Actually, the 75$ (Roughly... Might be closer to 77$) for the '2A7 was after customs. Same with the AMX's price.
Just had to note that, as It was cheaper by about 25-30$ in the end.

Though, To be 100% fair, Most decently priced kits (Ex: Any Takom kit minus Chieftain, some Trumpeter / HB, Meng's Tiger II / FT-17, etc), are pretty much the exact same price here. Sometimes cheaper after the (Rather high... 2/3 so far.) chance of customs TBH.
... And the Takom Chamond is much more expensive online IMO (45$+tax, vs 60$ with possible customs). So, that's a thing.

I was in Liverpool last week, which has had a massive regeneration scheme. I Googled model shops in Liverpool, there were only four (three were model trains/RC); the nearest one when I went there, the street had been replaced by a big hotel, so even computer records aren't up to date! What I'm trying to get at is that in a city that large, there is nowhere selling plastic kits, not even a chain toy or hobby store. But I can't believe that no one on Merseyside makes models, so they obviously mail order them and everything else they need. When I was a teenager I didn't tell too many people about my hobby (yes, plastic had been invented that far back!); if you weren't interested in football you were weird. (To some extent it's still the same, I'm not a member of any modelling club.) The only way to get things then was to go to the shop; you could mail order, but the only game in town for delivery was the GPO. I still like to see what I'm buying before I buy, so I do miss the LHS (nearest LHS to me is 60 miles, and that one isn't thriving).

The same thing has happened with my motorcycle hobby. I've owned one of my bikes since 1982. All the guys at the bike club(s) are my age or older. We often speculate what will happen to our bikes when we go. In the short term the state of play seems to be that less people are acquiring more bikes, i.e. the pool of machines is the same but spread amongst less people. I have to mail order all the parts I need, sometimes even the oil. Like the model world with the split between kits and trains/RC, it is almost unknown to find dealers who "cross fertilise" both classic and modern machinery, so the local dealers are virtually useless to me; they don't even stock the spark plugs I need.

I don't think the hobby is dying. It is just going through the same changes that the rest of our society is going through.

You must be talking about G---n. Totally crazy coot - to the point of embarrassing! Always knew everything, but really nothing. I think they're really closing because business in general is slow, because of above discussed reasons, and the son is just not interested in keeping the store open. Sell out and live on the profits.

Have you been recently? Have they put stuff on sale?

"I know I'm as much to blame as anyone, in that I do the vast majority of my modeling related purchases from on-line places. But I would still rather, if the cost and relative convenience (meaning, being close to the store, geographically) were close to the same, get my model things at a brick and mortar store."

My wife and I try to buy everything from local businesses if we can, we're willing to pay a little more to keep local shops going. But local shops often don't make it easy. I keep a running list of model kits, tools, paints etc. I want to buy. If I went to the two local hobby shops (we used to have three) I'd be lucky to find more than a few of those items available, and of course the prices can be double what online sellers charge. I keep trying, when one local shop had the airbrush I wanted at a really attractive price (open box special) I jumped on it, I didn't mind paying a few bucks more than online. But when I looked for a compressor the local shops had nothing like what I wanted, I had no choice but to buy online. Often the local shop operators haven't even heard of the brands I want to buy and stock only the same old brands from decades ago, so I can't shop locally for the products which interest me even if I'm prepared to pay more. Some of the stock in our local stores hasn't moved in years, it's coated in dust, and losing touch with what model builders are shopping for is a sure way for a brick and mortar seller to disappear.

Does a lack of local shops matter to kids interested in model building? Probably not, they grew up shopping online, it's natural to them. Apparently their modelling buddies are online too rather than at the local IPMS meeting. IMO they don't know what they're missing, but if they are at least building models then I have to be content with that.