Train Shop Closing-Railyard Hobbies

Paul,

Anytime a hobby shop closes it is a sad thing . Anyway you look at it, that is someone's LHS. What a SHAME.

The place is so huge I told him he was setting himself up for failure. He tried to be something to everybody and wound up not satisfying anybody. 

 

I feel bad for him. 

david1,

How long was Railyard Hobbies in business.

Railyard Hobbies has been in business since 2011. They moved into much larger space in 2013 to help meet customer needs. Unfortunately they didn't get as many customers as needed to support the larger space.

 

Paul

Watch this video and it might give you an understanding as to why they're closing. Look at how large the place is how much wasted space there is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbpkVRj6rXk

I think r/c might not have helped, either. I get the feeling that r/c cars were sort of a bubble which has busted already. I know that it killed a hobby shop very close to where I lived, one of their employees admitted that r/c folks don't buy from retail stores much, far less than any other segment of their inventory...

About 2 years In the larger location.

Just found this out Tuesday night when my grandson and I stopped by. He is into RC as well as trains and they were very helpful in answering his questions. 

 

They certainly had more space than they probably needed. 

Just watched the above video....  Thats sad.  I'm about 40 miles from there & in the area frequently... Had always intended to make it there.

I would say its difficult to support the kind of inventory expense and overhead that this large operation had exclusively from the sales of train and hobby equipment. There must be 5 or 6 employees and 2000 sq ft of space there. It looks as though RC cars was the main focus and that's on the downswing.  

I will agree that the future of retail is from online stores. I buy online 9 months out of the year and only go to 3 or 4 shows per year, but mostly to browse for the odd items and to say hello to other hobbyists. You sometimes pay more online and sometimes you pay less but you do save at least 50 cents a mile in car transportation and several hundred if you attend York.  

You have to fill for that person. I'm sure they had big dreams and high hopes.

Sad they didn't make it, but, as said above, way too much empty space and overhead. Every train shop I have been to is crowded and small, and there's certainly a reason for that.

Sorry to hear about this.

He made his personal choice on the size of the building and the format within.

If he grew to the size of hobby lobby. You would call him a genius. The Bill Gates of the hobby business. So, the store closes and he automatically had "FAULTY IDEAS".

 

Outside winning the lottery or inheritance. I would speculate there are very few that became rich or had a "successful" business with out taking chances. 

 

Hopefully, his dreams stay alive. He learns from any mistakes made during the stores run. May, he use the knowledge to be successful in his future endeavors.

 

shawn

Do they have a website?

Very interesting video about the store....... They did it all....

 

Looks like a great place to visit. So sad to hear they are closing

It's kinda like a hamburger place selling chicken, ribs, lattes, etc.  If you're going to call yourself "Railyard" then you should stick to that facet of the hobby market.

 

Man, that place is HUGE!  We have a Debbies RC World here and they're big, but not that big (their RC track is outside instead of inside).  Debbies sells mostly RC stuff, they have just enough model train stuff to let you know it still exists.

I see quite a few problems with their buisness model. First their name, it focuses on model railroads only and not general hobbies. People doing a search will pass over it if they are looking for RC. Next, their size is too big, so I am sure their rent was too. Plus the bigger you are the more employees you need. More cost, insurance, health and overhead. Then the biggest issue is the web site. For all practical issues there is none. You cant see product or buy it. They are 100% dependent on walk-ins and in this industry that is not enough. 

Wonder what they are doing with the layout