What I can tell you from a Manufacturer/Distributor point of view is that Amazon and Hobby King is sucking the air out of smaller Hobby Shops....
Does it strike anybody else that the category "hobby shop" seems kind of quaint?
I just searched on "hobby store" with google maps, and the differences between a hobby shop, a craft store, a toy store, and stores selling various collectibles seem to be invisible to the algorithm. Maybe this reflects a shift in the way we categorize?
From driving around looking for places to buy aircraft ply and balsa sheets, I know that the 'hobby shop' nearest to where I live is really a model train store. Next nearest caters almost exclusively to RC car and airplane enthusiasts (but does not stock much in the way of sheet goods). Next nearest after that, a Michaels, then another RC-only shop, then -- about 10 miles away -- an independent hobby store with "Hobbies" in the name that sells all of the kinds of stuff I remember from the hobby shops from middle decades of the 20th C. There are three Hobbytown USA locations within 20 miles of downtown -- all well out in the suburbs, and none especially well-stocked with anything in particular.
Walking around in one of those with my daughter, who was about 9 y.o. a the time, she spotted a few toys on the shelves, which made her skeptical when I told her the store was for people who built scale models. This lead to a discussion of whether Lego builders counted as modelers in the same way that someone who built Gundam was a modeler, and whether rockets and planes and cars that that weren't made to resemble a real vehicle were models or toys. While the stock made sense to me, I was stumped when she asked what slot cars had in common with metal detectors and jigsaw puzzles.
Meanwhile, the little True Value Hardware a couple of blocks from my house appears to be positioning itself against the invasive Orchard Supply stores by trying to cater to makers and modelers. So far, this includes an aisle stocked with Midwest Products ply, balsa, and basswood, K-S Metals, Testors Paints, etc. They also carry a small selection of the kinds of tools you'd use to repair a multi-rotor or do board-level electronics (this in addition the usual garden, home, and small appliance repair tools) and a surprisingly large selection of adhesives.