Like most stores, between Amazon and Walmart, they have been squeezed out. I would have never thought I would miss radio shack so much. Ah, gone are the days of the enjoyable hunt, scrolling through the yellow pages finding a list of stores specializing in your need then going to each one to find the best price and or product.
HobbyTown USA is the last man standing locally, there is HobbyLobby, but they don't really have things for the electronic hobbies I am into. We do have some boutique shops in Downtown Fredericksburg that carry train sets but they don't specialize in it. And a few sprinkled throughout the nearby reagion. I do my best to support the local stores, most of my RC purchases are done at Hobbytown. But for these trains, I don't think I can now.
I just went through the worst buying experience Ive had in quite sometime from a Lionel Dealer a couple of hours away. Would not replace my defective model, I was buying for my dad for fathers day, on my first request was told to contact Lionel and that I could find another dealer to spend my train dollars at. Went back and forth via email, since no one returned my call, with two different people that had very different attitudes on the matter. The owner was, well if I posted the emails, it would probably make you scratch your head.
I even bought another loco from them so I could get my Dad a train, for the day after Fathers Day. And still, met with extreme resistance to make things right on the first loco. Thankfully I paid with PayPal and was able to get my money back via dispute minus the $30 for the free shipping I got, if I were to take the word of the owner it would seem that PayPal fees are taking food off of his family's table. I was half expecting him to tell me his woes of the rent he has to pay for his store. I think this stores saving grace is probably the gentleman who seems to be spearheading the online sales.
I was seriously thinking about just ditching this train hobby after that experience. I'm trying to give myself a cooling off before deciding if I'm going to bother writing a review online, just in the interest of being fair and trying to help small business.
