From a consumer point of view, of course the cheaper the price the better. However, from a business point of view, margins are there for a reason because if dealer aren’t making money, then they cannot get fresh stock and the vicious cycle just continue from there. I have been in retailing/mail order for almost 15 years now and what consumers don’t realise is that it’s NOT easy at all! Internet is certainly one cause of it NOT because of the convenience of it but rather the so-called rogue ‘bargain’ sellers. I am NOT advocating price fixing but those bargain sellers are usually new to the game and thinking they will just undercut everyone to try to sell but you find them dissappearing almost as quick as they are appearing. So do you rather getting proper service or a bargain?
I think the internet has created a sickness which I called ‘rock star’ syndrome and this is very evident in the R/C indutry. It’s making it so easy and so cheap to pick up accesories these days, it’s making everyone in the habbit of ‘goods on demand’! They have been turned into ‘virtual rock stars’ that wants things on-demand and at close to zero cost. This problem will face every hobby industry in the next 5 years and the R/C industry is already almost out of control.
The R/C guys are usually more aggressive and have more ego because perhaps they need that ‘confidence’ to win races or whatever but that has a fine line and most of the time people just overstepped into as ‘arrogant’. That’s less eveident in other industry such as die-cast collection and model railroad but I think it’s going to be a matter of time because with all he techonology, every consumer is tuning into rock stars! LOL
So look guys, next time, bear a thought for us poor retailers, most of us are not making money at all and bearly making the ends meet and I can tell you right now, even with the bigger chains
I stopped into Riders the other day. They had a 40% off sale going and that’s about the amount of stock left in the store. I found nothing and left. They still had 4 guys working.
Blame the Internet or decline in the hobby among the younger folks if you will. Certainly they are factors. I also think that an overstaffed and under stocked store is a recipe for failure.
Now that you mention it, I have also noticed the RC crowd has been noticeable absent from the LHS’s as of late. You used to see them in the parking lot in front of the store all the time, sometimes with an employee working on a car. Or a guy at the counter usually had a customer’s car inside working on it. That seemed down this summer.
They probably just getting more guys to help out because it’s a sale and since it’s a luquidation, the stock selection obviously are limited…so I don’t think they are doing anything wrong…
The retail game is bloody hard these days even online. People thought ‘what overhead do you have?’ but the truth is, there still a lot of overheads because the ISP wants a piece and then there are commission to pay and if you have stock, there storage, packing material etc and if you picked the wrong stock, then you will be tied up with capital as well.
Of course it’s not just those rogue traders on eBay but I think these days there are also just too many choices and I think a huge chunk of disposal income also has gone into electronics as well and hence making the consumer market even more unstable.
I guess my dream of operating a model train store has to include internet pricing and run it in conjunction with a UPS store. There must be a way to keep a storefront open. I know many shops are "general"hobby as “train” only does not pay the bills.
Despite being a small store, they always have 4 guys working. The help usually outnumbered the customers. The largest store (2-3x) in the area has 2 guys usually there.
Nobody in their right mind pays full price. Even our LHS here offer 20% discount on a day to day basis. They shot themselves in the foot in my opinion.
Absolutely! The day of the full price hobby shop is coming to a end with each full price shop that closes…So its death by their own hands by outdated business practices they refuse to give up.
Please excuse my senility, but what is the benefit of less than full retail if you pay for that saving or more for shipping? What do you do when you need some small do-dad to finish a project, that the suggested retail is 1/5 of the shipping cost? I also wonder what the long term effect will be on the “industry” with no distribution chain to provide a paid for market for new stock. Maybe our wish will come true and we will deal directly with the manufacturer at full retail, plus wait six months to a year for them to ship whatever we get to pay for now. It is my suspicion that the online bargins will be less readily available, since they seem to be using Walthers as their warehouse. I believe that Horizon will only sell to brick and mortar shops as they fore see the move to “just in time” stocking at their expense. Perhaps we will get what we think we want, only to find what we expected that to be is entirely different.
I suppose I should just ignore the “E-Bay” sellers, and the Internet Trains horror story threads and “be happy”. The guy accross the counter may BE and Idiot, but he is “My Idiot”. When I have a problem, my Idiot knows HE HAS A PROBLEM!
its a shame that so many hooby shops seem to be going down. but then again sometimes they bring it on themselve for perhaps too high prices and dismal amount of items in stock.i sure would not pay full price fror anything at a hiobby shop. hope shops that continue to sell at full price will not get my dollars. as for internet trainsl i bought a topkea cab style ATSF and never received it. i got an email saying that ther must have been a glitch
Riders Hobby Shop in Kalamazoo, Michigan closed in June 2005. It was part of the Ann Arbor based chain of Riders Hobby Shops. The location was recently turned into a MAX 10.
They had a lot of magazines that are hard to find.
Hobby shops are by design niche marketers. Unfortunately, niche marketing requires a sufficient population from which to attract business. So if the LHS is waiting for more new customers to come in they will go the way of dinosaurs.
I personally have a number of favorite LHS who work nationally. If I know what I want I can have it sent to me in less than a week. Since I live on an island and 1 hr from civilization, this is my only option.
As to Internet sellers, I have had rather good experience. In fact, I prefer to shop the Internet for most everything… I do have to pay shipping but so does everyone as it is rolled in the price. There are also some tax savings.
Bottom line: LHS need to adapt to new marketing or go out of business… Sad but that is the beauty of living in America… You have the equal chance of failing or succeeding … It separates the survivors from the pack and in the end everyone ends up with a better selection.
I don’t mean to be harsh, but, honestly–that’s not my problem. You chose to go into that business. You must accept the consequences of that decision. As a consumer, I look for the best price I can find. If you offer that price, I’ll buy from you, and frequently. If not, I’ll buy from the place that does.
Begging for our business or trying to “guilt” customers into buying from you is not likely to generate more sales.
My LHS is train only and it seems to be thriving although I am not privy to the accounting books so that is just an educated guess. They have been at their current location for almost 30 years. Maybe one of these days I’ll be surprised and they will have going out of business signs posted but I don’t expect that to happen any time soon.
It doesn’t matter what business you are in, you have to be flexible to adjust to changing market conditions if you want to survive. What worked before isn’t necessarily going to work in the future. Consumers vote with their dollars and if they choose price over service, the companies that give that to them will survive. The business needs to serve the customer, not vice versa. As long as there is a demand, there will be businesses to fill that demand. They may or may not be the same businesses that served the customers in the past.
Maybe they should sell partnership in the lhs, that way all who always wanted to own could, exposiure would be less, original owner could get back his original investment, since working the shop would be one of the req. enthusiactic employees, could be worked out with profitsharing instead of a paycheak, no social security payments ect. ect.
Hobby shops need to operate a store as well as offer internet sales. For heaven’s sake, even Walmart the worlds largest retailer does internet business., and they have how many thousands of stores???When I first returned back into the hobby a few months ago, the first place I looked was online. Then I went looking…at hobby stores I found online!
Then, with a larger sales base, they could offer the better prices, as they have larger sales volume, better deals etc.
I have a LHS about 10 mins from me. I cant even check to see if they have something before I go. I also have a not-so-local-hobby-shop 1 hr from me also a wholesaler on net sales and in a store. Sometimes even paying S&H it pays me to get stuff from them.And its usually here the next day.I split myself between the two, as to whos got the better price, or where can I get it quicker.
The manufacturers should not be undercutting their dealers, but hey, they are out to make as many bucks as they can.
It is sad when they close, but there is more they could try to do to get with the times.
I think that those on the forum should be aware that the Rider’s Hobby chain is a franchise arraingement and owned by differing people with variable abilities at managing a store.
I was a customer of the original Rider’s in Ann Arbor when it was run by the Rider family. The first model railroad kit I bought (1954), and most purchases for the first few years, were from Ruby Rider.
Keep in mind that references to a specific Rider’s will not necessarily apply to any other store in the chain.
