A Brief from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper
There goes another one of Niagara, Ontario’s iconic, locally owned businesses.
Photo courtesy of Julia Blushak
Niagara Central Hobbies – better known to generations of Niagara residents as ‘The Hobby Shop’ on St. Paul Street in St. Catharines – is closing this Saturday, August 29th after 68 years in business.
Founded in 1947 by General Motors worker Ray Stewart whose daughter Maria Lounsbury, her husband Ray and other members of the Lounsbury family have kept operating over the years, the Hobby (shop) as I can’t stop calling it was the go-to place for electric trains, model cars and ships and planes and dollhouses, and a vast range of other inventory for anyone interested in arts and crafts.
But with more people shopping on line rather than going to brick-and-mortar stores, not to mention the toll big box chain retailers have taken on smaller, family-owned stores, has made it harder for these truly local businesses to keep their doors open.
“We regret we are closing our doors and we do so with very heavy hearts, one member of the Hobby Shop family, Cheryl Lounsbury said in a short statement to Niagara At Large. “We’d like to say thank you to all of our customers over 68 years for the support you have given us.”
Until my late father, Doug Draper Sr., going on two decades ago, his store, Central Shaver Clinic, was just a few steps away from the 401 St. Paul Street address for the Hobby Shop (which, I might add, is selling its stock at 80 per cent off up to closing.) So I’d spend the odd day at my dad’s store when I was a kid and there was the Hobby Shop, and a nice guy named Zanis at a jewelry store next door, and another friendly fellow named Cam at confectionary store at the corner, and the list went on and on of locally owned businesses on and around that stretch of St. Paul that supported each in so many ways, including sending their customers each other’s way.
In that spirit, I once again urge you to support local, family owned businesses whenever you can. These are the businesses that keep most, if not all the money in the communities where they operate and they are most often the businesses that support local charities and other activities.
For more information on the benefits of supporting locally owned businesses click on the following site- https://sustainableconnections.org/thinklocal/why .
Visit Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com for other news and commentary with an alternative twist from what you so often get in the mainstream media
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Niagara At Large 
Hobby shops all over North America have been dropping like flies over the past few years. There has been considerable discussion about it on various model railroad forums on the internet.
The two biggest factors:
1 – young people today are not involved in hobbies or model building the way they were years ago. For them, everything is online/onscreen.
2 – people are shopping online because of lower prices.
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