Another hobby shop bites the dust (Wash. D.C. area)

Boy, does that suck. GD's was a great shop and only 85 miles from my house. I am sad every time we lose an independent shop as the chain ones tend to be rather sterile in comparison.

Cookie Sewell

He couldn't negotiate a renewal of his lease at a low enough rent to allow him a viable profit.

When any customer can order directly over the Internet at substantial discounts, what future is there for bricks-and-mortar hobby shops? We see the goods in the store, and then we go and order them online to save a few bucks. The traditional business model of the local hobby shop no longer works. And then we complain when certain hobby shop owners exhibit a crabby attitude...

IIRC, before there was such a thing as the internet, there were crabby shop owners. And mail order. While getting mail order goods is easier now, it's *still* mail order. I remember ordering goods, sight- unseen, from Squadron. And decidedly not going into the local store where the grumpy Gus at the counter would give me half-assed customer service, and wonder aloud if I had filched something and hid it in my pockets.

I almost *wanted* to shoplift from the guy, he was such a d*****ad.

Fewer people build plastic models these days. Especially kids. Hard to stay in business when nobody is buying. Mail order, or not.

E.P.

That's a bitch. When I lived in Springfield, VA I shopped at Granddads all the time. Before that we had Squadron Shop located North of DC. Up here in Maine I have to rely on the net. Dick...

And Lovely Treasures in Fairborn, OH is going under the auctioneer's hammer in June :-(

-- Chuck Ryan Springfield OH

You must be talking about Buzz at AL&S. ;~) He was a piece of work alright.

Technically, Buzz didn't go out of business, he went on the road. Shut down his store, stiffed his employees and those doing business with him and now goes around to the 'Cons up and down the East Coast with his line of inflated prices. Friend of mine tried buying from him a couple of years back until he found that the price on the box ~wasn't~ the amount that Buzz wanted for the kitl. Buzz's price was about twice the markings. This year I noticed that only newbies and some folks searching for a particular kit were the only ones going through his pile; everyone else steered clear on him. Shame too, AL&S was a nice shop (I was there back in '92 on a visit to DC with my family)

Ah, 'that' Buzz! I think everybody on the East Coast has a Buzz story.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

The best one I ever heard is that you know you're at Death's door when Buzz pulls up into your driveway with a U-Haul...

Cookie Sewell

Now THAT'S funny!!! ;~)

That's where my aunt lives!,too bad the store isnt going with him.That was almost a co-incidence!.

Here in Tarrant County (smack in the middle of the Ft. Worth-Dallas Metroplex) there are only two legitimate hobby shops left and only one is independent. The independent exists only because the guy owns the building. He has virtually nothing in the way of new stuff and throws newspaper routes to make ends meet. The other one is a small chain that is the everything-to-everyone type. Better than Hobby Lobby or Michael's and they do keep up with the new products pretty well. At least they know what Ambroid ProWeld is. Oh, there is a third, but it's a small, dedicated model railroad shop.

Do they have a number of shops in Dallas? That they do, but its anywhere from 20 - 35 miles one way, depending on which shop you go to. Not all that practical when you need a three dollar bottle of paint yesterday and gas is three dollars a gallon, never mind the two hours it'll take to go get it.

Before this is done, we'll all be ordering from the internet or driving 100 miles one way to one of the few brick-and-mortar shops left. And that is going to be a truly depressing state of affairs.

Richard Marmo