Small pieces, big impact: Model Empire in West Allis to close after 55 years

WEST ALLIS, Wis. (CBS 58) — Some stores don’t just sell products. They sell memories.

For more than five decades, Model Empire on West Greenfield Avenue has been one of those places — a small, family-run shop packed with model cars, trains, rockets, and kits that quietly shaped generations of hobbyists.

Now, after 55 years in business, it’s time for owners Alex and Roberta Geiger to turn the page.

Inside, shelves stretch wall to wall, stacked with thousands of kits ranging from snap-together models for kids to intricate builds for experts.

The store has long been a destination for anyone looking to slow down, focus, and get creative.

“We have thousands of kits,” Alex Geiger said, while guessing that over the years he’s sold millions. “I was seven when we started selling model kits.”

His family first opened the store in 1970 at 6301 W Greenfield Ave. under the name “Hobby Town.”

Model kits were booming back then, and the store aimed to create a niche in the area.

In 1983, Alex and Roberta bought the store from his parents and moved it just down the street to 7121 W Greenfield Ave.

“He said this is what we’re going to go do, and I said 'okay, let’s do it,'” Roberta Geiger recalled. “It was an adventure all the time.”

In 1991, they moved once again, settling down at 7116 W Greenfield Ave.

“When we bought the business, my thought was this is a life situation,” Alex Geiger said. “I always thought I’d be doing it. Where are you exactly going to be, you don’t know, but I always thought we’d be doing it.”

But now, the doors will be closing in early 2026.

“It’ll be very different not coming here every day,” Alex Geiger said. “It wasn’t an easy decision.”

The couple will be retiring. Sort of.

“At this point, we’re closing the store, but we’re still going to be involved. We’re still going to do some online sales, and we’re going to do some shows like we do the World of Wheels in town here and things like that,” Alex Geiger said. “This is what I did all my life, so it’s just like, wow, stepping down is kind of sad because this is what you did, and you don’t want it to end.”

But what they’ll miss the most? The community they created along the way.

“They’re more like friends rather than customers,” Roberta Geiger said with a smile.

Those friendships are even visible throughout the store.

In one display case sits a custom model car built by a longtime customer — a miniature replica of Alex’s real-life vehicle.

“He duplicated it for me, and if you look on the background, it even shows Model Empire!” Alex Geiger said, adding that this was a surprise gift. “This has been our family.”

So while the building will be sold and the physical shelves will soon empty, it’s clear that what they built over more than five decades will last longer than any model kit ever could.

“We wish them well. We had a good run here. It was great,” Roberta Geiger said. “West Allis was good to us, so we make a space for someone else to have a new chapter in their life.”