Mildly Interesting

To spend almost $140 on a Menards model for your model railroad, you either want some sort of very accurate representation of somewhere that has a Menards or you are way too big a fan of Menards.

Also, pretty much everyone I've known into model railroads is into HO scale, so who is even going to buy this?

You can't save big money in a nanoscale Menards.

Menards are stuck to methighs

its what a pirate shouts when you kick him in the crotch

Since nobody actually answered the question: Menards is a massive hardware store chain in the Midwest. When I say it's massive, it has everything you could ever need in a hardware store and more. Like there are usually multiple floors, a lumber yard, highly specialized sections, and even a small grocery section with food, pet supplies, clothing, etc. it's definitely the greatest hardware store ever conceived, but unfortunately the man who owns them is batshit crazy in classic Wisconsin fashion.

It's a sort of hardware store that absorbed a Walmart.

a midwestern knockoff of a lowes with some extra product selection you'd find at a walmart or farm store; owned by a far-right, anti-union billionaire.

My nickname when I went to Cornell.

They play it all the time in the store too. It's maddening.

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

Menard's fans and model railroad enthusiasts.

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.

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.

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.

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.

There's always an 11% rebate.