My Hobby Place and Toys Closing

[Racer]

I got an email this week that My Hobby Place and Toys in Livonia will be closing this month. They are having a big sale and raffle on what's left of the store.

It's always sad to see stores like this close and yet surprised after opening a 2 years ago. They seemed slow in business in the beginning, but started picking-up. In addition, local residents sound upset of the store closing according to their Facebook page.

Although they catered to mostly a wide range of toys and games, they did have a decent section of model railroad stuff, mostly HO and O scale. Their Woodland Scenic selection was great and started getting better with the N scale accessories.

That leaves only 3 hobby shops left in the west suburbs of Detroit.

[SousaKerry]

Why go to a store when Amazon will deliver it for free cheaper and in 2 days..

Yeah it sucks but look at it this way this makes more UPS trailers on your local inter-modal train, and more fedex planes clogging the air ports.

[ConrailMan5]

Amazon won't tell me that something cheaper will work better for me, or recommend a certain product to finish a project based on what i tell it I need ...

[Saturnalia]

Amazon won't tell me that something cheaper will work better for me, or recommend a certain product to finish a project based on what i tell it I need ...

But online forums like therailwire.net will.

Just like how you used to have to be part of the local railfan club and go to meetings. Now the membership is online as much or as little as you want, whenever you want. 10x more flexible and for the most part the same cost or less.

Welcome to the digital millenium.

[ConrailMan5]

See the issue I was getting at is if I don't know what I need. So a search query does me no good. And I may not be eloquent enough to describe what it is I need. But if I take model xyz down to John at the model cave and show him my issue, he can look at it and tell me what I need to fix it or continue with my project.
I'm as much into eBay as the next guy when it comes to used models or new even. But I'd rather support a good local business than some far off Netherland shop. I buy all my decoders from the model cave. He special orders them for me and Yeah it costs me a bit more but I'm paying for the service of his knowledge. Plus if I'm in the middle of a project and need a small part, I can run over there and get it. No need to wait 2 or more days.

I feel like I've had this argument before... Seems the battle lines are drawn every time another shop closes.

[TrainWatcher]

Store closing sale is today only, 9/3

[SousaKerry]

Trust me I feel your pain buddy my comments were meant as sarcasm. Unfortunately it is the world we live in today. I was very good friends with a hobby shop owner in the early 2000's he often complained about the catalog houses selling engines and cars cheaper then he could buy them. Eventually he went out of businesses as well after only about 4 or 5 years of operation. And without that shop I probably would not have gotten involved with half the things I did at that time or have been able to build the moduals that I did build. Since I moved up here to Michigan I have not found a good hobby shop close by especially one who caters or specializes in Model Railroading and have gotten out of the hobby. But now I model in 12 inches to the foot on weekends down at SMRS.

[Racer]

Store is still open; what's left of the train section (mostly O scale) is over 20% off. At this point they will probably stay open until everything is sold. Not sure how much is left this week.