Hobbies & Crafts

I hear what you mean, my wallet’s been feeling a little on the low side these days too. Times are tough.  REALLY tough! But I came up with an idea the other day that just might help your small establishment. It was a recollection from being raised in the big city. In a really big city.  Around Christmas my mom would take me and my siblings out to the park for a little stroll but it was too cold to stay outside for too long so we would end up at a department store.  It might have been Macy’s, I’m not sure. There, right in the store would be this huge model locomotive setup.  You had to wait because there were so many kids but when kids were dragged away by impatient parents get your chance to press the button that propelled one of the several trains go around the track.  Man was it a complex track design! Bigger than the apartment we lived in!  It was a complete universe onto itself.

And here’s the thing, even though my mom didn’t have very much money and always came in with the goal of never wasting a cent, by the end of the day it seemed like we always ended up leaving with some little thing, even if it was just a soda from one the street venders.  So here’s the thought I had:

Experiment with g gauge model railroad setups in the display window of the store:

Toy stores have known this for a great while and hardware stores have found this a natural combination since people can buy the parts and kits for model railroading all right there.  But I think other kinds of businesses could really increase revenue by having a toy locomotive railroad, especially eye catching g scale trains and tracks.  Any store with a outward facing window that looks onto a busy walk way like in a commercial area could really draw parents and their kids in. You don’t really need to be a business that is in any way toy related. A pediatrician’s office might just have a g gauge display to keep the kids busy while they waited for their appointments or for prescriptions.  Kids would pull their parents into the business and many parents would have great trouble leaving without getting their kids a little toy at least. The locomotive babysitter would allow the relieved parents to attend to their own needs. The augmented business would be well worth the expenses in terms of space, start up costs and maintenance. Any place by where families get together could take advantage of these little lures.  Grateful parents would make for return business.

Consider a model train setup for your Bed and Breakfast and Restaurant:

This would be ideal for that B & B you’ve always imagined.  Well could there be a better time to help create a special personalized experience than to feature a g scale model railroad layout to your Bed and Breakfast? Imagine having a train along the interior rail of the bar delivering customers their drinks and peanuts.  If you have a swimming pool in the back or a patio where people eat you could have a g gauger that snakes around by the tables and rig it so that the train actually carries out the drinks to people. The strangeness would be sure to bring out people with their kids and you could make a little bit of surplus revenue by selling model train related accessories like key chains. If you already attract families to your business this could really make the difference between them choosing your business over your closest competitor.  If you are in the American southwest this shouldn’t be difficult since most of its tourist sites are related to the rise of rail travel.

 Yeah, times are hard. Now’s the time to act aggressively and imaginatively to maximize your business not sit back and be tossed by the waves of economic storms. A distinctive business identity is sure to help you succeed in these hard economic times.  I’ve only touched the surface. Imagine a miniature golf park where a model train winds through the entire course, going over ponds and across runways and where the players change the train’s movements by sinking holes…

Here is more information on G Scale Model Trains. Here is a website with a free mini-course dedicated to Model Trains.