When I was a kid living in Oakland CA I could ride me old push bike to three hobby stores in the area. One was pretty much all balsa, on plastic and the other was a mixture but mostly toys............. F you very much Toys R Crap!
In the 80's there was one in Fremont CA the size of a grocery store. Separate departments for it all, trains, dolls and houses, plastic, balsa planes and gliders, dios, tools, even knitting and fabrics. Another small one in San Lorenzo mostly trains but good plastic kits and balsa flying stuff..
Of course this was all before accessories like PE and resin. It was all so simple then.