After hearing all this talk (and seeing it with my own eyes) about the decline of the hobby, or at least major changes (not good ones) in the way we're able to get the stuff we need to play with, it was further evidence, and depressing to boot, to see that one of the biggest hobby stores in the San Francisco Bay Area is closing this fall: San Antonio Hobby in Mountain View (in the South Bay, closer to San Jose than San Francisco).
I shopped there many times--still have the Stewart U-boat in the box with their price sticker on it. Too bad. It may not have been one of the greatest stores so far as train stuff went, but they did have a lot to offer, plus the people there actually knew a thing or three. Too bad.
I guess one good thing is that they'll no longer have to mop up the drool from tjhe floor in front of the brass display case ...