hobby lobby, joannes, and michaels

[MJW]

In the case of HL it's more than just their abhorrent views on American diversity. Their customers have directly financially supported the looting of poor and war torn cultures of historical artifacts. There are too many other options for rocketry products to not just say no to HL.

 

[Blast it Tom!]

I really don't want to start a flamewar here... But with reference to Steve Green and Hobby Lobby, I just read an article about it on AlterNet.org which notes that "In the Green's defense, investigators say that the providence of various artifacts, including the Dream Tablet, were misrepresented to Hobby Lobby buyers by the auction house they bought them through, and Obbink was a well-known professor at the University of Oxford before his downfall." (emphasis mine). The auction house is (as it should be) being sued by Hobby Lobby/the Green family. Note that it is not the Greens who are saying this. It is the investigators who investigated Hobby Lobby and worked on the recovery of the artifacts.

That's all l'm going to say about that, as @icyclops notes.

I was at a local Hobby Lobby today, and they had a very good selection of motors (up to 24mm E's), supplies (incling both the 1/8" and 3/16" launch rods), kits, and at least a dozen launch sets representing 3 or 4 different starter rockets. As well they have tools and other materials for finishing; short of my dedicated hobby shop across town, it is the best-supplied hobby store that I can get to, with the bonus that my wife has plenty to look at as well!

 

[boomtube-mk2]

My town's Hobby Lobby has abandoned all its model train and model rocket products.
The stuff literally sat on the shelves or pegs gathering dust unsold for over two years before they boxed it all up and shipped it to other stores.
The next nearest Hobby Lobby is sixty miles south of me and I haven't ever visited it, so I don't know if the same situation applies there but I wouldn't be surprised if it did.
It is sad that there is a region of this country, probably more than one, in which entire New England states could rattle around like a BB in a Boxcar* and there doesn't appear to be any participation in any of what I would call "Traditional Hobbies".

It wasn't like this back in the '60's -'70's when every small town I used to visit as a kid had some kind of hobby shop and the local kids "Played with trains" and built and flew Estes rockets; some more successfully than others.


*On the other hand the population of that region is on the order of a large suburban housing development.
On the gripping hand, it was even lower back in the time-frame I mentioned where hobby participation abounded so; what the heck?

 

[icyclops]

Very true….i can remember back in the 80’s when Michaels and Kiddie World was clearing out their Rocketry stock in certain stores out here in California …I picked up some stock for next to nothing….like multiple Der V, mini Mars Landers, etc….plus motors (C5-3’s)….but you are right, now days they just pack it up and ship to another store. Hard to find clearance deals like that anymore….sad

Really miss the old school Hobby Shops, but folks just don’t buy that way anymore.

 

[Banzai88]

Most folks under 35 just don't hobby like that anymore.......

 

[Blast it Tom!]

Most folks under 35 just don't hobby like that anymore.......

We're doing our best with our grandkids!