouse is the runner up. We had a local hobby shop but they closed three years ago. It changed owners to the son when the old man died and the son only focused on dirt and indoor racers. The airplane side looked like a slowly going out of business sale with nothing but old shabby shelf worn parts stock. I really wish you luck but I am not confident of a successful B&M operation, maybe if you owned the building already. Locally there was a landlord that was real keen on renting out restaurant sites he owned. He’d get them all signed up for the first year with a workable rent. The second or third year he’d slam em with a big rent increase. There wasn’t enough margin to cover the increase so the business would close immediately or drain their savings and then close the restaurant. Amazing how many times he’d do that. I didn’t get it. Originally Posted By SteelonSteel: Originally Posted By Leisure_Shoot: the ONLY way you will survive is to run it as an online store, that just happens to have a local hobby store front. Agreed. The brick and mortar for a hobby business is a tough nut. Rent can break you. There is less independent brands now a days. It seems like Horizon is the king and bought nearly every brand stifling competition. Hobby King out of Chyna with a U.S. warehouse is the runner up. We had a local hobby shop but they closed three years ago. It changed owners to the son when the old man died and the son only focused on dirt and indoor racers. The airplane side looked like a slowly going out of business sale with nothing but old shabby shelf worn parts stock. I really wish you luck but I am not confident of a successful B&M operation, maybe if you owned the building already. Locally there was a landlord that was real keen on renting out restaurant sites he owned. He’d get them all signed up for the first year with a workable rent. The second or third year he’d slam em with a big rent increase. There wasn’t enough margin to cover the increase so the business would close immediately or drain their savings and then close the restaurant. Amazing how many times he’d do that. I didn’t get it. I could see putting some stuff online, e.g. secondhand plastic and RC kits, but a lot of the distributors don't allow Amazon/eBay or online sales of items you sourced from them. I will say I find Traxxas' policy very fair: they don't allow online (or any) sales below MAP and out of your territory, and they don't sell below MAP on their website so they aren't undercutting their dealers. I think to survive I would need to be offering something extra beyond what one gets online, I can't compete with HK or Horizon or Amain/HobbyTown online. The ideas that come to mind is the 'treasure hunt' concept (borrowing from Costco) for models, and having stuff RFN like paints glue tires and spare parts, and for last minute gifts in the holidays. Most racers worth anything have a some parts stock anyway (I travelled with a yuge pitbox when I did 1/10 off road electric), but having stuff there at the track and maybe some RTRs for people who come watch and want to take one home to try out might be a winner. |
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Originally Posted By -Obsessed-: Our local shop is extremely successful. They found success pretty easily. They didn't cater to the racers, they catered to the bashers knowing they are the ones that spend the most and are 95% of the market. They stock Traxxas and Arrma. Pretty much have everything in stock of those two brands, and they carry the complete line of replacement parts. All the way back to Nitro Hawk parts that Traxxas still offers. It works well for them. They do have a few Tamiya, Corally, and random Axial kits, etc, but 90% of their shelves are those two basher brands. It works well for them. They can hardly keep cars on the shelf. Most stuff sits on their shelves a few days at most. When the XRT came out they couldn't keep them in stock, they ordered as many as they could. They had a shipment of five of them when I was there around that time and all five were already sold before they received the shipment. They also have the same prices as online, so which I'm sure helps. Sounds like Austintown Hobby and Raceway |
I WILL NOT COMPLY
This post may contain factually correct misinformation
This post may contain factually correct misinformation
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Originally Posted By flynbenny: I could see putting some stuff online, e.g. secondhand plastic and RC kits, but a lot of the distributors don't allow Amazon/eBay or online sales of items you sourced from them. I will say I find Traxxas' policy very fair: they don't allow online (or any) sales below MAP and out of your territory, and they don't sell below MAP on their website so they aren't undercutting their dealers. I think to survive I would need to be offering something extra beyond what one gets online, I can't compete with HK or Horizon or Amain/HobbyTown online. The ideas that come to mind is the 'treasure hunt' concept (borrowing from Costco) for models, and having stuff RFN like paints glue tires and spare parts, and for last minute gifts in the holidays. Most racers worth anything have a some parts stock anyway (I travelled with a yuge pitbox when I did 1/10 off road electric), but having stuff there at the track and maybe some RTRs for people who come watch and want to take one home to try out might be a winner. Originally Posted By flynbenny: Originally Posted By SteelonSteel: Originally Posted By Leisure_Shoot: the ONLY way you will survive is to run it as an online store, that just happens to have a local hobby store front. Agreed. The brick and mortar for a hobby business is a tough nut. Rent can break you. There is less independent brands now a days. It seems like Horizon is the king and bought nearly every brand stifling competition. Hobby King out of Chyna with a U.S. warehouse is the runner up. We had a local hobby shop but they closed three years ago. It changed owners to the son when the old man died and the son only focused on dirt and indoor racers. The airplane side looked like a slowly going out of business sale with nothing but old shabby shelf worn parts stock. I really wish you luck but I am not confident of a successful B&M operation, maybe if you owned the building already. Locally there was a landlord that was real keen on renting out restaurant sites he owned. He’d get them all signed up for the first year with a workable rent. The second or third year he’d slam em with a big rent increase. There wasn’t enough margin to cover the increase so the business would close immediately or drain their savings and then close the restaurant. Amazing how many times he’d do that. I didn’t get it. I could see putting some stuff online, e.g. secondhand plastic and RC kits, but a lot of the distributors don't allow Amazon/eBay or online sales of items you sourced from them. I will say I find Traxxas' policy very fair: they don't allow online (or any) sales below MAP and out of your territory, and they don't sell below MAP on their website so they aren't undercutting their dealers. I think to survive I would need to be offering something extra beyond what one gets online, I can't compete with HK or Horizon or Amain/HobbyTown online. The ideas that come to mind is the 'treasure hunt' concept (borrowing from Costco) for models, and having stuff RFN like paints glue tires and spare parts, and for last minute gifts in the holidays. Most racers worth anything have a some parts stock anyway (I travelled with a yuge pitbox when I did 1/10 off road electric), but having stuff there at the track and maybe some RTRs for people who come watch and want to take one home to try out might be a winner. The other one which seems to do well for the LHS is service. People bring in cars for repairs or things like having a battery connector soldered on. The local drone group is always looking for someone to solder on parts. Odd to me, but to each his own.  Maybe combine with a 3D printing service for the local area? Might cover some bills at least. |
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I'm lucky I have a hobby shop right down the street from me. Its a horizon dealer so there are some things they don't carry but they gave me a great deal recently. Horizon gad a deal that ended 5-15 which if you bought a certain rc for an extra $30 you could get a smart charger and a 2s 5k mah lipo. I was 2 days late on the sale and I mentioned it to the guy and he still gave it to me. I will definitely be going back. That place is like being a kid in a candy store |
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Originally Posted By MEK: I worked at hobby shops during high school and college. Don't do it. Where/when? There were a couple of good hobby shops in Tulsa, back in the early 2000s. Wings N Things off Peoria and Model Works around 41st and 129th. |
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Originally Posted By fxntime: There is a reason there aren't any more in business where you are at. You need to ask yourself why they all closed. Once you know that fact, figure out the amount you need to pull in monthly at a minimum and the cost of doing business. Yup. They didn’t close because they were doing great. Figure out why the locals ones died. |
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Originally Posted By bluemax_1: Yup. They didn’t close because they were doing great. Figure out why the locals ones died. Originally Posted By bluemax_1: Originally Posted By fxntime: There is a reason there aren't any more in business where you are at. You need to ask yourself why they all closed. Once you know that fact, figure out the amount you need to pull in monthly at a minimum and the cost of doing business. Yup. They didn’t close because they were doing great. Figure out why the locals ones died. There are some pretty common issues as to why they dont survive. The top three are mostly: 1) Proliferation of cheap import RC. Lots of people dont want to drop hundreds on a vehicle and batteries and remotes and chargers. They would rather buy some cheap unsupported import model and dont care about much past that. 2) The expanse of options have made it difficult for shops to stock parts and things. There is too much for them to cover and most stayed very archaic in that they didnt modernize with the ability to get parts and things fast and easy. 3) Their product pathway sucks. They are buying products from the manufacturers and huge distributors who are also competing with them to sell product. That model sucks for anyone at the end trying to run a profitable business. |
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I've always thought it would be great to open a little shop, so I get it. But you're saying an established store couldn't survive in your area and you want to open a new one? Doesn't seem very realistic IMO. Most people I've talked to about this sort of thing says it has to be a passion project, because it definitely won't be a big money maker. |
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Originally Posted By texasjohn: You will be competing against vendors you buy from. They can run sales that you can’t compete against Brick and mortar near you is near you. Online is not magic fairy dust. Emphasize the strengths of your model and work to lessen the weaknesses of it. eta: I am a schmuck, this is just thoughts off the top of my head, no experience in the industry. Online can't have the product on shelf for you to physically pick up and inspect, much less an assembled one on display. Online isn't just down the street the majority of the time. Online requires more trust because the seller isn't physically there. No matter how hard and how creepy and scummy the online seller is at collecting data on theri sellers, they can *never* know the community the way someone can that lives there. Etc. It's quick and easy to think of the benefits of online systems. I find it odd how people don't think of or consider it's very real downsides. |
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Originally Posted By FlashMan-7k: He can provide local sales they can't compete with. Brick and mortar near you is near you. Online is not magic fairy dust. Emphasize the strengths of your model and work to lessen the weaknesses of it. eta: I am a schmuck, this is just thoughts off the top of my head, no experience in the industry. Online can't have the product on shelf for you to physically pick up and inspect, much less an assembled one on display. Online isn't just down the street the majority of the time. Online requires more trust because the seller isn't physically there. No matter how hard and how creepy and scummy the online seller is at collecting data on theri sellers, they can *never* know the community the way someone can that lives there. Etc. It's quick and easy to think of the benefits of online systems. I find it odd how people don't think of or consider it's very real downsides. Yes and no. The hobby market lacks DEI, Diverse, Exciting, Innovative. Most of the stuff is pretty much more of the same. People rely on online reviews and YT videos to decide what to buy. Airplanes, cars, parts are generally a couple of days away. We have a pretty good independent shop in town and a Hobby Clown. The Hobby Town is all the way on the other side of town and staffed by morons. Parts they generally don't have, but will order at the Horizon price, charge me shipping AND I have to come back to pick it up. The independent one is actually run by a great guy. Very supportive of the local community, hosts after hours crawls and drag races. Seems to be doing okay and I try to buy from him when I can. I just rarely need a BNF plane. |
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Originally Posted By broken_reticle: Yes and no. The hobby market lacks DEI, Diverse, Exciting, Innovative. Most of the stuff is pretty much more of the same. People rely on online reviews and YT videos to decide what to buy. Airplanes, cars, parts are generally a couple of days away. We have a pretty good independent shop in town and a Hobby Clown. The Hobby Town is all the way on the other side of town and staffed by morons. Parts they generally don't have, but will order at the Horizon price, charge me shipping AND I have to come back to pick it up. The independent one is actually run by a great guy. Very supportive of the local community, hosts after hours crawls and drag races. Seems to be doing okay and I try to buy from him when I can. I just rarely need a BNF plane. Yes, I know ... I'm stuck having to use the same things to assess buys too. It's just that I know actually having the part in my hands is more important. I suspect "unboxing" vids are because of this. You simply cannot beat physically having the thing in your hands for assessing it. |
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It needs to have draw as a brick and mortar. Not just a place to buy things, but a place to do things. Local hobby shop here is still in business, its mostly rc stuff and has a track, that's enough to bring people in. Another one had a full outdoor track and hosted events every weekend. People drove for hours to come race and would buy parts from the shop too. I'm sure they paid to race but I dunno. Same idea could apply to many hobbies. |
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Originally Posted By FlashMan-7k: Yes, I know ... I'm stuck having to use the same things to assess buys too. It's just that I know actually having the part in my hands is more important. I suspect "unboxing" vids are because of this. You simply cannot beat physically having the thing in your hands for assessing it. Originally Posted By FlashMan-7k: Originally Posted By broken_reticle: Yes and no. The hobby market lacks DEI, Diverse, Exciting, Innovative. Most of the stuff is pretty much more of the same. People rely on online reviews and YT videos to decide what to buy. Airplanes, cars, parts are generally a couple of days away. We have a pretty good independent shop in town and a Hobby Clown. The Hobby Town is all the way on the other side of town and staffed by morons. Parts they generally don't have, but will order at the Horizon price, charge me shipping AND I have to come back to pick it up. The independent one is actually run by a great guy. Very supportive of the local community, hosts after hours crawls and drag races. Seems to be doing okay and I try to buy from him when I can. I just rarely need a BNF plane. Yes, I know ... I'm stuck having to use the same things to assess buys too. It's just that I know actually having the part in my hands is more important. I suspect "unboxing" vids are because of this. You simply cannot beat physically having the thing in your hands for assessing it. Agreed. There is NOTHING like getting a new kit and opening it up. My first airplane was a Goldberg Electra. I still remember the smell of the kit.  Might explain why I have 100+ kits. |
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Originally Posted By broken_reticle: Agreed. There is NOTHING like getting a new kit and opening it up. My first airplane was a Goldberg Electra. I still remember the smell of the kit. Might explain why I have 100+ kits. Originally Posted By broken_reticle: Originally Posted By FlashMan-7k: Originally Posted By broken_reticle: Yes and no. The hobby market lacks DEI, Diverse, Exciting, Innovative. Most of the stuff is pretty much more of the same. People rely on online reviews and YT videos to decide what to buy. Airplanes, cars, parts are generally a couple of days away. We have a pretty good independent shop in town and a Hobby Clown. The Hobby Town is all the way on the other side of town and staffed by morons. Parts they generally don't have, but will order at the Horizon price, charge me shipping AND I have to come back to pick it up. The independent one is actually run by a great guy. Very supportive of the local community, hosts after hours crawls and drag races. Seems to be doing okay and I try to buy from him when I can. I just rarely need a BNF plane. Yes, I know ... I'm stuck having to use the same things to assess buys too. It's just that I know actually having the part in my hands is more important. I suspect "unboxing" vids are because of this. You simply cannot beat physically having the thing in your hands for assessing it. Agreed. There is NOTHING like getting a new kit and opening it up. My first airplane was a Goldberg Electra. I still remember the smell of the kit. Might explain why I have 100+ kits. Someone oughta ... IDK ... weaponize that for brick and mortar. "Come down and check out the display kits for yourselves before you buy! Something you can never do online!"
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Overhead will eat you alive. Also get the traxxas deal 1st. If you go with horizion 1st traxxas won't give you a dealership they want to be the only RC on your shelf. Told this by a random hobby shop I was in last year in NJ. Gonna be tough with a hobby shop not impossible just tough. Self employed people who make money and are sole owners work 365/24/7 If you hire someone, see that thing I posted about overhead. Good luck you get a online presence I'd check you out. I buy construction RC in 1/14 scale and everything else in 1/10 scale accept for a few that only come in a larger scale like some do. |
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Good luck competing with Amain bro. One of the formulas for success used to be open a track and get em hooked and stock for that but racers are adhd and always moving on to the next newest hot class. Few years ago it was all No prep drag cars, now Oval is the hotness with offroad 1/10 and 1/8 still having a good following. Crawlers I consider more on the scale side and a niche. Bashers are 95% of the market but Traxxas and Horizon are shit companies to deal with from what I hear. We're also winding down from the 2nd golden age of RC started out of covid and bored 40 somethin GenXers trying to relive their childhood buying Tamiyas and RC10 ReRes. Either way good luck and hope it does well if you do decide to get into it. |
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Originally Posted By fxntime: There is a reason there aren't any more in business where you are at. You need to ask yourself why they all closed. Once you know that fact, figure out the amount you need to pull in monthly at a minimum and the cost of doing business. Do the math. 250K up front. 250k up front for initial inventory? $4000 per month in rent? $1000 per month in other expenses - electric, Internet $1000 per month in advertising? $4000 per month for two part time employees? So assuming you're buying product at 50% of the sales price, thats ~$10k a month to break even on a pretty small place, with you basically there working full time, and that means you don't make a penny in profit. Bigger place, means more employees and more cost. And you're competing directly against the Internet which may beat your price and ship directly to someone's house. Hobby + gaming could get you more profit - Pokemon, MTG, etc, seem to be still doing well, but now you need differently trained employees, etc. Some places make all of this work, so I'd spend some time in some stores that are still open and figure out what they are doing right before I tied up half mil. |
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Originally Posted By FlashMan-7k: Someone oughta ... IDK ... weaponize that for brick and mortar. "Come down and check out the display kits for yourselves before you buy! Something you can never do online!" Originally Posted By FlashMan-7k: Originally Posted By broken_reticle: Originally Posted By FlashMan-7k: Originally Posted By broken_reticle: Yes and no. The hobby market lacks DEI, Diverse, Exciting, Innovative. Most of the stuff is pretty much more of the same. People rely on online reviews and YT videos to decide what to buy. Airplanes, cars, parts are generally a couple of days away. We have a pretty good independent shop in town and a Hobby Clown. The Hobby Town is all the way on the other side of town and staffed by morons. Parts they generally don't have, but will order at the Horizon price, charge me shipping AND I have to come back to pick it up. The independent one is actually run by a great guy. Very supportive of the local community, hosts after hours crawls and drag races. Seems to be doing okay and I try to buy from him when I can. I just rarely need a BNF plane. Yes, I know ... I'm stuck having to use the same things to assess buys too. It's just that I know actually having the part in my hands is more important. I suspect "unboxing" vids are because of this. You simply cannot beat physically having the thing in your hands for assessing it. Agreed. There is NOTHING like getting a new kit and opening it up. My first airplane was a Goldberg Electra. I still remember the smell of the kit. Might explain why I have 100+ kits. Someone oughta ... IDK ... weaponize that for brick and mortar. "Come down and check out the display kits for yourselves before you buy! Something you can never do online!" There used to be a hobby shop in San Antonio which only sold used stuff. Airplanes, boats, cars, kits, etc. You just never new, it was a treasure hunt. They also sold new small stuff like hardware. |
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Originally Posted By MEK: I worked at Action from 96-99 and WNT from I think 01-03 Originally Posted By MEK: Originally Posted By broken_reticle: @MEK Where/when? There were a couple of good hobby shops in Tulsa, back in the early 2000s. Wings N Things off Peoria and Model Works around 41st and 129th. I worked at Action from 96-99 and WNT from I think 01-03 Interesting, we probably ran into each other then. I was a poor college student, then got married and ever poorer. I did occasionally by things from Action, but IIRC they were right down the street from Magix computer and a much of my little money went there. |
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Originally Posted By Leisure_Shoot: the ONLY way you will survive is to run it as an online store, that just happens to have a local hobby store front. This. There is a reason all of the local hobby stores closed....they just can't compete with the online prices and parts availability. My local Hobby Store is a Traxxas dealer....and they still don't carry half the parts that I usually break, and when they do...they are almost double the price. I can order online, get better prices, fast shipping, and get exactly what I want. Hobby shops were a great idea before you could easily buy things online....now, not so much unless you have something unique that will draw people in. |
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Originally Posted By Leisure_Shoot: the ONLY way you will survive is to run it as an online store, that just happens to have a local hobby store front. Originally Posted By Leisure_Shoot: the ONLY way you will survive is to run it as an online store, that just happens to have a local hobby store front. The Toy Department in Ohio does not do any mail order business at all, only walk-in business. They've been around several years. Maybe something like this could work for OP. Do you ship? We do not ship our store stock. Why not? We're a destination store, trying to fill a great store for our customers. It takes 2-3x the man hours to sell & ship an item long distance, and in the process disappoint customers who come in store expecting to find awesome stuff at great prices. If we shipped all of our cool stuff, we would have a lot of the same inventory you find at every other store... and folks would be way less excited to bring items in to trade. There are lots of folks online willing to ship toys, but we're doing something different. Will you give me a discount if I buy a bunch of stuff? We're firm on our prices in store. This guarantees that everyone gets the same, fair pricing! We didn't want people to feel like they were paying more than other customers who were smooth talking, buying stuff to resell, or were part of an inner circle. By offering the same pricing to every customer, we keep it as fair as possible for everybody. How much is my stuff worth? If you'd like to email us photos, we'll happily let you know if it's something we'd be interested in looking at. We usually prefer to examine the items in person before making offers, so we can make as fair of an offer on the items as possible. However, we do purchase collections of all sizes from all around the world... so just email us with specific questions! What type of toys do you buy? We'll look at almost anything! We don't buy- Beanie Babies, Cabbage Patch Dolls, Disney VHS, played with Barbie, or Happy Meal Toys... to mark a few off the list. That said, the list of what we do buy is much larger- toys, action figures, vehicles, playsets, video games, Pokemon & Magic cards, statues, POPs, and lots of other things! When in doubt, bring it in or send us some photos & we'll happily let you know if it's something we're interested in! |
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You have to provide something of use that the customers absolutely can't get online or from Amazon, or even another shop in town. Examples: Game stores provide game space (usually literally the vacant shop next door for size) fancy tables to play on, terrain models to use, 'loaner' books and dice. Most of the shops in my area also sell snacks, and several have full on Kitchens, a couple with alcohol service. Organized Play and Tournament opportunities, GREAT HOURS! Nothing worse than a game shop that is only open M-F 8-5. They don't make that much selling the newest D&D book or Warhammer minis. It's people buying dinner, renting the private game room at $20 bucks an hour, hosting events, etc. Whenever I play at a shop, I make sure to buy something: couple drinks, a mini or two, or yeah that new book that just came out, even though it's 20 bucks cheaper online. Gotta support the locals. The hobby shops are harder. We have one hobby town left, and they've been there forever and they have a lot of stuff. Can't do parking lot races any more though. I try to buy from them even though it's a long drive and I'm paying full retail. Another shop in town has indoor and outdoor race tracks. Same thing, I'll stop in to get tires or gears or something, pay the $20 every couple weeks to run my buggy around the track. But I know they're scrapping by. Again, they aren't making money by selling RC parts and kits, it's those track fees and event fees. (and I know a lot of the track maintenance is all volunteers as well.) So yeah, find out why everything closed in your area. Probably high rent, high taxes, minimal profits, and the customers inadvertently fucking the shop by getting everything online and then standing around in the shop bitching about high prices and nowhere to buy tires for the track that's an hour away. |