Roy, It is very interesting to see the effect the Internet has had in helping you make a decision. This thread seems to have effected what I consider a big move in your life. I don't believe we will ever know if it was a good or bad, with the help of your parting glimpse I will always Wonder, but as long as you are Happy with your decision is all that counts.
Again, Very Interesting and Good Luck. Thanks for sharing.
Contact the National Retail Hobby Stores Assoc. (NRHSA.org) for info and help. I am the past chairman of the association and we run the largest trade show in the industry.
We have been around 70 years this Jan. coming up
Charlie,
As someone who has been in another hobby related business for a little over 30 years I am in total awe of your seventy year milestone. That is absolutely incredible.
Brad
You might do better of selling encyclopedias door to door.
You'll have better luck with a food truck.
I don't know how much money you have to start with but if possible buy the building as well if you can. Most of your return will go to rent right off the top. Stocking HO and N will be easy, stocking O may not be, MTH and Lionel may not even bother to answer your queries. O is also a hard sell for families comparing the price of a first set to HO. You should consider an all round hobby shop including artist supplies but I would not go into RC, it is very cut throat with very low margins and your wholesalers will sell to your customers on-line. Be prepared to be flexible, I have been 18 years in this business and the store that I have now is not the one that I started with. My only regret is that I missed out on a building when it was affordable and it is too late now, c'est la vie!
I bought my building and thought now all of my troubles are over with throwing rent money away. The retail landscape changed dramatically and a new shopping center 6 miles away drained all of my neighbors. Building is now an albatross worth 25% less than I paid for it and I bought it at a great price before the entire economy went in the toilet. The Best Buy next door is being replaced with a Goodwill outlet. Sometimes renting is the far better option.
Want to know how to make a million dollar$ selling trains?
Start with three million.
Fred
In our area here in So Cal your closest competition would be in Burbank, Culver city, and two shops in Orange county. They all carry every scale and the two closest to you have astronomical prices and bad service but they are the only ones in that area. I am no genius at business but So Cal people would rather be on their tablets and smart phones rather than doing anything creative. I would love to see you give those guys a run for their money but where we live the overhead would be ridiculous. I have been to all the stores and they have very limited inventory of O gauge but a tremendous amount of G so we O gauge guys here are left out in the cold for the most part.
Allied Trains on Sepulveda in Culver City has been in business for decades. I would check with the current owners or manager as to their take on the train business as it pertains to southern California. I would also investigate the train club that has a permanent layout in Balboa Park in San Diego. I think in order to be successful you have to carry a full line of HO and N gauge trains. The mark up is better and the stocking costs are less. Here in the Chicago area there are only three major O Gauge dealers and in recent years all three have diversified into other toys, models, boy and girl scout gear and RC helicopters and airplanes. The big period of addiction in the hobby that began in 1994 when MTH started making their own trains which lasted until 2004 or so is long over. Attendance at train clubs like TCA and even York is down. The demographics of an aging population with limited disposable income except for a very few (the 1%) does not bode well for the expensive trains Lionel and to a lesser degree MTH show in their recent catalogs.
In our area here in So Cal your closest competition would be in Burbank, Culver city, and two shops in Orange county.
There is also a shop in Pasadena. That one has limited OGauge selection, as well, though. I am only aware of one shop in Orange County.
It would be interesting to know how many of us there actually are in the greater L.A. neighborhood. I know that there has been at least one geographic survey on this forum, but I don't think it was entirely well attended for Southern California.
I would think there might be a market here -- IF a store were good enough to draw the dissatisfied customers from all of the other stores. I work just blocks from one of the L.A. stores, but I never EVER go there anymore due to some truly bad experiences with their staff. They would have thousands of my dollars had they behaved.
We have a lot of train history here and I think a lot of train buffs. From the Big Boy 4014 at Pomona (now departed, of course), the wonderful steam at Disneyland, the Filmore Christmas train, the steam at Knotts Berry Farm, our magnificent L.A. train station that appears in one out of ten movies as one cavernous space or another, the big UP yard out by Redding, Griffith Park Travel Town, the big Articulated in downtown Riverside, etc, etc. Whether these people are also modelers, I don't know.
Running a train store obviously has its downsides. But I, for one, do not want to kiss the brick and mortar goodbye. I actively seek out stores when I am on the road and am usually pleasantly surprised and satisfied with what I find. I alway spend my money in such places even though I could find cheaper on the net.
In the most perfect of worlds, some rich guy from Westlake or Thousand Oaks who has more money than god decides to open a new store as a hobby -- expenses be ****ed. THAT would be the ultimately satisfying scenario. After all, look at all of these rich housewives in Beverly Hills who have opened crochet shops and olive oil stores -- which can't possibly pay for their rent let alone generate income.
Maybe we should all pitch in and start some sort of a hippie co-op commune kinda train space in the Calabasas mall area. It would probably get airplay on that obscene Kardashian show since they spend so much time at that mall...
Don't Do it. Southern California or California in general is not a good place to do a business. I have seen numerous hobby shops go belly up because everyone now a days is doing everything off electronic devices.
As you may have read over on page two, the OP has decided not to go into the "O-gauge business". Regardless, I want to make a short comment......
I have been in the marketing and advertising "business" for over 25 years and have seen many businesses come and go...hundreds of clients. I have observed that those folks that do not plan enough funds to promote themselves have a much more difficult time making a go of it. Many folks get so wrapped up in every aspect of setting up their business but don't think about how much of an investment they are going to have to make to "address the market". I can't tell you how many times I have talked to folks that don't have any idea how important it is to have a proper marketing budget. Many small business owners, especially those just starting, only look at the "cost" of advertising instead of the "investment" aspect. They think they can't afford the "cost" but in reality they find out too late they couldn't afford NOT to "invest" in their own business! If a $200.00 per month ad brings in one more locomotive sale per week, I assure you that this is additional profit that may not have been.
In addition...it is absolutely one of the highest priorities to have an excellent e-commerce website. I can't emphasize this too much....to really survive in today's market, part of being competitive is to have well designed and customer friendly websites that makes it easy for potential customers to buy from you. Take a look at our advertiser's/sponsor's websites as an example and you will see why this is essential.
Finally...placement of your marketing investment is very important since you want your message to get into the hands of THE market. Generally in our hobby, local advertising results are disappointing because not everyone is in the market for your product. However...placing your message in the hobby press, ( OGR of course! ) as well as the OGR Forum gives you the best chance to deliver your message to those that are in the market for what you offer. By the way...the forum regularly hits 7-8 million page views each month with the advertiser banners being served into the 6 figures!!
OK...that is my two cents..even though I could go on in more detail...
Since the O.P. has already said he has decided to just enjoy the hobby, then there is little point in more advice being given to him. There is a lot of good discussion here though so the topic will be closed and not deleted....thanks for a good and civil discussion guys!!
Alan
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