Re: PC: Hobby Shops (fwd)

[Jerry Jordak <jer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Date: Sun, 08 Mar 1998 12:43:27 -0500
From: Mark & Cynthia <mc -AT- wnol.net>
To: penn-central -AT- smellycat.com
Subject: Re: PC: Hobby Shops

Hey all,

    Just want to put in my .02$ worth in.  I myself worked at a chain
hobby shop for while.  It was a great job, but like everyone has
stated.  There were only certain things you stocked because of the
bottom line.  Of course the owners were plane geeks and did not want a
high inventory of train items on the shelf.  Well that thinking allow
half of the buisness to dry up.  Now instead of four shops they have
two, and guess what, the train inventory is half way decent.  I did work
on the mangement side of things for awhile though, and you have to be
smart in what you order.  Here is how things worked at my shop, if a new
locomotive came out from Atlas I would always order one of each. Local
road names, I would order two or three and of course the Santa Fe would
get a couple also.  My personal prefrence would be the slow midwestern
roads of the seventies but sometimes you have to over look that when
decideing what people wanted.  For the most part, the train department
held its own.  Unfortunatly where I live there is no decent hobbies
around.  I would not even call the shop where I worked at decent.  Like
everyone said before,  "If you find a good shop, STICK WITH IT."  Now a
days I have to either travel 300 miles or order it out from mailorder. 
This is great if I  am only ordering freight cars in a 12 pack, but its
senseless to order detail parts and paint that way.

Mark