Skip to main content

I received an email from Chicagoland Hobby informing their customers that, pursuant to their retirement announcement a year ago, they're now liquidating their inventory and will be closing their doors on September 30. Below is what the owner, Greg Bosak, said.

My own history with the store goes back to the 1960s, when, before Greg's father bought it, it was downtown on Randolph Street and was called Hobby Service & Supply. The store had a long run. Now we're down to two main O gauge shops in the Chicago area: Berwyn's and America's Best.

End of an Era
Retirement / Liquidation Sale

“The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.”
– Vince Lombardi


I mentioned a year ago that I was looking to retire. The time has come and I would like to inform you that our building has been sold. The business is still for sale, if anyone is interested? It was a very hard and difficult decision to make. I also understand what a difficult time this will be on you, my customers.

We are having a Sale beginning on May 1st, in an effort to clear out our entire inventory. Everything will be 20% OFF!

I will be closing the doors on Sept. 30th.

For more details, please go to our website.


Sincerely,
Greg Bosak
Last edited by OGR CEO-PUBLISHER
Original Post

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Chicagoland Hobby used to have a booth at the DuPage / Wheaton show, and I bought many things from them at very good prices. They stopped selling there when the show was sold in the early 2000s.

Long before that (late 70s / early 80s), when they were located in the Arcade in Downtown Chicago, a work colleague and I killed many a lunchtime in the store. He was into military models and kits, and they sold many.

A nice thing about the store on NorthWest Highway was that it was barely a block from the Norwood Park Metra station, so you could reach the store from anywhere on the Metra system. I did that a number of times from my "home station", further out on  the same line. It was great to avoid the vehicle traffic on the expressways.

Sadly, all things must pass. Good luck in retirement!

Last edited by jay jay

In the 1990's Chicagoland Hobby  had an abundant supply of Intermountain and Red Caboose O Scale kit cars. I took frequent business trips for the company I worked for during this period and allowed time to stop at this hobby store to purchase these kits on my way to O'Hare Airport. Numerous kits were in the trunk of my car in E Lot, upon arriving back at O'Hare I took the toll road back to Indiana.

This makes me sad.  I stumbled into Chicagoland while my daughter was in school in Chicago (my wife even had fun looking and found a couple cars that I didn't have) and I bought both a Lionel and MTH controller along with a few cars.  Such a nice store.  I was hopping to go back this fall when we moved her back to school.  

Buy Local Buy Often.  

Add Reply

Post

OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Suite 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
www.ogaugerr.com

×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×
×