Walt's shop far more than a hobby now

CNY Business Journal (1996+), Dec 01, 2000 by McChesney, Charles

It is difficult, given the season, to walk into Wait's Hobby and not think you have wandered into one Santa's warehouses.

Nearly all 6,000 square feet of the metal-framed building are jammed with models, toy trains, radio-controlled cars, radio-controlled airplanes, and thousands upon thousands of tiny packages, each holding small parts vital to the operation or appearance of some hobbyist's creation.

Here is a wall with tiny tires for radio-controlled race cars; there is another with minute parts to make model airplane motors go. A shelf is filled with slender parts that, combined artfully, can turn an architect's concept into an understandable model. On another wall hang model rocket kits, any one of which, with some work and a $2 motor, will shoot skyward on an acrid column of smoke.

The eyes are drawn upward from the busy mix of colors toward the ceiling, where model airplanes hang suspended. Taking it all in for the first time, one does not doubt the story of two British visitors who while in Syracuse for a sporting event, and having seen something about the store on the Internet - entered the plain brown building and began simply repeating "oh god!"

This cathedral of hobbies, where childhood memories are stirred at every turn, is, of course, a business. In 25 years, since Walter C. Throne gave up selling lawn and garden equipment in order to open his own hobby shop, Walt's Hobby has grown in size, staff, and revenues. Today, the shop does more than a million dollars in business each year and has more than a dozen employees.

Over the years, Throne has become a leader in the industry. He is one of the founders of the National Retail Hobby Store Association, of which he is currently president. He also served as president of the board of the Radio Control Hobby Trade Association. The groups, Throne says, create a "voice for the industry."

Wait's is also a leader in bringing technology to the hobby industry. In a back office, Throne points out that everything in the store is bar coded. Later, holding up a tiny part for a radio-controlled airplane, he shows how the store had to create a bar code because the manufacturer had not.

Walt's Hobby has, Throne says, about 60,000 customers a year. While some sales come by mail and fax, most come from those who visit the shop. "If they come in the door, they buy something," says Throne, "we are a

destination."

Sales shift with the seasons but, says Throne, overall sales are steady all year. While Christmas shoppers will buy large items, he notes that, come January and February, customers will come in for the supplies needed to complete or customize those gifts. In the summer, sales will shift to outdoor hobbies such as model rocketry and radio-controlled flying.

The company estimates the sales mix at about 50 percent for radiocontrolled modeling, 15 percent in trains, 10 percent in plastic models, 4 percent for rockets, and the remaining 21 percent in paints, tools, supplies, and service.

The current site, on Dwight Park Drive in Lakeland, is a nondescript metal building that looks so like a warehouse that it has a "public welcome" sign to make plain that Walt's Hobby is a retail operation. Before that, the store was in 1,500 square feet in Fairmount and before that, in 500 square feet in Westvale Plaza on Syracuse's west side.

The growth - which includes adding his wife and son as full-time staff - has made Wait's Hobby the largest hobby store in the Northeast, Customers have come, Throne says, from all 50 states and, he believes, from just about every country in the world.

At 55, Throne has begun making the transition of the company to the next generation, his 34-year-old son, Bruce. Already, says Throne, he and his wife Jeanette - who is co-owner are taking more time off to enjoy their place in the Adirondacks or to travel across the country.

Pointing out features in new, popular products, the younger Throne notes that the biggest trend in the hobby business is toward "ready-torun" models that can be used out of the box or with less than an hour's work. Fifteen or 20 years ago, he says, model airplanes would require 50 hours of work before they were ready to fly.

Gathered in the comer of the store dedicated to radio-controlled model airplanes, the Thrones talk about what has made the store a success. The three praise their staff, whom Bruce Throne calls "awesome." Walter Throne notes that pricing must be competitive with mail-order and Internet competitors. And, he says, "you have got to be open." As wife and son nod in agreement, Throne adds, "you've got to take care of your customers."