Back in the 1980s, in my now distant infancy (I was 13 at that time) there was a very good hobby store in the heart of East Los Angeles: Toy Villa. It was located near the corner of Whittier Boulevard and Atlantic Avenue. It later closed and became a music store, which also closed down.
It had a very good selection of control line and radio control items, as well as lots of model rockets and related supplies. In addition, it also sold game cartridges (my father bought me the game Venture for the ColecoVision there-for some reason, that game ended up giving me nightmares at times), handheld games (i.e. Nintendo Game and Watch and football and basketball electronic games), and plastic model kits.
Nearby businesses nearby at that time: El Pico Rico Restaurant (now it's a laundromat) and Patty's Liquor (still strong after more than 30 years and recently renovated).
Another store I remember is one that was located in downtown Los Angeles, at Broadway near 3rd Street or so. I remember it because, when I went there the first time, I saw 4 RC ARFs for sale: a Cox Sportavia, a Cox Cessna Centurion, an MRC Trainer Hawk .15, and an American Eagle 4 foot wingspan sailplane.
Remember all those wonderful devices from the 1980s that could be found at the electronics stores at that time? The Casio scientific calculator watch...the Spanish/English pocket translators...the radios that were as thin as a credit card....the game watches by Casio and Nelsonic...I really get nostalgic about that time period. Oh, and if someone had told me back then that we would have EDFs, RTF quality planes, RTF scale RC warbirds, quadcopters, 3D capable RC planes and helis...I would not have believed it.