JS Hobbies and Crafts opened it’s doors on Nov 23, 2013. Our brick and mortar store was opened with a craft supplies inventory of only $200 and a model kit inventory of $500. It was very hard when we had no funding to make the store sales floor look nice. It looked industrial, clunky, and I hoped good customer service would overcome the visual aspect. To help make matters worse, our store was not located in a normal strip mall retail area. We were off the beaten path, customer walk-in traffic was maybe 1 customer a day, if any.
I opened online sales immediately and all the inventory I could afford to start the online sales fit into a man’s size shoebox. That shoe box grew to having over 250 products available at great prices. I believe good customer service kept people coming back as well as building a foundation to grow. Today we aren’t as industrial looking but are still located in the same spot.
From having only 1 employee to help in the hobby store, we now have 6. Each with a specific role to providing good customer service, product, and keeping the hobby store grounded and growing every day.
