Six years after he bought and reopened the locally famous Glen’s Train Store, Aaron Hoey plans to close it.
But before he derails the Akron shop, now called Aaron’s City Trains, Hoey is selling off loads of inventory. The shelves are lined with individual toy engines, freight and passenger cars and entire train sets, as well as tiny fake trees, buildings and more.
And the store — which initially opened more than 50 years ago — might do a little-engine-that-could and attract a buyer.
“It would be wonderful for the community if someone would come along and purchase it, and keep it alive just like I did about six years ago,” Hoey said last week, standing in the cinder block structure at 587 Grant St.
“Multiple people,” Hoey said, have expressed interest in taking over the shop, which he said is profitable. Whether or not someone will decide to “pull the trigger” and buy the place is anyone’s guess he said.
For now, the shop’s website notes the place is going out business. Hoey expects to keep the store open until “around March,” unless a buyer is found.
As he spoke, a model steam engine rolled on red metal track suspended from the ceiling. Below, toy diesel engines and cars rolled past replicas of buildings and signs on a large display — called a “layout” in toy train speak.
The planned shutdown “kind of stinks,” said customer Ken Cefaratti. “The Whistle Stop store in Cuyahoga Falls closed earlier this year,” he noted.
“The Internet is really killing these stores.”
Hoey, however, is among retailers who have embraced the Internet. He created, he said, “a very strong e-commerce business” in addition to keeping the building on Grant Street open. The shop’s prior owners did not sell products online.
E & S Hobbies in Akron’s Kenmore neighborhood, which is celebrating its 25th year, has taken another approach to survival — expanded its offerings beyond trains. The store began as a train store and later expanded its customer base by adding remote-controlled model airplanes and helicopters.
Saving the store
Hoey (rhymes with toy) resurrected the store after stopping by in 2009 to find it had closed.
He was heartbroken. When he was a boy, his father, a toy train collector, had taken him to the shop, south of the University of Akron campus.
The place was known by local and out-of-state collectors for its huge stock of model trains, as well as its gruff-sounding founder and passionate toy train promoter, Glen Uhl.
By the summer of 2010, Hoey had bought the Glen’s Train Store business and building, cleaned the shop up and reopened it as Aaron’s City Trains.
For years, when it was owned by Glen Uhl (who died in 1999) and later, his brother, Robert, the place was a jumble of boxes of toy engines and freight and passenger cars, so much so that customers sometimes had trouble finding a path to walk through. Hoey brought organization to the place and installed the suspended track and large layout.
He began selling items online; and today online sales represent about two-thirds of the businesses. The store sells only O-gauge (one quarter-inch to the foot) model trains. The two main brands are Lionel and MTH Electric Trains. He long ago sold off much of the inventory he acquired when he bought the store.
For Hoey, owning the store is a side gig, one that has allowed him to own his own business. His staff is small. Three part-time workers, including two who are retired from other employment. The third part-timer has another job. Hoey’s mother, Pamela, comes in about once a week to help out.
Hoey works for Anthropologie, the clothing and housewares retailer, traveling the globe as a buyer for the chain. Previously, he worked for the Gap clothing chain.
Personal connection
The train store also was a way for Hoey to connect with his father, John, a toy train collector who had taken him to Glen’s. The elder Hoey, who died in July, frequently worked at the shop after his son took it over.
Hoey, who grew up in Cuyahoga Falls, said his father’s death played a role in his decision to close the shop, along with his relocation to California. He had been living in New York.
Closing the shop, wasn’t an easy decision to make: The store “was near and dear to my heart and I wanted to support Akron...in my own way,” Hoey said. “And I didn’t want [the shop] to leave the community.”
He hopes the place can once again be saved.
“Look, I would never tell anyone to buy this thinking you’re going to get yourself rich,” Hoey said. “But if you have a passion for it ... and you want to let it be some sort of a side income ... it’s an amazing chance to be involved.
Max Fightmaster learned of the planned closing when he visited the place last week.
“It is sad. The store has been here for so long,” said Fightmaster, who works in the College of Applied Science and Technology at the University of Akron.
“It’s nice to see a brick-and-mortar store,” he said. “The trains are so visual and it’s nice to bring kids down here.”
Katie Byard can be reached at 330-996-3781 or kbyard@thebeaconjournal.com. You can follow her @KatieByardABJ on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com.