Hobby Shop with work space

[WALKERS210]

I am retired and have been beating the idea around about opening a hobby shop close to my home mostley to have something to do. My thoughts about the hobby and building have brought me to thinking about renting a place large enough to offer rental space that would have building tables, electrical outlets and storage space with a way for locking and securing the space. I know that opening a hobby shop is not a way to get rich, but that is not my goal. My question is, if you had a place to go work and build even up to 10:00 or so would you go and what would you like to see provided.

[sweetpea]

We did that at the hobby shop in Shreveport LA (Hobbies X-treme)

Things to think about


-theft of parts is a whole lot easier, you really need to keep track of customers
-tools need to be supplied and guess what....they end up missing also
-workspace ends up dirty and customers hardly clean

But on a good note it did bring in more folks and we were able to show people how to fix their own stuff. Just watch out for the bad stuff

[WALKERS210]

The theft of parts is a something I gave thought to, tools would be either rented, or customer provide their own. Clean up is a whole new issue, we can't even get guys (suppost to be adults) at our field to pickup their thrash.

[sweetpea]

I'm not saying don't do it..........But the theft part was bad, and even when they weren't stealing on purpose we'd have customers forget to pay for something then next time they come in we'd have to remind them about parts and they would pay.

[ShortBus]

A hobby store that is WELL stocked with all the GOOD stuff!

Also...a website where you can order items online.

[wizard]

I would say that it depends on the RC base in your area. I know of one shop doing something like this. They have one building for the hobby shop and another building for a work shop. Nothing leaves the store until paid for. This shop also has a Track out back for car and truck racing. I don't know how they handle tools, cleanup, etc.

In the town that I live in we don't have enough people in the hobby to make it worth while.

What I would love to see is a shop that not only is well stocked but is out a little way in the country. Far enough out to have it's own airfield, and track for RC trucks and such. It could have another building with building and storage rooms inside. Each room would be a rental space with lockable doors to prevent theft. The shop could have it's own flying club and surface club. Heck you could even throw in a small lake for boats and float flying.

Anybody want to lend about 300K to build my dream. LOL

[WALKERS210]

Those are the lines I was thinking on, separte part for each. At present there are around 40 members in our club and we have visitors almost every Sunday wanting info about the hobby. The closest hobby shop to our area is 35 to 40 miles with the best one being around 50 miles. I do like the idea of having runway for planes, track and even lake for boaters. Shoot if I got this going bet I never would go home.