That is the problem I was concerned with... but a case in point would be this... I was in the Akron area over the weekend and visited a shop. The shop was nice enough and the owner was pretty friendly. But he didn't have much in the way of things that were appealing to an intermediate or advanced modeler. That isn't a real criticism; just a statement of fact
But what was equally interesting was that he told me that there were a couple of other shops in the area that were up for sale or ready to close due to the owners retiring... not a really good sign.
Finally, one of the places listed in MR's hobby retailer section didn't come close to their written description. Maybe it's just best to ask for people's opinions here... and trust that most of us can sort out the whinings from the decent posts. This could be based on the number of different posts and who's making them.
Just a thought...
dlm