Well, I'm on a first name basis with the fine folks at my LHS (Parma Hobby over on Ridge Road, next to Ganley Mazda). Their primary business is model car guys, O scale model railroaders, and RC airplane fans. We car guys are their bread and butter, keeping the doors open, while the train and plane guys finance store improvements and special events.
They're trying to get better at stocking import kits (MRC never did a good job of getting Fujimi and Aoshima kits out here to Ohio, and there's just not enough of a variety of Hasegawa stuff to justify a ton of it) especially Tamiya. And they try to get their hands on out of production stuff, too. Revell and AMT stuff, plus Lindberg, Polar Lights, and Galaxie Limited is there in abundance. And they stock plenty of Detail Master, Hoppin Hydros, XS Tuning, and Model Car Garage detail parts.
A lot of the LHS around here are like that.
Southeast Hobby tends to deal in obscure kits (only place where I've seen the Gunze Sangyo Bugeye Sprite MkI kit in person), while HobbyCastle is wall-to-wall discounted classic Revell, Monogram, AMT, Lindberg, and import kits. How about a Protar 1:12scale Ferrari 126C2? They had one (went home with my Dad).
You've got The Slot Shop in Elyria, Ohio; The second oldest continually operated hobby shop in the US with the world's oldest operational 1:24th scale slot track. They're pretty much your standard line of kits, but have a policy of "If you need it, we will find it." Hobby's ETC in Lorain is a nice place that is very good about keeping the latest stuff on their shelves, and has a long-standing reputation for "cutting good customers a deal." Shifter's in Eastlake is a slot car track, and the top one in the region, but they're trying to start stocking model kits on a regular basis (mostly because one of their classes, which I race in, is a stock car class that uses model car bodies. I run exclusively AMT 1975 Matador bodies).
Finally, we've go two Hobbytown USA's in Northeast Ohio. They don't usually have older stuff, but man do they stock current kits. Plus they're very fairly priced and have plenty of supplies.
Model cars are in a bit of a lean time, as far as the manufacturers are concerned. Kit sales are down, die cast sales are up, and new kits aren't being tooled as frequently. We lost AMT (regardless of the fact that there are new kits with the AMT label on them) and Lindberg is gone as well. Polar Lights is healthy enough, and Revell-Monogram is playing conservatively by producing well thought out kits of popular subjects, but not getting overly ambitious and alienating their primary kit buyers.
The best thing we model car guys can do is keep buying kits and making trips to our local hobby shop to remind them that we're still interested. If not a kit, try buying paints, or glues, or magazines at your LHS. Every little bit helps.