Chain model shops. So right but so wrong. My perfect emporium is a little shop in a side street. It will have been around for many years. The owner will been an enthusiast but not an evangelist. Someone who can talk to people and get them interested but not bore them to death or lay down the law and drive the punters away. Plenty of small items will be in stock because they were bought in years and are slowly selling. Rummaging will be the order of the day and there will be treasure to be found.
On the other hand these places are a bit of an endangered species. Slow moving stock means lots of money tied up. Modellers often make their small purchases in the shop but go on-line for the big ticket items that make the money to keep the business alive. The side street location doesn't help either as you have to search so the general public don't get the chance to see the goodies.
So a high street shop has to be a good thing too ? Well a lot of people aren't sure. Stores like Modelzone don't discount the big items. They don't carry the "bits" either, concentrating on nice boxed items. The place looks tidy but the staff expertise can be variable - if the man behind the counter is into cars he's not going to be too good on model railways.
But when I tripped over the Modelzone in Holburn I'll admit to being impressed. First thing inside is a big pile of sale stock plastic kits. I really had to remind myself that a HO Russian loco kit or Blackbird aeroplane weren't going to fit in my bag no matter how tempting the price or how much I fancied building them
Much of the stock is die-cast cars with a huge range of prices. I'm assured that the average punter in the area is pretty well off but perhaps they prefer to buy their Ferrari's small - saves money on the congestion charge anyway !
The standard Hornby and Bachmann ranges are there in quantity along with a very small selection of kit, mostly Wills and Peco. Boat modellers can find static kits plus a couple of Billings items. The range of plastic models (quite rare to find nowadays) is huge, albeit with no Type 2 pick-up, the one plastic kit I could do to buy at present.
Most impressive were the glues and paints. Even fairly exotic stuff like Zap glues and weird fillers are stocked. No excuse for running out when you are in the middle of a project !
With two good model shops nearby I'd hate to see one of these open up nearby. Birmingham city centre would be good though...
Modelzone web site.
I do love this hobby and used to love going into my local model shop on the weekend but found that the prices they were selling at was far higher than I could get online. There's a great feeling you get when you go into a model shop and see all lovely shiny models on display and i do still spend many a Saturday morning browsing the shelves but now I'm all about getting a bargain and do all my shopping online now.
ReplyDeleteremote control helicopter fan
Online only sellers can offer cheaper prices because they don't have the overheads of rent, rates etc. on a high street shop. The only thing they can offer is price.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that if we only shop online, then all the model shops will close. Then, where will we go to look at the nice shiny models ?
And once the model shops have gone, how will newbies get exposure to model making as a hobby ? When you are a beginner, having a shop where you can go and ask a question - something very difficult to do online as the retailer's tiny staff are too busy posting stuff to offer expensive and non-profit making, customer service - is really helpful.
My personal feeling (and it's my blog so I get to do this !) is that the bricks'n'mortar model shop is vital to our hobby. Once it's gone, it's not coming back. Yes, the prices might be a touch higher (not always if you include postage) but if you have to take something back, you can. I know things can be posted back, but very few people bother because they don't want to pay the postage.