Don's Hobbies in Greeley Colorado Sold to New Owner?

I went to Don's Hobbies in Greeley, CO. Saturday and a couple of their staff told me that the owner had sold out to someone new. The place was packed with customers and they were not able to give any real details, but neither of them sounded like they were thrilled or eager to stay on. Anybody have any details?
I hope the new owners don't screw it up and drive off the top-notch staff that
I have done business with for years.

Don's is the last real Hobby Shop near to me. I travel 30-45 minutes from Fort
Collins to Greeley to buy from them. I have not been impressed with the
Hobbytown USA in Fort Collins and only go there for basic building supplies.
The last time I asked for help at Hobbytown I had two of their salesmen try to tell me I had no Idea of what I was talking about and sell me something I did not need. I went in for an ESC with BEC to use with my Futaba Sky Sport 4, I even had and the manual from the EP Glider naming the suggested ESC to use with me, and with a straight face both these nimrods tried to sell me another radio for $200 and told me what I was looking for did not exist. One of these twits
I know has worked there for a least a couple of years and from his BS is an
"expert". Funny thing is that I went to Don's, gave them the same information and in a flash I had four ESC with BEC laid out in front of me on the counter and the differences were being explained in an intelligent manner. Instead of $200, I spent only $25 and was treated like a human being instead of an idiot to make a sales quota on. This was one of many events over the years that have turned me off to my local Hobbytown and reinforced why I am willing to drive to
Greeley for my major hobby needs. If Don's goes to pot then it will either be
Tower Hobbies or a long trek to Colpar in Denver.
I have always tried to support my local shops, but when they provide poor service then they are just competing against the web/mail order dealers on a price level and they are clearly going to lose.

I hope the new owners of Don's understands that it is the staff, not the merchandise that has made it a real hobby shop worth the extra time and money for people like me to shop there.

Bob Ruth
AMA 720565

I like what Mike always said to me about shipping costs. When I moved to Kansas City I asked Mike if he would send me some small stuff, and how much his shipping charge was. He told me that if he could send it in an envelope it would cost me 29 cents (first class postage at that time) because he was in the hobby business, not the shipping business.
I would recommend that anybody looking for a good hobby store give hime a call and do business with him. He has a web page, too.

There are lots of local hobby stores that are not in your area. You don't necessarily have to do business with Tower. Find a local hobby store that you like, and call them on the phone. My favorite is Mike's
Hobby Hangar in Carrollton, TX. He will sell you what you want and charge you actual shipping price. (I assume that Mike is still there.
He was when I went about 6 years ago.)

Did you go back and show the "expert" what you were talking about? It always does a body good to tweak the so called experts.
I went in for an ESC with BEC to use with my Futaba Sky Sport 4, I

I live in Nebraska but my daughter lives in Cheyenne. Everytime we go to visit her, I try to go down to Greeley to Don's. It seemed like he was always busy in there. I even called him one time to see if he had a discontinued motor mount that a friend needed and he had one. I asked him to hold it for me because we were coming out in a couple of days. He did and my friend is happy to have it. We have no hobby store here and the three closest ones are all Hobbytowns. I hope the new owner keeps it like it is.

There are lots of local hobby stores that are not in your area. You don't necessarily have to do business with Tower. Find a local hobby store that you like, and call them on the phone. My favorite is Mike's
Hobby Hangar in Carrollton, TX. He will sell you what you want and charge you actual shipping price. (I assume that Mike is still there.
He was when I went about 6 years ago.)

I was looking at getting a airpack for a new airplane I was getting. So I looked up Don's (Salina) and saw that he had a deal on the 8103 JR radio that was really good but that it was out of stock so I called them up and see when they might have stock. Lo and behold they actually had it in stock.
It was shipped to me the next day or so for the price on the web.
I truely belive that the local shops should be visited. I have started making it a habit to vist the local shops of the cities that I may visit while on vacation, example here is that I visted the NRC shop in Claycomo,
MO while visiting Worlds of Fun and another in the Overland park. I purchased a used airplane at the NRC and it flys great. Here in Wichita we are limited to a few hobby shops and I do visit most of them to purchase things that I need for my airplanes. While we have a hobbytown here I will not go to them because I have visited them before looking for something other than RC stuff I did notice that the selection of RC stuff was limited to mainly cars.

Funny you should ask as my wife made the same comment the day this happened. By the time I got back from Greeley I decided it was not worth the effort. This was just one in a string of times I had been either given false information or told to buy something I did not need at Hobbytown.
The very first time I went to Hobbytown USA to get back into the hobby in gliders the kid in the back tried to shove a 40 trainer down my throat and a six channel radio when I made it clear all I was looking for was a two channel radio and glider. The next time I went down and asked about electric powered gliders and planes. I got the "They don't work" routine and once again got a 40 trainer pitched at me. Hobbytown now has a whole section of those electric planes that don't work now, very strange.
In these cases I drove down to Don's and either got assistance with what I wanted or information by someone who treated me like a friend instead of a mark to sell a full blown trainer to. The problem is that Hobbytown seems to hire college kids that spout off to prove their expertise and never listen to the customer to address their needs. I grew up and worked in the equal to Don's in
Grand Junction "The Hobby Hut" run by my late friend Pete Nelson and now owned by his son Chris. So I am one picky bastard since I have worked both sides of the counter and as I said earlier take away good service in a hobby shop and you might as well buy cheaper from a catalog.

Bob Ruth
AMA 720565

Oh, and one more thing I've noticed: a lot of hobby shops now have an
"online" catalog that is basically a link to Horizon's inventory, since it all emanates from hobbyshopnow.com (which it seems ordinary mortals may not access directly). Examples: Mike's Hobbies in Carrollton, and Don's
Hobby Shop in Salinas, KS (who also advertises nationally in the RC magazines).This, it seems to me, is a good compromise between LHS and national distributor. I'd just as soon do business with a LHS, even if it's mail order business. Local Hobby Shops need to change with the times to survive, and the ones that do that have a better chance.

Ever notice the correlation between a good LHS with reliable help, and an active RC community? They seem to go hand in hand to me.

Actually, there is a really great hobby store here in Kansas City. We have Hobby Haven and Hobbytown dealers, but I don't ever go in those stores. Call Charlie at NRC Hobbies in Claycomo, Missouri. He will be happy to help anybody who calls him, and his prices are very competitive. I don't know if he does any mailing, but you can ask. I don't see why he wouldn't, because any merchant would want to make a sale. He's a heck of a nice guy. He's one of those guys who always helps newcomers, he buys and sells a lot of airplanes in his own personal collection, and he does his fair share of crashing. You couldn't find a better person to do business with.

Yeah and I think they are one the bigger scale train shops in the area too.

Things with wings is cramped with stuff usually piled up, but its because they probably stock at least double of what Dons does of RC planes and related stuff, especially giant scale stuff.

At any rate, I hope Dons continues to be a decent shop after this change.

I remember the original Don when he ran the 88-cent store, next to Vic's Stereo Lounge on 9th Street, close to the depot. Later, after I left Colorado, he moved into the old Montgomery Wards store building after they moved out to the mall. Is the original Don still alive? He would be in his 80s now.

bobyar2001, welcome to the forum I hope you will like it here.


I am sorry but this thread is of 2001 I hope the initiator will still check in to read your comment, but please take this into consideration.


Interesting though how people 'meet' and get to know about people they know via the internet. Very, very nice