cheesewhip

iTrader: (15)

I would love for them to. However, I don't despise them enough to reveal who they are. I don't want them to ruin their businesses. They have wives and kids to feed... bills to pay.

I am not saying that all hobby shops are bad. There are excellent ones. From personal experience, of all the hobby shops I've visited, about 10% of the hobby shops I went to were worth my time.

Every time I go on a trip, I scout out every hobby shops in that region via google maps and try my best to hit all of them to see what they got... My wife hates it.. cause I do it even on vacations too.. its that 10% I go after.. I can hang out at the store for hours.. My wife is a very patient, supportive woman...

I think there are 2 types of stores. One that caters to beginners, selling everything from model rockets to train sets to doll clothes to rtr rc cars.. they are like wal-mart, destroying the second type of stores, the specialized rc stores. They do this by flooding the market with crappy cars and heli's, banking on their customers to break their new toys so that they will come back for replacement parts or new kits. They overprice their crap because they gotta pay the bills for the shiny gigantic glass display case and the huge tacky light up signs... and the slot car track in the back room, as well as the 'magic; the dork gathering' competitions... and to pay the the middle and highschool kids they hire who know nothing about RC cars..

The second, the specialized rc stores, carry a handful of cars in stock. They will order the new, the best, the latest, what ever you want, it'll just take 3 to 4 days... They also make a living by charging you to work on your car. They will break in your engine, install 2 speeds, install new bearings... They also host fantastic races on weekends with the help of dedicated racers running the races... They are knowledgeable, willing to help, willing to talk to you, recommend needed things... recommend cool things... making the sales masterfully... But some of these stores are quitting racing, which I think is a dumb idea because when people race, they will break things. When people race, they will want to upgrade and buy/order new things... when you get rid of your track, you are supplying either the back yard bashers or racers that run on other hobbyshop's tracks.... and backyard bashers lose interest and racers eventually start shopping at the trackside store....

sigh.. babbling again, sorry.

I'm just trying to echo what other people have stated in this thread.. what sells drives the market, obviously, and as more toy stores open mass chains and feed on the beginners that may potentially race, the real hobby shops die out and become extinct...