There are two hobby shops in my area. One is a non-franchise completely dedicated to the hobby. The other IS a franchise and has lots of kites. I won't bash the franchise store but I will say that anything I have ordered from them was done without paying up front. If it's something that they normally carry they don't charge until it comes in. Afterall, if you don't pick it up, they can add it to their inventory. As mad I want to get at them when something take longer than I want to come in, it never fails. I hear those words "It's on back order". I know they have no control over that and maybe we're hard on the LHS's sometimes.
What does "P" me off is when they are constantly out of high fail items, or items that are always in demand. Why is it so hard to keep clear fuel line in stock ? Why can't they keep wingmount brackets for my Storm on hand ? And fuel. Got plenty of 35% but, sorry, all out of 20%. Sorry about the rant. Think about it. Many of these hobby shops are fairly good sized. And these buggies/MT don't take up that much space. You would think that after a while they would know what to have plenty of on hand. Do we need a whole section of the store dedicated to servo horns and all the frickin colors they come in ? Ha !