Small Scale Military Headquarters

I was at a local hobby shop, hunting for an Elefant. The manager said he hadn't even heard of it! So I look at the display case, holding an ever-dwindling supply of tanks; last year they still had T-34's; this year, even the Kanonenwagens were giving out. The guy said this business was going down the drain...
But, they still had an S1 Panzer IV sitting there. The guy went in and pulled an S2 out of nowhere, but I got that one already. Out of stock. So, they sold the display tank, stripped of gear, deserted by the crew, and covered in a fine layer of dust and fingerprints: half price, twenty dollars not tax.
But apart from my find, the visit showed that most hobbyshops, at least in my area, aren't going to be doing much restocking. Either they're not clued in, or Unimax didn't even make enough to go around. Same with the 21st stuff too. Not much at all.

The thing is, if brick-and-mortar shops aren't going to acknowledge this hobby, how long is it going to be before e-shops and e-tailers discontinue their selling?
I'm scared for the hobby.
Opinions? Thoughts?

Edit: bare with me, this was done under the influence of cold meds/and nightcap.

part of it is the lack of companies to make products in a timely manner and part is we are a very niche market.

Look in the kit world. every quarter DML releases 12-15 kits in 1/35 and Tamiya and Italeri do 6 or so.

OK, 21st does burst in 32x(with long draughts inbetween or undisclosed releases that just show up with no PR), and trickle in 1/18..and BBI and the others I don't know.

that's the worst of it lack of promoting their product to vendors and BUYERs, companies like Unimax and 21st which is the biggest to fault at this point do not advertise their products in places where we would see them IE like Lighting2000/MotorSport 2 page+ add in WWII magazines, and there are other Hobbysomthing 1/48 planes do full page ads. 21st leaves it to the sellers to promote/advertise the brand..which is ok, but the company needs to hock it own wares too if it wants to make sales. Since it is a larger entity than most of the e-shops and brick/mortar places that sell it(Walmart doesn't count..to them it's filler and not a money maker line like Kenner or Hasbro)

I haven't seen anything from 21st in that regard esp recently even their own website is outdated, and really not that great on promoting new and upcoming releases, really IMO 21st seems to be a piss-poor ran company when it comes to releasing, making the said toy/model and getting it in the sales market...It is a wonder they have survived as long as they have. And I say that as a buyer of 21st C. Product.

one reason I went back to modelling vs buying Out of the box stuff was prior to the opel/38(t) releases..21st was making a bunch of crap..poor researched or poorly made armour, even their best like the pz III L was just a rehash of a hack job. Recently they have done great tooling but in the beginning it was harsh for sure. But if noone knows of Future plans we don't know what to save up for, or get caught without budget to get something when it pops on the market like a jack in the box.

And I remember some Bullcrap story of all the companies trying to play cloak and dagger/spy issue crap about releases. That is petty complaning on their part...just too afraid of competion is all it was, and it hurt us more than it hurt them.

Look at this example for YEARs the only cheap and not very good tooling of a Flakpanzer 38(t) was made by Alan..it was a flawed kit..but it was the only kit that wasn't some 100$ resin conversion or whatnot so you were forced into it and had to deal with it...Then in the span of less than 6 months, and (almost within the same month for Dragon and Tristar) Italieri, Dragon and Tristar all released the same tank(Tristar and Dragon have done this a couple time) and you know what all 3 sell well, cause you have people like me, that aren't huge trumpeter fans, still have a bad taste for Italeri do to old kits that problem, or dislike Dragon kits for being too complex and not a good weekend build...But as a modeller it's good cause now you have a choice, first price-wise and second quality wise. Did it hurt us as buyers heck no, Did it hurt the companies, maybe a few sales that one or the other would have gotten if they had a monopoly on the kit. last I checked all 3 are still going strong and out producing, out marketing, and out selling everything in this hobby..not a knock against the Out of the Box stuff(heck Dragon is in this hobby with 1/35 and 1/72 stuff)..I am just making a point while drowning myself with Nyquil trying to ward off a cold/flu/sore throat.

Try ZICAM. It has worked for my wife and I for two years.