Sadly, this is happening all over the country...possibly even the world (with a few exceptions, such as in Asian countries)...and, the truth is, racers are not the only ones "at fault" - bashers are equally the cause. Also, it's not just LHSs with tracks, as LHSs without tracks are also getting pinched. Up until a few years ago, there was 702 Raceway, an indoor track & shop right near the Las Vegas Speedway...the ONLY indoor track (which, in Las Vegas, is almost a necessity during the summer heat). There have been other tracks in the Las Vegas area, but all others (except for Silver Bowl, which is a public track, inside a park) had already gone out of business. I'm not sure what led to the closure of 702 Speedway, as I did not live in Las Vegas at the time, but with its closing, not only were there no much-needed indoor tracks, but it also left Friendly Hobbies (locals refer to it as Unfriendly Hobbies) as the only LHS. And, due to the not-so-friendly nature of the employees, this has led more locals to shopping from online sources.
Looking at a huge shop...what was one of the largest LHSs in the entire country...that was located in San Francisco for over 68 years, Franciscan Hobbies was known throughout all of Northern California. This wasn't an "RC shop"...it was a TRUE hobby shop, carrying a variety of hobby stuff, from RCs and plastic models, to model trains and puzzles. The coolest thing about this shop was that each hobby category had its own 'room'...essentially, multiple 'shops' within a shop...and, each room was about the size of your typical hobby shop (a couple 'rooms', namely the trains & RC rooms, were probably at least 50% larger than the other rooms). Sadly, as with the owner of the building Indy RC World was in, 12 years ago, the owner of the building (which contained apartments on the two floors above the hobby shop) sold it to a developer...and, slightly less than 11 years ago, once the developer's plans were approved by the city counsel, Franciscan Hobbies had two choices - close, or find a new location. The owner's/founder's son, who was running operations at that point in time, felt it was best to just close. Between the increase in online sales, suppliers giving larger discounts to those online retailers, undercutting the smaller B&M stores, and a change in demographics, closing the shop seemed to be the "most logical" thing to do. Besides, within the previous few months, five other LHSs in the SF Bay Area had also closed.
As Bob Dylan sang, "For the times, they are a-changin".
