ORAL HISTORY

HobbyTown USA, Louisville Ky

When someone tells you that they are going into work you first thought isn’t usually that they are about to go have fun for the next 6-8 hours. Imagining them behind a desk or cash register taking calls and wishing that they weren’t there is probably a much more reasonable image to have of them. And like most people this was how I have viewed my work for the past couple of years. I work at HobbyTown USA, an R/C (Remote Control) hobby store; the reason I say R/C is because it is commonly confused with places like Hobby Lobby and Michaels which are traditional craft stores. I cannot think of one day when I didn’t want to go into work, I can also not think of a day at work which I didn’t enjoy.

                Waking up for a Saturday shift is about the earliest I will ever wake up for anything non-school related and even then it’s still only 9 that I wake up at in order to be there at 10. Upon entering the store I usually feel very odd because of the coldness of a concrete store in the morning with a lack of manmade light. The first few hours are slow and that is good because I am never awake until lunch. When there is no one else in the store I usually find myself sitting on some shelving behind the register, it is sturdy metal shelving that is usually used as a stepstool for the others but for me I want it to be nothing more than a place for me to rest. I know that I can’t stand for a whole shift so I sit when I can on my trusty shelf since there are no chairs or other places to sit in the store. The smells one smells while smelling in the store can very quiet heavily based on where you are, it can smell like grease and fuel, or even new shoes (we don’t sell shoes it just smells like it sometimes.)  The rest of the day can be described as customer service, phone calls and questions form the few customers we get and people complaining because they didn’t read the instructions on their $500 R/C car and broke it within the first 5 minutes of owning it. Stupid people aside most days go by without a hitch, and are over before I know it. Closing is almost as fast as opening but we have to vacuum and count the earnings, both take about 15 minutes to do since we split the work. Then I’m on my way home to rest my always tired feet.

A very common question that I get would be what is the most popular hobby? In the Article, “The World’s Greatest Hobby”, Katlynn D. (An employee of Hobbytown USA) talks about what her views are on the world’s greatest Hobby. This question doesn’t have a definite answer but Katlynn gives her opinion is such a way that it even convinces me of it. The point of the article isn’t to convince people that trains are the world’s greatest Hobby but rather to tell people about a large model train event.

Going back to that person who asks, what is the most popular hobby? In the past I would have answered them with observations that I had seen around the store, what was selling well and what people seemed to really enjoy.  However, the truth of the matter is that the rest of the world is a bit different then the small crowd of hobby enthusiasts in Louisville Kentucky. The statement that convinced me of this was, “Trains were the biggest mystery to me. I had never really learned much about them. My dad is a big R/C racer, my friends are gamers, I’ve built a few models, but trains were a complete blank.” This quote shows that the author until recently had little knowledge of how great the train hobby was just like me.

The reason this quote stands so much out to me is that it almost perfectly describes my own experiences, I have a friend who is a big R/C racer (who actually introduced me to my current boss), I have a group of friends who board game, I have built a few models, and trains are the one thing I know almost nothing about. This makes me want to look more into trains to find out what she learned that gave her such a great respect for trains when she is already into so many other hobbies.

Lee standing at front counter in HobbyTown

If trains are such a great hobby why don’t I sell very much? I posed this exact question to my boss (Lee Crouch, owner of the Louisville HobbyTown USA) in an interview I had with him about the store. Lee has owned and operated HobbyTown for 17 years now and I choose to interview him because if anyone knew the answers to my questions it would be someone who has been in the business since I was 2. We talked a while on the subject and gave me more than one probable answer. The explanation given can be summed up in three different parts, “New Generation”, “Location” and “Technology”.  “Trains are very much an old generation toy”, Lee told me and continued to describe how people my parents age and older grew up with trains. “America was run on trains and every family had or wanted a train set of their own”, this also made a lot of sense to me since I personally don’t remember trains ever being important to me other then maybe Thomas the Tank Engine. Lee also talked about how our location could be bad for train sales. “Trains are a lot more popular in other counties especially Asia and over the years I have sold many trains sets to people visiting our country.” Again I can relate to Lee’s words here as I as well have sold a few train sets to foreigners and also remember reading about India in particular being very into train sets. The last thing Lee talked about with this subject was technology; this was more of an extension on what he was saying about the “New Generation”.  With technology Lee describes how while everything is advancing in the world of hobbies trains seem to be making less exciting advances then other hobbies, causing kids and even adults to overlook them. A good example of this is would be how electric cars, planes and boats are continuing to get faster as well as have longer run times on their batteries, while trains have been making advances such as digital transmitters rather than analog causing you to be able to run more than one train independently on the same rails. I know for me at lease seeing not 65+MPH is a bit more exciting than multiple trains.

Having all of my train questions and more fully satisfied I ask Lee what the largest change in the store has been since he opened. “Phasing out all of the cards, roleplaying and board gaming” was the response that he gave. While still have a little of these things in the store I asked how much did you get rid of and he told me that the entire corner of the store was devoted to cards while an aisle was for roleplaying/ board games. It was a good thing that he got out of sports cards when he did because I highly doubt that will ever recover to its former glory but other card games like Magic: The Gathering and board games (non-casual board games) are more popular than ever.

While something titled “Traxxas to Sponsor Kyle Busch in Three NASCAR Truck Series Races”, might not sound like an article relating to my place I found an interesting connection within it. Kyle Busch, current NASCAR drive, is a former HobbyTown USA employee. And while he wasn’t an employee at my store I could easily relate with things said by him in an interview in this article.

In a lot of ways Kyle Busch makes me think of myself, not that I want to be a NASXAR driver.  “I worked at a hobby store in Las Vegas when I was a teenager and remember selling a lot of Traxxas vehicles and equipment. I’ve used the vehicles throughout my life because R/C cars have always been a huge passion of mine.” Like Kyle I find myself working for HobbyTown USA and also find R/C cars to be somewhat influential in my life, but in a moderately different way.

Instead of becoming sponsored by the R/C company that I have sold cars for, I have sometimes seen myself applying for a job there working on their electronics. While it might seem like a childish dream to want to join some big company fresh out of college I see no harm in trying for it. I have always had this feeling since Junior year of high school. That year I was struggling in physics and I also started working at HobbyTown, working there taught me all about electronics and how currents, amps, volts, and overall electronics worked. This surprising helped me in physics and when applying physics to my work actually made it somewhat fun. Having fun in a career is something that I have always been taught to seek so I have naturally grasped firm to the idea of working in the R/C world.

The first and my favorite thing that stands out about my workplace would be the environment. Being a small business and not having to abide by rules and protocols from some guy in an office miles away really give off a unique atmosphere in the building. It really doesn’t feel like I am an employee most of the time, it feels part of a club or even a family.

Something that also stands out about this workplace would be the downtime that one gets almost every workday. Being a specialty store there isn’t always customers in the store and some days there are more times without customers then with. This again makes the atmosphere very friendly with lots of time for the employees to get to know each other and relax. While working with some of the older employees a lot of stories get told during this time. These stories make it feel like I’m working with my grandfather who used to always tell stories but passed away a couple years back, so hearing stories given in the same manner always makes me think of him.

The Employees aren’t the only interesting people you will run into while at HobbyTown. The customers range from moms looking for last minute birthday gifts to the 65 year old professional R/C plane pilot. One of my favorite types of people who come in are the customers who return to tell you about the product they purchased. While this might sound annoying to most it is slightly different for me at least. In my line of work I cannot have personal experience with all of my products since most cost upwards of $100 so getting personal feedback from customers is interesting to me as well as beneficial to my work. When people come in and talk to me it always helps the day go by quicker as well because while it is fun to work in a toy store for adults being at home is something that just can’t be replaced.

However, because of the great comfort I feel when I am at home I have a hard time getting anything accomplished while there. It is a different story at work. At work I have plenty of downtime where I can be doing homework or working on one of my own personal projects. I would like to think that getting this job helped me get through high school because it taught me a lot about responsibility and gave me a place where I could concentrate. I really love my work and I can’t imagine working anywhere else, getting a real job is going to suck!

Proposal

Like Trains, all things change in people’s eyes. It is my belief that role-playing and board gaming is becoming very popular again. I propose that Lee brings back these things into the store. Just something as simple as bringing these items back into the store can really bring a lot of new customers and atmosphere to the store. I personally know a lot of people who are looking for places that sell such items and would be much happier if they could go somewhere close rather than all the way to the mall.

Almost every time I work I get at least one question about dice, Magic cards, or board games that I know we can get but we will never have them in the store. This is an ever expanding part of our population and serving their needs should greatly help out the stores success. I personally have noticed a decline in sales while working at HobbyTown, less and less people come in and during our off season the store is empty more times than not. The good thing about board games is that during the colder months they sell quite well. This is exactly when we need to be selling things that provide indoor entertainment.

WORK CITED

Crouch, Lee. Personal Interview. July 2011

Katlynn D, “The World’s Greatest Hobby”, blog.hobbytown.com, HobbyTown

USA, 31 Aug. 2010. Web. 18 June 2011

Jon Crowley, "Traxxas to Sponsor Kyle Busch in Three NASCAR Truck Series Races", sxsnews.com, Side x Side Industry News, 24 Aug. 2010, Web, 18 June 2011