I haven't been on a shop hop in years. What I liked about the shop hop was that each store had different fabrics, patterns, and kits. Yes, a few were the same like the Moda Marbles, but a lot was different. You got to see the quilts hanging on the wall and to get a feel of the owner and the store. Granted, some weren't too friendly.
I stopped going on the hops because of the distance involved. The stores here in Florida are too spread out over the state. From my local shop we had to travel 1 1/2- 2 hours to the next shop, another 30-60 minutes to the 3rd shop, and 2-3 hours to the 4th shop, etc. It just wasn't worth it.
I noticed some guilds have rented buses to drive them to the various shops.
Although I like the idea of the One Stop Hop from a time and gas perspective, you miss out on many of the items from the store itself. The items the owner brings is limited usually fat quarters, some patterns and kits. It's really not much different then vendors at a quilt show.