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Quote: Originally Posted by bob101 |
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I used to live in a town that had 1 hobby shop. The guy at one time I guess flew C/L. He had some personal grudge against the 2 flying clubs in town I guess. I've heard him refer to people "as one those guys" with a disdain in his voice about people who fly in the 2 local clubs. He also doesn't put prices on stuff like glow fuel. You get one price if you wakl off the street, and another higher price if he knows your big into the local clubs. Two reasons. Mostly because the local club guys tell people to avoid the LHS unless they have no other choice and they buy their own fuel by the pallet and it ticks the LHS off. I was buying 5% nitro thru the club by the case frequently when I was flying 3-4 days a week with multiple 1.60-2.10 glow engines and the closest the LHS guy could come was $6/gallon MORE and he wouldn't order more than 4 gallons (a case) at a time even if I prepaid.
He stocked all sorts of goofy stuff that I bet was there from the 70's. All his props were high pitch pattern type props and no one in town really flew pattern. He would stock 1.20 size kits/arf's and not have a single engine over .61 in size. Guys just stuck in the past. Except for a servo that comes in a package with a Tx there won't be a single digital servo in the whole shop out of 200 servos because "you don't need all that new fangled stuff just to fly". Sometimes I think his entire inventory comes from buying outdated/overstock items from other hobby shops.
While browsing in there one day I overheard him talking to a guy who was picking up a Top Flite Giant Mustang KIT. The guy wanted to know where he could fly it when he finished building it and the hobby shop owner said "Any parking lot will do". Sold him an engine, kit, radio, glue, and covering, and the guy didn't even know how to fly but it looked cool and was a good sale.
Both clubs got together and talked to him about stocking certain items that nearly everyone needed especially new pilots like certain sizes of props and .40/.46 sized engines....he said he didn't need help running his hobby shop. He has 2 30 foot isles full of hardware for planes but can't stock 4-40 clevis's because he says there's no demand. I understand people will order an ARF because it's cheaper but when you need hardware you just go buy it because you need it.....
Everytime you wanted him to order something it went on the pad by the register (they are non computerized) and he would say I'll order it. As far as I know in 4-5 years I lived there while flying he never ordered anything he ever wrote down for anyone.
Of course I hear him gripe all the time about how people just order everything. He brought his grandson out to our field once during the holidays and he never left his car. I heard him saying at the shop a few days later...."I never knew people flew planes bigger than about a 72" wingspan. And to be honest this is a pretty big hobby shop.
They sell a ton of car/truck stuff and I guess they make more profit on those items.
Sad part he's been in business for at least 25 years.
Lack of a Hobby Shop where I live now has practically cut my flying to nothing. Even tho I have a runway here at the house the nearest hobby shop is 2+ hours away and it's a HobbyTown.
I can't order from Tower anymore because their computer merged my account with someone elses account and now they bill to my address and ship to another - yeah I lost a $150 shipment into neverland. Repeated calls to Tower tells me to quit putting in the wrong address.......morons. |
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Sounds like a big ***** sandwhich, and your eating it. I live for this hobby. Move!!!