Support your LHS, WHY!#?

[muswagon]

Most LHS' are unaware of the great prices online, or at least unaware at just how much business they are losing to the internet. One LHS that has been open for years in my city has plenty of business from consumers who also have no idea of the information or deals on the internet and just pay full retail. When I say full retail, I mean as in $625 US for a Revo! So, they obviously prefer doing business like a local small hardware store, than volume sales at less margin.

My order of where I buy is as follows;

Ebay- for cars/trucks, engines, servos, radios, some parts, some times tires and rims

LHS- fuel, glow plugs, arms and spurs and bells, some times tires and rims

Every LHS I have been to survives on plane stuff, and the older guys that fly them do not give a second thought to paying full retail, as customer support seems to be more important and needed for plane stuff (this is how it looks to me, I honestly do not know for sure).

I showed an LHS a price I could buy the LX PRO for in the summer of '03. He said that is only $40 over his cost. I said if I dont buy it from him, that is $40 he is losing. He said that he needs to make $100 on a kit to be 'worth his while'. That whole though process eludes me, as my business would be incremental to his day to day stuff. But hey, everyone has there way of doing things, right or wrong.

 

[dougc]

I have 2 LHS.
one is priced high that is the closest one to me, the sell planes, trains models, cars, boats, and D&d sutff. The only person I like there is the manager the workers are retarded and dont know a damn thing and have a biased oppion.
The other is really small I mean only 5 people can fit in there without being stuffed in there( this excludes the workers) and they only sell rc car stuff more on the nitro side and there prices are as good or better than tower. I bought my buggy from there for 400$ tower is listed as $410 I think this is good.. I dont get a discount there but why would I need one? Staff is great they even know my name!

 

[FastEddy]

I have pity for those that don't have a good LHS close by.
I have the pleasure of being 15 minutes away from Jakes mentioned above and 5 minutes from Hobby Town. There is an amount of information and hands on that can only be gotten at a LHS. IMO its worth paying the sales tax and a small amount more for that info.

For high dollar items I will first ask them how close they can come to the same price after shipping they can come to mail order. If its reasonable I will get it from them. If they can come close they will tell me strait up to order it on-line followed up with their ability to supply parts for me in house. My LHS knows I'm a life long customer and will always guide me in the proper direction even if it means getting it on-line.

 

[Plaidfish]

And that's why you go back again and again and again and agai.....

 

[untchbl]

I try my best to buy all of my stuff at my LHS. The shop where I race is about 20 minutes away from me. Acutally both of the big shops are about the same distance from me. One of them being where I buy most of my stuff.

The HobbyTown that is about 3 minutes from my house just doesn't support racers at all. The owner is a peepee, and seems to be more worried about sales of kit's and what not to worry about support of other parts. This is probably due to the lack of having a track too.

So I do alot of shopping on here. And if the prices are resonable at my lhs, I buy there. Like mentioned above, I want there help, and when I buy there, it insures that I have a place to race. But when they ask $700 bucks for a 777 special 1 and I can get it for about 600 shipped online, I'm all about saving the money. So if it gets to the point where I ask, and they can't match the prices, then I'll buy online, but I normally feel guilty about it. lol.

Brandon

 

[Plaidfish]

maybe you should see if they'll meet you halfway on the price instead of matching.....they expect you to come back for help whenever you buy stuff locally....perfect example of how this philosophy pays off in the long run....today I was finally getting to break in my Fantom and I figured I'd just go there because nobody is going ot bitch about the noise (and that fantom w. an HPI ripple pie is LOUD).....I ended up seizing a bearing and had to use the full compliment of tools available to me in their shop...I don't have a small torch or heat gun that I needed to use......and the Vice set up they have......or the punches I used.....I could have gone to my shop to do this but it was much more enjoyable to have people w/ like interests around to talk to while I was doing the boring break-in......the tools and company were worth more than saving some bucks here and there...the time it takes to track down those deals is worth something to me too...I'd rather be enjoying other things with that time.....if balance of Fundage and Free Time is an art, I aspire to be daVinci......

 

[untchbl]

and I'm gonig to be van gough.

 

[Plaidfish]

okay but you have to chop off an ear first.....
but i guess that means I have to go mad and never fully complete a proje........Ummm nevermind I'm already there

 

[cobra198]

Everyone who has a descent LHS is lucky. Their isnt a real good one anywhere too close. Makes it kinda a pain everytime i need a part. I usually get my stuff off ebay, cause the prices are usually pretty awesome.

Wigsplittah: I live in Pleasanton! Were pretty close. We should get together sometime and RC!

 

[HumboldtBlazer]

For high dollar items I will first ask them how close they can come to the same price after shipping they can come to mail order. If its reasonable I will get it from them. If they can come close they will tell me strait up to order it on-line followed up with their ability to supply parts for me in house. My LHS knows I'm a life long customer and will always guide me in the proper direction even if it means getting it on-line.

Jake is probably the only shop owner out there like this. I am sure there might be another one somewhere in the world but in my short time in this hobby most are not. The will rip you off, give you wrong parts and then tell you no returns, the will charge you double and treat you like your wasting their time. Sad but true, it happens all to often and drives more people away from the hobby. I know locally most all have given up do to our LHS and the owners attitude. You are truly lucky down there Ed.

 

[bigfreak]

My "local" hobby shop sucks. He only sales 1/10th scale losi trucks and MTs. He won't order my fuel or my tires. The place I frequently refer to as my LHS is about 45 minutes away. :shrug:

Shop where you find good people (my friends hand at my LHS). Shop the inet if you must but try your best to keep your local RC community alive. That's how I see it.

 

[SnakEyez151]

Wow, I guess I'm pretty lucky here , well, in a way? I have 3 LHS'. One supports all street, and from what I've heard is one of the best tracks around as far as setup and no bumps. The guys there are very friendly, have an good selection of parts - for street and offroad, and are very informative. The next is a shop thats been around for ever, but also sells bikes , skateboards, models, and probably anything else they can. Sometimes their prices are higher - well, usually. [Tho, I've found a few prices that were comparable with online prices! WOW] Certain things I dont care about, if its small - like paints, bodies. A buck or two difference out of 20 isn't a big deal when it saves me an hour and a half drive time. Both of these shops are about 10 minutes from my house. The third is about an hour drive (on a weekend), tho its only maybe 20 miles away. Traffic going there is messedup, road construction sucks. That guy is cool, since i"m a jabber jaw kinda guy, I go in there, and we'll chat for hours. Tho, I dont like bullshitters, and a few of his stories are a little too tall, and i get fed up with that quick.. So, while he is the only one with an offroad track, and i dont have many friends close by that are into the hobby (tho, guys I work with are, but they live about 40mi north of me)...

Anyways, since thats the dirt track, I've tried to send him most my support, cause he's in a bad position for advertisment, and I was tryin to send him business, putting his BS stories aside With looking at an hour drive there, and then an hour back, to get a $2 part, or a few small things here and there, I go to the other shops. The last two months tho, I've just lost touch with the hobby. Been busy with other things, and after misplacing my temp gun - i dont want to run the engine and screw it up...

hehe. This post went from on topic to off topic... real quick

~ Mike

 

[bOOm]

The HobbyTown in Concord is right up the hill from my high school, great selection and you can usually find any parts you need, but some of the people there really piss me off.

They stock a bunch of aftermarket bands too.

 

[NJRC]

I kinda got lucky living in an area where I am less than 30 minutes away from each of the ten hobby shops I have supported some how some way. I am sure there are more hobby shops within that 30 minute drive from me, but ten is well enough for me to find what I am looking for. Out of the ten, I would have to say, that only one can have a bad attitude towards me wanting to buy from another. The way I see it, is if they knew what I had wanted in the first place, next time they would know to have it stocked for me to buy from them. Other than that, seven of the ten shops know me by name and they don't tend to push me too hard to buy something new that just came out, they give me what I want, give me better prices than the others (well some shops do) and then they have you stick around for their stories to tell.
The best out of them ten shops would have to be the one and only that trust me to walk out the door with parts and pay him later....that would have to be the LHS that I support the most out of them all.

 

[Plaidfish]

That's when you know your a trusted customer.....I haven't done it yet but I've been asked to try and break stuff for my LHS....I mean test stuff out.......they figure if I can't break it then it must be good....Sometimes ya just gotta beat the snot out of these things........I guess I'm lucky to have a good shop near me too.... southeast RC if anyone visits Ft. Lauderdale area...sorry for the shameless plug but they hook me up good...least I can do is give a shout out right.....

 

[NJRC]

well I haven't been able to test stuff out yet but I have been able to walk out with parts and pay later.
It would be cool if I can test every new R/C that they come up with but having me as a trusting customer to this one LHS is all I would ask for since sometimes I walk in the door in need of one thing in mind and end up out the door with more than expected and more than I can pay for at that very moment coming back a few days later to pay for it then.

 

[Diver6127]

I have that option at my LHS as far as getting something now and then paying a bill every 15 days. I choose not to only for the simple fact that it's like telling a kid to just get what he needs at the candy store and dad will pay for it later. I know myself toooooo well!.

I got that privelage with my LHS because of the help, time and referrals I send to the store ever since they opened up last April. They even sponsored myself and my brother (sl0eg1n) to race and represent their store with spare parts for various cars.

I can go there and spend 3 hours shooting the breeze and walk out with only a couple cans of paint. Then again, my brother and I can go in there and walk out with a couple hundred in merchandise in a few minutes! It's important to find a good LHS that you can have a good relationship with. I know that price is important to many but trust and treatment is more important to me. With that trust and treatment, the lower prices came without me looking for it.

The LHS I frequent was started by hobbiests that got tired of getting beat over the head by other store owners that were only looking out for their wallets. As I said before, I am one of the more fortunate ones in the hobby. I wish there were more stores like mine. There would be a lot less gripping in our hobby, that's for sure.

 

[MustangMan]

Plaidfish, where is that shop in Ft. Lauderdale? My parents live in Aventura and my sis-in-law in Sunrise, so I'm down there every other month or so from Central Florida where I live. Might stop in there...

I guess I'll chime in too on this popular subject...

I've only been into on-road for a year and off-road for about two months, but of the three LHS I can get to in 20-30 minutes of my house, believe it or not, my Hobby Town USA is awesome! The owner I've known since before he opened the store (used to be a Mustang guy, but now into Vettes) and he stocks a boat load of HPI stuff (good for me!) and lets me pay later too...

Real knowledgable, yet young, staff that take the time to offer tips (have really helped me with my venture into off-road)...

I've brought him quite a bit of business (no less than a dozen new customers in the last 6-8 months) and he knows what that means by offering me a bit better pricing and special ordering bodies and stuff without any complaints.

There's a small mom and pop store in my town too, but they carry mostly high end racer stuff for the local on-road nitro track guys. Great for the racers, but nothing I can use for my "bashing" fun at home. But the owners are enthusiasts and really nice, and know their product line.

The third store is more of a city landmark and has been around for like 50 years. On their fourth or fifth owner, and they specialize in trains. Never been in it.

I've used ebay a few times for small parts that were a good deal, but otherwise have never used the Internet (Tower, etc.) to order parts.

Since I'm a car guy this type of attitude has been in me for years. I try to buy from the local speed shop instead of Summit Racing, I get my CDs from a small store downtown instead of Best Buy or Wal-Mart, and so on...

 

[rocknbil]

Here is why you should TRY to support the LHS.

The track. IF a LHS has a track - the cost of running the shop and the races seldom comes even close to covering this cost. If you don't keep the shop alive, the tracks will die. Period. There's no money in maintaining a track.

HOWEVER. There are two definate classes of H.S.'s. Those who just want to make a living and those that got into it out of love of the hobby. You can be a good businessperson in EITHER case.

Our local shops are like yours: they want to push you out the crap they have in stock and to hell with the hobby. Bring in your RC and they'll say the engine is shot, here, buy a new one.

They get none of my business any more simply because of their attitude.

There are good shops and shop owners out there. Rule of thumb is to give them a shot, **try** to pick up stuff there, see if they are competitive in pricing and helpful in service. If not. WWW.youronlinehobbyshop.com.

 

[MaxxMasterS2]

I live in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and There's a shop here called PM Hobbycraft. My first experience was okay, I went in, told them what truck I was getting (T-Maxx) from a friend, and asked what I needed. They hooked me up. However, I got a bunch of stuff that came with my T-Maxx... they sell those, they should know that. Either way, I vowed to do my best to not buy anything except fuel and necessities there, and buy all my hop-ups online after one of the stupid loser kids employed there was very rude to me, and seemed to enjoy playing with a flying disc more than satisfying customers. If you're the kid and you're reading this, you're probably too stupid and rude to know I'm talking about you. I debated just walking out without paying for the item in question, but I didn't. I'm sure it's a great shop, but if you employ rude idiots, then I won't shop there. Ebay seems to work for me.