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Hobbytown usa Franchise ques

TomEGunn

Quarry Creeper
Joined
Apr 20, 2009
Messages
331
Location
Isanti, Minnesnowta
Has any one here opened a hobbytownusa franchise? Just wondering how hard it was and if it is going good. How is there support,and what is there cut ( % ) of profits.

Did you have to have a matress full of cash to start

I'm very interested in opening a hobby store in my area, butt hobbytown says only if there is like 500,000 people in a 15 mile radius. Thats like New York city size, I would think if city is that big they probibly have a hobby shop.

Would I be better to try a small store on my own?

"thumbsup""thumbsup""thumbsup"
 
Just a consumers view here.

My local hobbytown blows. There crawlers consists of 1 Axial AX10 RTR, a couple wheels and a few tires thats it. (Not even worth the gas money) More than half of the store isn't even R/C and its loaded with little girls toys. The best hobby shops I've been at are independently owned and operated. I'd go your own way and not deal with a franchise.
 
Our hobby town here doen't even stock crawler parts or carry axial at all, they are more of an airplane and kid store. with a few traxxas stuff.( yeah it sucks). But there are Independent shops I can go to, who are willing to help unlike hobby town.
 
500,000 people in 50 miles is hardly New York City sized ;-)

KC has over 2 million in the metro area and is about 30 miles across.

Hands down the best hobbytown I have ever seen is the Hobbyplex that we hosted the 2009 Midwest Indoor Challenge at. I think most people would agree that place is killer! A hobbytown can definitely be run well.
 
The HH USA here is pretty decent. They have a so-so collecton of crawler parts and have a couple of the available crawlers on the shelf.

Not my 1st choice when it comes to crawling parts though.
 
I really wanna open one in the growing town I live in but Im sure intial cost is up there. Maybe someone will chime in on that...


The HT on W.Broad St in Rich, VA has been my second home since '04 when I got into the hobby. Ours has always been run well. Theyve always had a nice range of employees that are into all kindas of hobbies. Theres always been a nice sized section dedicated to RC's of all types. The crawlin didnt really take off until the manufacturers started making RTR's. Now they stock or can get just about anything you want crawler related.

A lot has to do with what the owner decides to keep in stock, or market. Intially this is determined by demographic research in the specified area but eventually youll have people coming in asking for stuff you dont have. I have been told by the manager of our LHT that the way their parts ordering system works is this; if something is ordered thats not in stock then they order +1, meaning theyll have an extra to set on the shelf. Obviously the thought here is that there may be other people that will be looking for the same part.

Something to think about...if your LHS doesnt stock things you want its probably because no one is buying or asking. I guarantee if you and or your friends started ordering things from there youd see more parts that suit your needs being stocked. Sometimes you have to let the seller know your there...




Jon
 
Hopefully Mike, the owner of the Concord, CA. Hobbytown will see this thread and comment, I'm sure he will give the full lowdown on what it takes to get one up and running. His store is one of the best for crawler parts, because he's into this aspect of the hobby, and he wants to get new stuff in all the time, so he really searches and goes out of his way to get stuff. I don't really how much crawler parts inventory for sure, cabinets full of parts, but actual numbers are close to 500-800, and kits in the store? Maybe 20, 25 or so.
 
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Just a consumers view here.

My local hobbytown blows. There crawlers consists of 1 Axial AX10 RTR, a couple wheels and a few tires thats it. (Not even worth the gas money) More than half of the store isn't even R/C and its loaded with little girls toys. The best hobby shops I've been at are independently owned and operated. I'd go your own way and not deal with a franchise.

A few years back I was looking at buying a H-town USA (larger store than a standard Hobbytown regarding inventory) in South Carolina.

Hobbytowns are a franchise but each of them is different. There are certain things carried by every store (and by that I mean types of product) but a large part of what each shop carries (such as crawler parts) is determined by the franchise owner...which is exactly what the owner of an independent shop would do. So from that perspective it doesn't matter what the name is on the front of the shop.


I can visit a Hobbytown USA here in Augusta that is about 1,500 square feet and then drive two hours to Kennesaw, GA and visit one that has over 30,000 square feet of retail space. They are both called Hobbytown USA but they are vastly different.
 
Having worked there for a few years:

Yes, you'll need a bucket full of cash to start. But that's true even if you go independent. The buy-in gets you a startup inventory, signage, and a store-layout expert to help you figure out the layout, as well as HT's name and buying power. What you re-stock is up to you. If your area is big into trains & dollhouses, you'll stock that so you can make enough money to keep the crawler section well supplied. Be prepared to deal with difficult customers all day.

It's definitely not a hang-up-a-sign-and-make-a-million-tomorrow kind of business.
 
The HT-USA that was near me closed a few years ago. Wasn't much of a loss to me really...they had too much crap and not enough r/c stuff. What r/c stuff they had was pretty basic and the staff wasn't versed in anything more than 2 years old in the hobby.

If I was looking to buy a hobby franchise, I think I'd look into Remote Control Hobbies. Here's the franchise info I found on it: http://www.franchisegator.com/Remote-Control-Hobbies-franchise/

I've never been to one of their shops, but they seem to be more focused on r/c and less on Thomas the Tank Engine.

Years ago, I worked for an awesome offroad-based hobby shop in Illinois. The indoor offroad track was huge and the guy who owned it was into r/c way before he opened the shop. I think one of the things that killed the shop was the location...it was in an industrial park in the middle of nowhere. No food or even a C-store within 5 miles (at the time).
 
If I was looking to buy a hobby franchise, I think I'd look into Remote Control Hobbies.

RC-Hobbies started in Colorado, the first store is about 20 minutes from my house. They had 4 stores open in Colorado at one point, one of them 3 minutes from my house. 2 of the stores we so piss poorly managed they went out of business within 2 years of opening.

They were cool stores for sure, but they didn't listen at all to customers. They stocked what they wanted when they wanted to. You'd go in and they would tell you that they'd special order something for you, and they never would.

I'd like to think that was only a those stores kinda thing and not franchise wide.
 
RC-Hobbies started in Colorado, the first store is about 20 minutes from my house. They had 4 stores open in Colorado at one point, one of them 3 minutes from my house. 2 of the stores we so piss poorly managed they went out of business within 2 years of opening.

They were cool stores for sure, but they didn't listen at all to customers. They stocked what they wanted when they wanted to. You'd go in and they would tell you that they'd special order something for you, and they never would.

I'd like to think that was only a those stores kinda thing and not franchise wide.

Jason has a point, not sure if it was the brand or the ownership/management that killed the RC hobbies in C/S. They were owned by the same person that owned the store by Jason. They would never listen to the customers. It could have been the name, didn't seem like they had the buying power/clout as a HT does. Everything was only on backorder and when they did get something, an employee snatched it up. I will say that with all those issues, they still were the best RC hobby shop we had.

LIke someone else said, it is up to the owner to order certain things when customers ask. We finally have our South HT in C/S that will actually get in some crawler stuff, but it took 2 years of nagging to get just a little. I still have to get most stuff off the internet.

I just don't see how a hobby store can sell a HPI Savage, SC8 and 8e, Losi trucks and cars. The only parts that are ever there is traxxas parts. I know it takes alot of $$$ to sit on that inventory, but they lose so much business by not stocking parts for kits they sell. Rant off:-P
 
Jason has a point, not sure if it was the brand or the ownership/management that killed the RC hobbies in C/S.

Crap I forgot about the Springs store, that then makes 3 in Colorado that didn't make it 2 years. Boulder, Thornton, and Colorado Springs.
 
Don't forget giving up weekends to travel across the area to various R/C events to promote the business and provide support...even to events you have no interest in.
 
All the hobby towns around me suck donkey nuts. I worked at Hometown Hobbies and it was a independitly owned shop and it was a race shop mainly but it was also well stocked with crawler stuff. We closed at the end of may unfortunatly. I say if you are gonna do it, do it on your own. But for it to be successful you better be a good business man. But listen to your customers to. And the biggest thing is keep your money in line. I watched a business fall to the ground because of these issues. Good luck in your quest to work in your hobby."thumbsup"
 
It would be nice if there was even a shop like HobbyTown USA here, or at least one like it. We have one here in Moncton (well, technically it's in Dieppe) but it's run out of the guy's house and he's only there whenever he can, so it doesn't even have a real schedule or w/e. There was another one here, but they never did any promotion for the store or anything, by the time I found out about it it closed about 2 weeks later.
 
I'm very interested in opening a hobby store in my area, butt hobbytown says only if there is like 500,000 people in a 15 mile radius.

That's crazy! Even here in Augusta (2nd largest city in Ga.) I doubt there is a half million people in a 15 mile radius!
 
Here is Isanti's census Data:

http://factfinder.census.gov/servle...S27&_zip=&_lang=en&_sse=on&pctxt=fph&pgsl=010

With an estimated total Population of 38,097 I think having a good size hobby shop survive is going to be hard. Doesn't look like your neighboring towns have much population either.

Thanks for info Harley.

There are a couple bigger towns around that do'nt have hoooby stores either. Blaine ,North branch. princton all with simaler population # 's

I appreciate all the feed back guy's ,This is a growing hobby and I think now is the time to get it out there more. I think you guy's have taked me into at least checking into the options available.

"thumbsup""thumbsup""thumbsup"
 
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