new hobby shop

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I must say I would like to see a large display of models with a "PLEASE TOUCH" sign!
The customers won't hurt them, look at what we put them cars through !!
Most people like to touchy feely stuff before they shell out hundreds or thousands of $$$$$$$$$$$

If a store owner told me "DON'T TOUCH" I would walk stright back out the door !!

Good prices & comprehensive stock also.
 
friendly staff and knowlegable, and most importantly not arrogent. as for product, its hard to say. i mean id liek to say a wall of fg parts, axial parts, hpi parts and associated parts, but thats cause thats what i have. it really depends on what your going to cater to, its hard to cover it all, just need to figure out what people are running and what you want to sell.
 
i would like to see a test track next to it and a one of every car they sell so you can test before buy....and a man made lake for boats as well to test

that would be the ultimate hobby shop...can even stage there own race events
how popular would a hobby shop like that would be..

ambro
 
depends on whats the big draw in the area. around here its Air and Bajas. and a good handfull of boaters as well. so a shop the caters to all 3 would be the smart choice. all 3 or our LHS' are nitro/electrics when it comes to surface. one is big in air.
 
on site tracks do create a huge draw of people, but only if the rest of the puzzle is there. there was one hobby shop close to me that had the parking lot paved with a special asphalt that was real sticky for an onroad track (it was setup on weekends), an offroad track (it was a tight track for 1/8 scales, perfect for 1/10), a micro track in the basement as well as a slot car track. was quite popular, however if you wernt a part of their "crowd" the guys that ran the shop were quite arrogant, and i only ever saw the same crowd in the shop and on the tracks, i think the attitude of the employees drove the new customers away. i myself never went their much because of it.

having tracks is a great idea, but the rest of the puzzle has to be their as well. as far as test vehicles goes, good idea but the cost of a track is big enough already, having 1 of everything you sell could push the costs right out of proportion. imo, experienced drivers are going to know what they want when it comes to a new vehicle, most do tons of research before they buy and don't really need to drive to compare stock vs stock as they will change a lot anyways. the target here should be rc newbies. have some basic vehicles that you would sell to a newbie, such as an hpi savage, axial ax10, traxxas slash, ect. chances are that if you recommend a rtr kit thats the type of vehicle they are after, and let them drive it, they are going to walk out with it.
 
One item I would change in the R/C car and truck area would be packaging.

Remove a model from the packaging. There must be a manufacture that would be willing to allow one of there models at a discounted price to hobby stores to allow us, the buyer to touch it.

My wife just told me a startling statistic, and since she told it to me I can't remember the exact number. :blush: Do we ever really listen?

If a person/buyer can pick the item up there is a 30+% greater chance of them keeping it. I can tell you seeing the FGMT on the net was great but, when I got to touch it and remove the top and fiddle, I bought it, and a crap more other stuff I didn't know I wanted for it. :laugh:

Don't keep everything behind the counter. So many shops keep the parts behind the counter. I understand its for sticky hands but just make sure you have big signs and even fake security cameras telling people to smile they are on camera. I recently got fed up asking a store owner if he had any parts that I was looking for. You know the 1/10th scale guys finding a 1/5 scale item that will work. I finally asked if I could go behind the counter and look. Behold I found what I was looking for. His reaction "I didn't know we had those?". SOLD!

I find it best to shop at the shops that have the pegboard al around the outside of the store. This is where they catogorize by manufacture all the parts. They just hang there.

Here are a couple of photos:
http://www.rccarkings.net/Store3picture.jpg
http://www.rccarkings.net/Store1picture.jpg
http://www.rccarkings.net/Store2picture.jpg
 
Bigger the Better wish we had a hobby shop like that in the pictures. Matter of fact I wish we had ANY local hobby shop as the closes on is over 60 miles away.

The biggest thing is give good service with honest knowledgeable sales persons. You would be better off paying more for sales people that know the products because it would pay off in the long run. The last local hobby shop we did have you could stand at the cash registrar waiting on the sales person while they talked to there girl friend or the manager more interested in talking to his buddies. Only took me a couple of visits before I never went back.
 
The stores that let me go help myself are my preferred shops. I hate waiting for someone to find something for me when they really don't know what it is I want. Most local shops let me so I am lucky that way... well unless it's a cute girl, then I don't mind help
 
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