• Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      6 days ago

      Folks who like model trains and want to remake their hometown! It’s a small subsection of primarily older-USA-Midwest-autistic folks.

        • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          6 days ago

          I don’t get it either, but I love people being happy! My friend took me to a model train museum and they were BEAMING the whole time. I was like “ah, neat! Twains!”

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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      6 days ago

      No clue. Someone who is a big Menards fan and also an O-scale model railroad fanatic. Which must be a pretty small intersection on an already tiny Venn diagram.

  • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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    6 days ago

    I am from California and can practically feel the mid western energy radiating from this picture. I also have no clue what the fuck a Menards is but ill hazard a guess that it is either a Minnesota or Wisconsin thing.

    • JordanZ@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      Grew up in Illinois and now live elsewhere. I kind of miss Menards. It’s like Home Depot/Lowes but whoever stocks it actually knows what they’re doing.

      The variety of stuff is usually so much better. Some examples I remember are things like gas lines for appliances or the anti siphon hose bibbs(through wall in multiple lengths). HVAC duct tubing.

      Sure HD/L stock those online in hundreds of models but in store you get like two, maybe. Menards had an entire section of floor rack dedicated to both with dozens of options.

      Had way better luck there when looking for specific things and actually getting it same day.

      Odd thing is they don’t carry the regular brands you’d probably be use to seeing for power tools at the other stores. Like no DeWalt but has things like Masterforce, Worx, Tool Shop, and Skil.

    • Maalus@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      It’s prebuilt and handmade, hence the price. Making it cheaper - molds and better plastic in them would never pay for itself. It’s a large model so either a huge injection molder, or one wall at a time. Add to it the fact that probably between 30 - 50k needs to be spent per mold (one for a single wall) Add in time for the dude to supervise the machine. Etc etc. Shit would add up. For this, an artist probably makes them, assembles them en masse, could probably use low volume techniques. It’ll be more expensive, but you can put 2 - 3 in each shop, not many people would buy them anyway and it gets free marketing (as we can see in this post). Depending on the time it takes to make one, the dude could easily be making $50 an hour doing that.

    • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      6 days ago

      My friend brought me to a model train museum and this isn’t terrible quality for the price. Model train stuff is very expensive, and this is pretty detailed as the shelves and people in the store are actual pieces and not just, like… a sticker.

  • Death_Equity@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    This is something you could buy with employee incentive reward points(company store dollars) that somehow made it onto shelves.

  • evidences@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    Home Depot and Lowe’s are selling similar things this year. The depot actually had one for Halloween and one for Christmas, perfect to add to you Christmas village!

  • taiyang@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    Ah, that’s sweet. Best we have here in CA would be Target selling it’s own brands as toys for kid pretend shopping (and no way am I picking that up, it’s clearly brand brainwashing lol). A train set model, though? That’s gotta be one of the most wholesome ways to go about it.

    • MutilationWave@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      Sheetz just came out with voting for their stupid mascots I guess. You can get a keychain voting. I’m immune to (I think) all scams but the stock market at this point.

      But give me a free sticker? Sure what do you want?

      • taiyang@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        Not any worse that my first time voting, Starbucks gave us a free small black coffee. They didn’t do it to bribe back then, too.