Model Railroading > Sad news in Spokane, WA

Sad news out of Spokane. Avista (regional gas + electric Co) just bought a bunch of land and buildings along Sprague Ave west of the new Pedestrian bridge over the BNSF on the east side of downtown Spokane. This includes the building leased by Sunset Jct Model Trains. I've been told owner Jim plans to retire instead of moving, with the store closing by the end of February. This has been the primary model train shop in Spokane for a number of years. That title will pass to the Valley Trains and Models store that opened near Sprague and Bowdish earlier this year.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

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Add to the Inside Gateway in Woodinville closing in a couple days, and Tacoma Trains closing earlier, doesn't leave too many options, does it?

Tell me it ain't so. I've been going to Sunset every time I visit Spokane. What do I do now. I guess spend more time with my son. 

Somebody buys your place and throws you out, and another train shop or layout ends

Glad to hear Jim will get to improve his golf game, hate to see the business go. I know I have a couple of advance orders with Jim I will need to move before I lose out next year.

Great place still went there even after moving to Klamath Falls area eight years ago. Didnt always find something to buy but still went there anytime was in town or passing by.  Good luck to a very nice store owner in his retirement years.

Bummer. Though I have not shopped there for many years sad to hear of another shop closing. True in so many retail businesses.
Sears is gone, Pennys may be next.
Amazon and Walmart have taken their toll on small businesses.

Sears/Kmart may have to liquidate if no bidder comes on the 28th (today). 

At least there's another hobby shop in town.

OT but I predict Eddie Lampert and his cronies will come out smelling like a rose with his company, the biggest creditor, having loaned millions to keep Sears afloat long enough for him to get the real estate.

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com


bluesman Wrote:
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> Bummer. Though I have not shopped there for many
> years sad to hear of another shop closing. True in
> so many retail businesses.
> Sears is gone, Pennys may be next.
> Amazon and Walmart have taken their toll on small
> businesses.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/29/18 11:18 by wabash2800.

About Sears, way back and that is about 1970 vintage they were failing back then and was in the news. It just took forever to bleed out. If as the latest news says it had gone internet long ago they would still be around but not in local stores.

What I find surprising is Sears didn't go out of business by the end of the 1990's, following Monty Ward, Gimbels, Gertz, Sterns, A&S, Ames, Zares, Hills, WT Grant, Woolworth, GC Murphy, and Newberry's up to the great department store in the sky. 

Just before on-line everything, our mailboxes were getting stuffed with catalogs every day - precisely when Sears killed their catalog, which at one time was as thick as the Queens, NY phonebook, and quite a read. Then they proved incapable of getting with it on-line, while some like to scapegoat Amazon. I think Walmart was a bigger threat to them. 

They have been going out of business ever since. Even in the 1980's, try to find something in the store, and they would say, "I don't know where that is, I usually work a different department". They had no idea how much inventory they had, and their records were defective.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/29/18 09:08 by joemvcnj.

If you guys would have read up on things you'd find that Eddie kept Sears afloat though it has been losing money for years. He and one other guy owned most of the stock. In any other case with the stock price at what it was it would have went belly up a long time ago. Eddie has to take some of the responsibility as he and his hedge fund don't know jack crap about how to turn it around.  That included including K-mart in the mess.

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/30/18 07:26 by wabash2800.

I never stopped there . If I really was looking for a book, mag, or a print, I stopped at a place in Sacramento. Its gone too.

What I really miss was the old "Tru-Scale" stuff. Ballasted double cross overs, puzzle switches,  crossings, etc.   All insulated, ready to go.   Well, that was in the late 60s but I had moved on to 7.5 which was mostly make it yourself. (except for Crown for couplers, Little Engines, etc. Then I went to full scale with he SP as an engineer.


Nudge