What's Up with Hobby Lobby?

kf4jqd

Active Member
What's going on at Hobby Lobby. No, this is a negative thread either! I went to Hobby Lobby today in Maryville, TN. They had an entire isle side full of model railroad stuff! I couldn't believe it. Before Christmas, they had a very small selection od model railroad stuff. They had some Lionel starter sets and some HO stuff. They had almost no N scale stuff. Oh yea, they also have Bachmann G scale sets. But the whole isle side! WOW!:thumb: Plus they have alot of N scale stuff. There's even more news. All of their model railroad stuff is 30% off! :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

Andy:wave:

PS
I also stopped at Target. I baught 4 bottles of glue for $.27 ea! I used 3 out of 4 of them tonight. I will have pictures posted as soon as the glue dries!!!!
 

Cannonball

More Trains Than Brains
They probably had leftover space after all the Christmas stuff was gone. :D
Our Hobby Lobby actually has quite a bit of stuff for HO and N but not much happening for O gauge stuff. They do carry some nice looking G scale sets though.
 

railohio

Active Member
Maybe they decided to not suck anymore. They only thing they were good for before was half price Woodland Scenics supplies at the right time of year. Otherwise... *meh*
 
I noticed the same thing last night. We went before xmas and there was hardly anything train related items, and now theres 1 1/2 aisles of it, alot of Woodland scenics stuff, model power buildings and accs, and sets. I picked up the Model Power 771 American Foundry for $20, and think its a great deal:thumb:
 

bigsteel

Call me Mr.Tinkertrain
:wave: me to that was so weird,but good news for me I HAD A 200 DOLLAR GIFT CARD . so i went on a shopping spree:D .i bought some flex track,ground foam,some building kits,a single dcc GP7,and some other stuff but since everything was on sale i had one of the best days of my life:thumb: :D :)
 

ezdays

Out AZ way
Well, you all can gloat. I saw a notice in the paper a few months ago that a new Hobby Lobby was opening a store a few miles to the south of us.:D :D For the sixth largest city in the country, we come up a bit short on hobby shops of any kind, so I was delighted... well, I was until I found out that it was that other Hobby Lobby. The one that has all that craft stuff.....:cry: :cry:We have a little hole-in-the-wall store called Hobby Lobby, but they are not associated with the national chain and are more into model airplanes than anything else.:rolleyes:

We seem to come up on the short end of anything model railroad related, we haven't seen a national train show here in about five years either...
 

Russ Bellinis

Active Member
There really isn't a national chain that has a clue about trains. I was in a Hobby People store in Las Vegas that was pretty well stocked with train stuff, but most are like the one around the corner from me with a single glass case with a few cheap toys that are treated like brass by the manager as though the junk he stocked was valuable! The difference is the owner or manager (don't know if Hobby People is franchised or company owned) of most Hobby People stores are not model railroaders. The owner of the store in Las Vegas was a model railroader.

In short whether you will have a train store in your town or not is dependant on whether or not you have a model railroader who is ready to start a business. My advice to anyone who has a model train store locally is to support your local train store. The Manager of the Long's Drug Store in Moreno Valley near Riverside put in trains and discounted them big time. People started driving from all over So Cal to get the bargains at Long's. There are a bunch of train stores that went under here in So Cal. The manager left Long's and started Train Quest. Now Train Quest is out of business, Long's has stopped carrying trains, and the stores that went under are still out of business.

Fortunately for me, there is an excellent hobby shop here in Lakewood, and I can assure you I support them. If you have a local train store and then buy everything on the internet to get better prices, you may save $5.00 on that locomotive, but eventually you won't have a local train store.
 
I've been to the LHS twice this past week and know I've spent atleast $400 there. I try to go at least once a month and spend minmal $60. :thumb:
 

Cannonball

More Trains Than Brains
Russ Bellinis said:
My advice to anyone who has a model train store locally is to support your local train store.
This is good advice and one I try to follow with my other hobby (music) as well. However, I've discovered that most "mom and pop" shops survive mainly through internet sales these days. One of our music stores here in town does about 80% of it's business through online sales and repairs. They have one of the best repair techs in the music business working there and word of mouth spreads quick over the internet.
 

coachC

New Member
Same thing with the Hobby Lobby near me. I asked a lady and she wasn't sure why they started carring more model railraod supplies. It is good though because there are not any Model Railroad shops nearby. I am going today to by a Tropicana car with my 40% off coupon.
 

Renovo PPR

Just a Farmer
The first thing I though was that Hobby Lobby was a local place. Then when I started to see a few more posts I thought what the heck is a Hobby Lobby. I see they are in about of the states except the great North East, which includes the fine State of Pennsylvania.

[FONT=&quot]Now I know what a Hobby Lobby is not that it will help me that much.[/FONT]
 
our hobby lobbys are pretty well stiocked with the stuff and the clearance is pretty good too. DONT FORGET TO PRINT THE COUPONS when they come out. They post 40% off reg price coupons often on their website and you can print tons of them. Just take a friend or go to a different cashier every time you want to use one.

I noticed ours had a VERY nice steam loco in a lock up case with the expensive airbrushes, but I couldnt see the box to tell anything else about it. I'll look next time I am in there if I can find help! :)
 

CNWman

CNW Fan
Russ Bellinis said:
There really isn't a national chain that has a clue about trains. I was in a Hobby People store in Las Vegas that was pretty well stocked with train stuff, but most are like the one around the corner from me with a single glass case with a few cheap toys that are treated like brass by the manager as though the junk he stocked was valuable! The difference is the owner or manager (don't know if Hobby People is franchised or company owned) of most Hobby People stores are not model railroaders. The owner of the store in Las Vegas was a model railroader.

In short whether you will have a train store in your town or not is dependant on whether or not you have a model railroader who is ready to start a business. My advice to anyone who has a model train store locally is to support your local train store. The Manager of the Long's Drug Store in Moreno Valley near Riverside put in trains and discounted them big time. People started driving from all over So Cal to get the bargains at Long's. There are a bunch of train stores that went under here in So Cal. The manager left Long's and started Train Quest. Now Train Quest is out of business, Long's has stopped carrying trains, and the stores that went under are still out of business.

Fortunately for me, there is an excellent hobby shop here in Lakewood, and I can assure you I support them. If you have a local train store and then buy everything on the internet to get better prices, you may save $5.00 on that locomotive, but eventually you won't have a local train store.

Not MY LHS:D My LHS is Davis trains (www.davistrains.com) and they ROCK. They are about a good little deal away but the sights in there are worth it. they also sell stuff at reasonable prices, and have rare items some time or another ( I saw a helicopeter lanching car from the cold war by lionel in great shape for about $80). They even have model planes and stock cars, but trains are there main thing. I have gotten most of my train stuff from there ( the other stuff is just my popsicle cars, which Ironicly enough, are from a hobby loby that had them on SALEsign1 ) I plan on going there tomorow i think to get the Prarie Star Mill to go with our Prarie Star elevator I got for X-mas:thumb: It's one of my favorite places on EARTH I say(next to Disneyland and my relatives homes:D )
 
I agree with supporting the mom and pop shops- plus you pay for the expertise. I do shop at ours, however, I do not have the money an dthats where big business gets us. For example (and this is an entirely different can of worms) I hate the Walmart business practices, but there have been times that was the only place I could afford to buy food. So, I shop for some things at a discount but when it comes to more specialized or unique items, the train shop is for me. Ours is amazing. You could spend a day there and just see one full aisle of stuff. And they were so awesome with my son being in there with us- even when he started acting like a boy and tearing through the place pretending he was "Thomas and the Jet Engine"
 
Brian Schmidt said:
Maybe they decided to not suck anymore. They only thing they were good for before was half price Woodland Scenics supplies at the right time of year. Otherwise... *meh*

Maybe they got a new manager. One who is into Model trains.:D
 

CNWman

CNW Fan
hiscopilot said:
I agree with supporting the mom and pop shops- plus you pay for the expertise. I do shop at ours, however, I do not have the money an dthats where big business gets us. For example (and this is an entirely different can of worms) I hate the Walmart business practices, but there have been times that was the only place I could afford to buy food. So, I shop for some things at a discount but when it comes to more specialized or unique items, the train shop is for me. Ours is amazing. You could spend a day there and just see one full aisle of stuff. And they were so awesome with my son being in there with us- even when he started acting like a boy and tearing through the place pretending he was "Thomas and the Jet Engine"

Um, have you ever tried Kroger's for food?:confused: They should be nicely priced there
 
Yeah, I have grown up with Kroger. But many of their items are 2x the price of things at Walmart. I shop everywhere but Walmart when things are good... but sometimes we go through times when things arent so good... so I shop Walmart.

Also, if anyone else has grocery trouble (maybe because they would rather buy trains :) ) try www.angelfoodministries.com :)
 

CNWman

CNW Fan
hiscopilot said:
Yeah, I have grown up with Kroger. But many of their items are 2x the price of things at Walmart. I shop everywhere but Walmart when things are good... but sometimes we go through times when things arent so good... so I shop Walmart.

Also, if anyone else has grocery trouble (maybe because they would rather buy trains :) ) try www.angelfoodministries.com :)

speaking of which, why do you homeschool our little MRR friend anyway? wouldn't it be abit nicer to send him to public school so you have more time, or is there anothere reason that we don't know? (and you just have to say yes to that last one, i'm not trying to intrude on your personal life, and I apologize if I already have:( )
 
ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh my FAVORITE question...
go to our little blog:
http://little-genius-homeschool.blogspot.com/2006_08_01_little-genius-homeschool_archive.html
Its dangerously out of date, but on the page I sent you is one titled "So why do you want to homeschool"

This is more of a journal and I tend to talk in circles and all, but it MIGHT help.

Its no intrusion at all, if you have more questions, please ask. I am proud of myself for being a mom who feels the calling to take charge of their child's education! ;)
 
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