Now you're Talking
Bill and Joan Hinman
After more than 25 years, The Red Baron, our beloved hobby shop, is closed for good — a victim of the changing values of our society.
We would have loved to pass it on to some other dedicated hobbyist entrepreneur, but nobody wants to work that hard for such a small return on their efforts and investment. Contrary to popular opinion, a hobby shop isn't a gold mine where you go to work to play and watch the money roll in.
By most accounts, we were fairly successful in our goal of having a "real old-time hobby shop." We stocked most of the popular kits, engines, and small parts and everyday things that the hobbyist needs, and we really tried to treat our customers right.
We stood behind what we sold. We took the time to determine our customers' needs, likes, and dislikes, and keep them from making mistakes.
One of our most important jobs was not selling things to new people in the hobby that weren't in their best interest (no first-airplane P-51s). We tried to keep up with the newest things and stock them for people to see and touch. Our kits could be opened for inspection, and we had knowledgeable people there to explain and interpret. What we couldn't keep in stock, we special-ordered as promptly as we could.
We paid attention to the young people who came to our store wanting to get started in hobbies or needing help with school projects. We supported the local clubs by sending them new members and providing prizes for club raffles at our cost. We gave away almost 5,000 AMA Cubs under our "it's free if you build it" program. (You got the $1 cost back in merchandise if you brought the finished model back to show us.) Our day-to-day prices were as competitive with mail order as we could make them.
So why are we gone? The answer is cutthroat price competition in a business whose very essence is personal service and technical advice. Everybody needs the service, but nobody wants to pay for it. "Real hobby shops" just aren't that profitable. You can't stay in business very long acting as the unpaid salesman, showroom, and technical consultant for the mail-order companies.
"If we were to do it over, we would change our basic customer orientation."
We tried for many years to turn the other cheek and convince ourselves that if we did things up front and honestly and treated people right, we would prosper. It just didn't work very well.
It seems that modern society cares very little. Price is king! Discount-store philosophy prevails. People looked at our extensive stock and concluded that we were rolling in money and should cut our prices even below the mail-order discount houses.
In the years we owned The Red Baron, we took very little money out of it. Almost everything went back into stock on the wall, trying to make it the best and most complete shop around. For the most part, we met that goal. But at the same time, that successful image contributed to our end.
If we were to do it over, we would change our basic customer orientation. It was our original feeling that word-of-mouth among our hobbyists was by far the most effective, and that the Yellow Pages™ were the only real advertising necessary, because people wanting a hobby shop would look there first.
The fallacy in that argument is that dedicated hobbyists are not a hobby shop's profitable customers. We should have targeted the other 99% of the population. The Yellow Pages™ are necessary, but other advertising can also be powerful. Our Quitting Business Sale, handled by real professionals, showed us the effectiveness of proper advertising.
Our basic conclusion is that our real customer base did not lie with the clubs. We supported them, but they did not support us. Yes, they helped by providing instruction to the new members we sent them, but then they repaid us by "educating" them on the economies of mail-order and how to get it for cheap, only returning to their local hobby shop for free help and small pieces. We helped the clubs much more than they ever helped us.
So what are we trying to say here? We know that nothing written in a letter or magazine article will change a single thing. All we are trying to do is explain why there aren't many real old-time hobby shops around anymore.
A "real" hobby shop starts out as a labor of love. But you soon discover that you have to work too hard, don't make any money at it, and that those you do it for don't appreciate it. Then you don't love it anymore.
Sorry about that everybody, but we're off to other frontiers ... and nobody really cares.
Bill and Joan Hinman 1195 N. Modesto Ave. Camarillo, CA 93010
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
