WILL TRAVEL FOR PEANUTS

Arlene Placer of Hobbymasters gets playful with packing peanuts.

The roof of Hobbymasters on White Street is big, flat and unobscured by any surrounding structure. Store owner Arlene Placer and her son, Alan, hope to cover it with solar panels.

In fact, they've applied for a state grant to make the dream a reality. It's a process that could take several years, but they think it's wasteful not to harvest all that free energy from the sky.

In the meantime, they've got their minds on smaller matters.

Hobbymasters also has a web business, which it bills as "the world's largest online international hobby store." And in the past year, the business has gone — pardon the cliché — through the roof. That has spurred a lot of shipping. For the first time in the 33-year history of the business, Hobbymasters has an employee who has no interaction with store customers, says Alan. All he does is fulfill online orders.

Most of the shipping requires the use of packing peanuts to cushion fragile cargo. But the Placers balk at having to buy bagsful of the Styrofoam stuff when millions of Americans a day are just dumping them into the waste stream.

So the Placers have issued a call: Give us your spongy, clingy bits of foam!

They've put out the word through their business contacts and through Red Bank RiverCenter, where Arlene was long an officer. The downtown promotion agency has included the Placers' call for peanuts in a newsletter it emails to store owners, and executive director Nancy Adams recently showed up at Hobbymasters with a big bag of peanuts.

Red Ginger Home and Athlete's Alley, among others, have come through with the squeaky little buggers. Through Freecycle.org, an online swap meet for free stuff, Arlene got in touch with somebody in Ocean Township who had a nice stash, which she picked up on Friday while running an errand.

Also through Freecyle, she recently heard from "a guy in Brick who has a trailerful he wants to give us," she says.

"We're starting to get people to realize that they're better off being reused than just thrown into the garbage," she says.

Placer says she'll drive to pick up the peanuts if its a worthwhile volume of them.

"To me, it seems ridiculous paying for these things when people are throwing them out," she says.

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Comments

[gary morris]

Nothing to do with the peanuts, but just a compliment on the store. You can actually become a child walking in that store all over again. No pressure to buy (but I did), and there is stuff all over that can bring flash backs to a simpler time. I brought model airplanes that had to be assembled, painted and placed on little stands. It gave me valuable hours with my children those, and weeks later brought a chess set to teach my daughters how to play.
Great store.

[Boris Kofman, Red Bank Environmental Commission]

Congratulations to Hobbymasters on being an environmental leader! Let's hope that other businesses will follow their example.

Incidentally, UPS (which just moved next door) also accepts packing peanuts, although I'm not sure if they reuse or recycle them. So no excuse to throw those peanuts away!

[Alex]

Three years ago I purchased a Trivial Pursuit game from Hobbyasters for $52.99+tx. The very next day the same edition was in a Toys R Us flyer in the APP priced at $19.99 along with a $5-coupon bringing it down to $15.99. With the exception of food and tools I am really not much of a shopper. I called Arlene at hobbymasters and she checked the price they charged me to ensure it was correct. She returned to the phone with an attitude and informed me that the price was correct and that they don't try to compete with Toys R Us. I explained to her that for the in-town shopping convience (yeah right) I was willing to pay a few more $'s. THIRTY SEVEN DOLLARS MORE THOUGH SEEMED TO ME LIKE HIGHWAY ROBERY WITHOUT A GUN. I should have gone to toys r us and bought the game and returned it to hobbymasters for a refund. Instead I vowed to never shop there again and spread the word about their prices as much as possible.

I applaud their environmental benevolence but bet it has more to do with cost avoidance than anything else. Did Arlene look for ways to recycle the peanuts she received prior her need to purchase them?

As for the solar panels....they have been around a long time. Could this environmental zeal be as a result of the need for a new roof and the grants and tax incentives paid by our state and federal govts for these projects? Not to mention the amount of energy cost avoidance they will acheive. Sorry to be so cynical but after my experience with hobbymasters I have no doubt as to what their motivations are. Ingenious and look at all the free PR. they are getting.

[SPuD]

Alex, I agree that hobbymasters is quite expensive for items like that, but are absolutely amazing when it comes to customer service, especially on the car, trucks, and trains.

I have now purchased 3 cars from them, radio controlled cars that is. Anything goes wrong, bring it to them and they will help you through it. Their service is the reason I will not shop for hobby stuff like that anywhere else. Could I buy that same car online for a few bucks less, sure, but when it breaks or needs a tune-up the website isn't going to take my car apart with me and explain/fix the problem.

I think it is a great idea to put the solar panels on the roof as well, way to think (redbank)green.

[Alex]

SPuD-
I agree customer service is worth a few extra dollars. I shopped at Prowns for years and even though I could have found many of the products I bought there for a few pennies cheaper I apreciated the owner and the employees enough to support that store. Even though the parking was a pain in the a*s. I shop at and support our local Food-Town as well. I am willing to pay a few dollars more per trip for the cleanliness and the customer service and friendliness of (most)of the staff there as well.

Question is how much customer service does one need when buying a simple board game. Why should I get attitude when questioning a $37- price difference on a $15- item. Then I am told I can not return it because I took the cellophane wrapper off the package. That does not strike me as good customer service. If I owned the business and found I could not price items within reason of my competition I would find items to sell that I could compete with.

Perhaps because I don't have children. I have not looked for the value in the hobbymasters experience.

[Dan]

Alex,

You have found them out: they are in business to make money. But you don't have to cast aspersions on everything they do just because you weren't happy with your experience there.

You should have just taken back the Trivial Pursuit game rather than carry around a grudge for 3 years. I don't doubt that you got attitude from the owner, but in her place, wouldn't you be pissed to find out that Toys R Us was selling a game for less than you pay wholesale? It was not robbery for them to sell a game to you at the retail price, regardless of what kind of markdown the big chains were offering at the time.

If you want the lowest price, Hobbymasters isn't for you.

But there's no need to be so angry.

[Alex]

Dan-
I am not angry, this is forum where we are all alowed our speech. I own my own business and strange enouth it is in the waste avoidance and green/leeds construction industry doing waste audits and consulting on green issues, for profit by the way.
$37- is a drop in the bucket for me thank god and my hard work.
I was treated badly by the owner who gouged me. She would not allow me to return the item when I tried.

Enough of this subject for me. I have stated my thoughts.

[BFrank]

Hobbymasters is one of the true Red Bank gems. I find cool toys there for my nephews and daughter that Toys R Us is way too corporate and dopey to even think of carrying.
Rock on, Hobbymasters of the Universe!

[Andrew M.]

I've actually worked at Hobbymasters. Although it was some years ago now and I really didn't work past a few months I have nothing but the fondest memories. Everybody that worked there were and still are super nice especially Alan and Steve. They all really care about the product and their customers. I saw and experienced it first hand. Yes they have policies but what store doesn't. But their dedication in helping customers especially children finding new and pro active hobbies is something that should be rewarded. If they were doing something wrong then they wouldn't be in business after all these years. Bravo Arlene. Keep up the great work. I give everybody my best. The films are on me.

[Sal E. Growler]

Somebody grabbed me in that place when I was ten or eleven years old. I was in there with my brother and I think I bought a model trolley for my train set. Some guy (not an employee or owner - to be clear) grabbed me, took me into that elevator in the back and made me sniff a whole bunch of model glue with him. I don't remember much after that, but I did wake up in the parking lot of the E&B Marine that was around the corner. Crazy. I completely put that out of my head until I just read this piece. Really crazy.

[Sal E. Growler]

Somebody grabbed me in that place when I was ten or eleven years old. I was in there with my brother and I think I bought a model trolley for my train set. Some guy (not an employee or owner - to be clear) grabbed me, took me into that elevator in the back and made me sniff a whole bunch of model glue with him. I don't remember much after that, but I did wake up in the parking lot of the E&B Marine that was around the corner. Crazy. I completely put that out of my head until I just read this piece. Really crazy.

[Dan]

Alex,

I didn't say there was anything wrong with you posting your feelings. It just seemed to me like you had a lot of anger, based on the accusation of robbery in all caps and attacking their environmental initiatives. Three years is a long time to be angry at someone for charging you the retail price for an item. A boutique like Hobbymasters can't match the price of this week's loss leader for a big chain and stay in business. I'm sure Hobbymasters paid more than $16 wholesale, so they'd be losing money on the sale. It seems unfair to accuse them of robbery and gouging.

[Arlene]

"Could this environmental zeal be as a result of the need for a new roof and the grants and tax incentives paid by our state and federal govts for these projects?" No,we do not need a new roof and would not need it for years.And partly you are right...we hope to save some money along the line. But...we have become very "green" aware and this is a good step towards it. Not sure yet we will be able to afford it. You have to put out alot of money for this project.
Also...were we recycling peanuts before now? No!!But we are using lots of it and are very aware now of how much we were throwing into the garbage.
And so sorry about the Trivial Pursuit! But...we CANNOT compete with Toys R Us and will not take back items already opened.We have rules just as all the big boxes do...and in fact,cannot demand that the manufacturers take things back or give us items at Big Box stores prices as they can.And...I AM in business to make money.Aren't you working to make money?
Thanks guys for the nice emails.

Arlene