Jackson Hobby Shop looking to sell after nearly 50 years in business

JACKSON - When Frank Gustafson first asked customers for help, they couldn’t even see him.

The Jackson Hobby Shop – then owned by his parents, Howard and Sylvia – opened in July 1969, stuck in the basement of a sporting goods store. Gustafson, then just 14 years old, could barely see over the counter.

But he could ring up customers’ orders – they were mostly plastic models – and, before long, he could answer their questions. And by the time he took over the store in 1986 – radio-controlled airplanes, boats and cars had already become the hottest sellers – he could fix most of them as well.

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“It was pretty much a given that I’d be here all these years later,” Gustafson said. “After doing it for so many years, it’s almost second nature.”

But after 48 years in business, nature has run its course. Gustafson is looking at selling – or, if need be, closing – the business his family has run for most of his adult life.

It’s not due to declining customers, Gustafson said in an interview. Instead, it’s about Gustafson himself.

In 2014, Gustafson had bypass surgery and, when he contracted MRSA in the wound, he was out of work for eight months. Last year, he underwent hernia surgery – “I let it sit for 40 years, never again,” Gustafson said – and was stuck home for another four months.

And during that time? The shop stayed open, with his 82-year-old mother running the store on her own each day. Sylvia Gustafson is working in the store most days with her son, telling anyone who will listen to call her "Mom."

That’s when it became clear to Gustafson: He had to sell the store.

"But it's time," she told a reporter last week.

“If something happened to me or I’m stuck sitting home again, my poor mom would be in here by herself pulling her hair out, saying ‘what am I going to do with myself,’” Frank Gustafson said.

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The town barely resembles the rural farming community it was when the Jackson Hobby Shop opened. Dirt roads have been replaced by three-lane highways and large housing developments considered “new” in the 1990s are already on their second or third owners.

Even Bennetts Mills Plaza, where the hobby shop is now located, wasn’t built until 1988.

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But inside the shop? It’s like a snapshot of years – and hobbies – gone by.

Gustafson takes pride that a customer can walk in the door and walk out with a model rocket, radio-controlled airplane, train set and all the materials necessary to put them together. It’s a far cry from other hobby shops, which Gustafson said often develop into niche businesses – dedicated specifically to model trains, for example.

“I specialize in pretty much the whole gamut of hobbies – and all the parts that go along with them,” Gustafson said.

For decades, the business was advertised as “the parts and service specialists” in the Asbury Park Press. “If you can’t find it, we have it,” declared another advertisement.

That's a big factor in hobby shop owners keeping their stores in business in the digital age, said Rob Gherman, who publishes the Hobby Merchandiser trade publication.

In the age of Amazon, retail brick-and-mortar stores are falling. The hobby industry is no exception: In the last 30 years, the number of hobby shops listed in Hobby Merchandiser has dropped from 20,000 stores to 5,000 stores.

“Owning a hobby store is a hobby as well as a business,” said Gherman, a Jackson resident who will begin as executive director of the National Retail Hobby Stores Association in January. “You have to love it.”

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Those who shop at "niche" stores are knowledgeable enough to buy online. But for everyone else? It's the friendly face behind the counter that helps them figure it all out.

“People don’t have to shop at a hobby store. They can go online,” Gherman said. “The reason they shop – especially at Jackson Hobby Shop – is because of the service they get. It’s impeccable.”

In the first half-hour the shop was opened on a recent Friday, Gustafson rarely stopped moving. He helped one customer pick out the best propeller for a model airplane. He took in a few model trains from the Jackson Senior Center for repair, in order to make sure they were ready to zoom around the track for the holidays.

He recommended the best kind of glue to a customer who had to discreetly fix a fish that was mounted on the wall.

“This is clearer than nail polish,” Gustafson said, solving the customer's problem within two minutes of hearing her story. “Just wash your fingers because it dries quick.”

That’s the kind of work Gustafson hopes to continue. He doesn’t plan on renewing the shop’s lease when it lapses in March and has been actively searching for someone to buy the business. The goal is to find a buyer who plans to keep the Jackson Hobby Shop open.

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And if that happens? Gustafson will be the first to apply for a job: He can repair almost anything and routinely shares a coffee or beer with his customers after the shop closes up.

“I’m not going to sit at home. I can go fishing, I can spend more time with my family – but I can come in and do the repairs, talk to people,” Gustafson said. “After 50 years, you’re not going to just stop and put me out to pasture.”

Mike Davis: @byMikeDavis; 732-643-4223; mdavis@gannettnj.com