A Letter From The President

Think about that for a minute, a group of merchants who sell hobby products at retail locations throughout the nation. You may be selling trains, R/C, models, slot cars, dollhouses or whatever, it makes no difference.

What does make a difference is that you wake up, drive to your store, unlock the doors, and work with the public. This gives your business a unique set of circumstances that you contend with every day.

NRHSA is an organization of people like you. If you operate a brick and mortar hobby store, you have more in common with the other members than you probably do with most of your family and friends. We all spend the better part of our waking hours doing the same things. Thinking about what to buy and how much of it. Thinking about how to price it. Making policies for returns, exchanges and special orders. Looking for the best places to buy from. Negotiating rents and leases, paying sales taxes, property taxes, and employee taxes. Looking for better ways to merchandise, advertise and promote our stores. Not to mention the peaks and valleys of working with whoever happens to walk in our door that day.

NRHSA has some very good benefits, but the very best benefit we offer is intangible. It is the exchange of knowledge and experience between members. Think of it as an invitation to share. No matter how long you have been in business or how successful you have been, another dealer has found a way to do something that you do in a way that saves money, makes more money, or is just more efficient than the way you do it. By the same token, you are doing something in a way that would be valuable to another dealer if you only had the chance to talk or exchange thoughts.

NRHSA gives you that opportunity. When you join you will receive our newsletter the Link, most of the articles are written by other hobby dealers, and they share what they have learned from running a hobby shop. There is a NRHSA booth at nearly every major trade show, and there will be NRHSA members at every one of them. I encourage you to look for them, say hello, and strike up a conversation. I am willing to bet that you will run out of time before you run out of things to talk about.

Every year NRHSA holds its convention and Table Top Expo, the only event "by dealers, for dealers". There you have a very good chance of talking to company's primary people, one on one, in a casual atmosphere. You also have an opportunity to talk to hundreds of other people just like you, to drive, sail and fly the latest and greatest. Plus you can attend seminars given by people who run hobby stores.

We have accomplished much, but there is still much more to do. We need you, your ideas, and your voice. If you do not support the only group in the country representing the brick and mortar hobby shop, how will we ever have the power to change things? There is a saying that "many hands make for light work", if you ask for an information packet you will see the benefits that many hands has brought to NRHSA members. With numbers we can do so much more, and for $10 a month it's the best value around.

Art Schaefer
President
National Retail Hobby Stores Association