Talk Me Out Of This Idea...

[Gondor]

This might be a good watch for you

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zf5rKTCMNnU

Gondor

[zenrat]

You need to be financially secure enough to make the shop basically an extension of your stash and modelling space.  Somewhere to sit and fiddle with styrene while chatting with the occasional visitor to whom you might sell something if you decide to.
It is vital to be able to say "f**k off out of my shop, there is no way I am selling you that you nit picking, rivet counting JMN numpty".

[Mossie]

I personally think it's a very difficult business.  As others have mentioned, the hobby has pretty much moved online and the young blood isn't coming in.  I've seen three model shops open locally in the last five years and all three disappeared within a year.  Don't touch it with someone else's barge pole... there's the customary 'but' coming though...

BUT... The only shops that seem to keep going locally are some established shops, usually with a little niche.  The last local shop mostly deals in high end RC cars while having a shelf of kits.  A shop in York has a very good location near a tourist spot and also offers diecast & railways.  Another shop is geared up for wargaming that attracts the kids and seems to be on the rise, it also has pop culture and comics for sale.  So maybe diversification is the key?

[Gondor]

I always thought that if I was going to open a model shop it would be for more than models. I even have a name for the shop and a logo sorted out. However without winning the lottery so that it would be a hobby to run the shop regardless of it making any money the main thing is it would keep me off the streets 
The shop name would be "Plastic, Paper & Paint" or P³ With the logo being an isometric cube with a letter P on each visible face.

Gondor

[PR19_Kit]

I'd call my model shop 'Kit's Kits', but it seems some ratbag has already done that. 

[kitnut617]

The LMS I use are mostly Hobby Shops, where they cater for all types of hobbies. The ones that 'specialized' in plastic kits, or trains, etc. have all disappeared. The closest one I go to in Red Deer is mostly a computer repair shop with a lot of 'gaming' and 'Airsoft' stuff on hand. Another I don't use anywhere as frequently, is a 'Comic' shop first and foremost. Another is mostly RC stuff.

[Mossie]

There are other options, how about kits or bits?

Here's Copper State Models story:
https://www.copperstatemodels.com/page/loadview/about