I stopped at a full service model railroad shop last night to look at HO steam engines. A Broadway limited ATSF 3751 caught my eye so I took a serious look at it. I asked the assistant what mininum radius curves it requires as I run 18" and if I might need a controller to access sounds. He scratched his head and fumbled through the instructions. Half his reply was to come back when the boss is in. The other half was to buy it and find out. Give me a very big break. I wasn’t about to plunk down serious change to find out so I left. I got home (all 30 miles) and dug up a BLI 3751 on ebay and the seller had an entire paragraph describing it including answers to my questions (it needs 22" radius and a button box). This led me to a UP mountain which takes 18" radius. My mind is made up now.
I am getting sick of hearing model train stores protesting ebay. This is not the first time I’ve gotten educated on the internet. I have made many purchases in train stores after getting educated on the internet. Education I could not get at the train store . It shouldn’t be that way but it is.
Thats why I deal with Walthers mostly. I dont mean on the phone I mean I go there in person. Now I also go to other LHS like Jetco Hiawatha’s and Greenfield News & Hobby. Both of these places have excellent knowledge of what they sell.
Now the problem is not everyone stores higher are willing to sit and read about a product, they dont care to learn but want to make money. And instead of finding out for the customer. And hobby shop owners wonder why they dont get the business they use to.
I was at my LHS (Maine Trains in Chelmsford, MA) for something, and someone was demo-ing a P2K 0-6-0, with DCC and sound installed. The in-store layout has 15, 18 and 22-inch curves, so I could see clearly that this engine could take the 18’s om my layout easily. The sound was superb, too, and I was happy to see the customer pull out his wallet.
I went back a few weeks later for one of my own. The owner, Gerry, pointed out that the one I was looking at had a funny-looking tender, and said he could order the higher, more normal tender if I preferred that. I asked him to do just that, and now I’m the proud owner of an engine I couldn’t be happier with. I never would have bought one of these if I had to rely on web sites.
I absolutely hate going into a well stocked LHS with people that not only KNOW the products, but are only too happy to demo them for you. Inevitably I walk out the door a poorer (in the wallet) but happier man. Is that one of those oxymoron thingys?
No sir!.. Give me a store that everyone is either doing their nails or talking on the phone to honey. One that when you ask a question you’d think you’d just grown a third eye in the middle of your forehead, from the look you get. Ahhh yes, I get to leave richer but unhappy. There’s that moron thing again.
Several years ago I was in a local hobby shop and a newby came in and had purchased an Atlas C30-7 but did not know how to install the Kadee couplers. He asked the clerk but since it was not narrow guage, the clerk did not care. The guy was about the give up when I told him that I would help him. I showed him the tools that he needed (This was back when the X2f couplers were attached with a pin) and helped him disassmeble the unit and install the couplers. It probably took 15 minutes of my time to help this guy and made the hobby shop $100.00 in sales from the tools that he bought. The newby was happy to have the help but the clerk was completely disinterested. Yes, knowledge and service sell. Unfortunatley the shop closed a couple of years later and now the nearest decent hobby shop is 135-miles up the turnpike.
Maybe I will open my own shop with broad inventory, high quality staff, and an internet site in the future. Instead of whining about the web, why not join in and compete? I want to buy an old big box store and build a portion of the site into a model railroad store, another part into a model club space, and give several thousand square feet to my wife for her to have a hobby store for her interests. Imagine how much fun it would be for the wife to be excited for you to go to the train shop since it meant that she could go to her craft store with you.
Do you guys assume you know how to run every other business better than the owner, or is this just a model railroad thing?
I am constantly amazed at how much posting goes on about how to run a hobby shop from so many people who know so little of what they are talking about.
Yes! After all the customer is right. The hobby shop is a business and many of us believe that our needs are not being met. In the free market we have every right to state that we are collectively unhappy with the operation of our local shops and hope that it will lead to changes. A subtle rebellion is an American tradition. We collectively gripe about the hobby shop. politics, etc. We are a nation that wants better than we have. This is a great incentive for improvement. Instead of giving the hobby shop a pass we need to work toward havign our needs met.
There is a balance between meeting the needs of the balance sheet and the needs of the customer. even you tilt too far one way or the other the store will fail. To demand high prices without meeting the needs of the customer is to lose you customer base. The customer base of a competitor will grow when he provides better service at lower prices.
It is possible to go to far the other way and provide outstanding service but at such a high operating cost that the business fails. There needs to be balance. I do not expect the hobby shop to lose money in selling items to me and I want them to make a fair profit. If a customer believes that he is being treated fairly and getting a good deal then he is generally inclinded to spend more money with the shop either at the same time or in the future.
I for one am sick of hearing hobby shop owner whine and complain about ebay, mailorder, or on-line hobby shops. This is reality. I want brick and mortar stores to suceed and generally prefer to spend my money when I can actually look at the merchandise in advance. In oder for a store to suceed today, it will realistically need an on-line component. Instead of complaining about ecommerce, join in it. It may be a hassle, but it is the nature of the business. This is an issue all thougthout the ecomony not just wth model
I am constantly amazed at how much posting goes on about how to run a hobby shop from so many people who know so little of what they are talking about.
Do you know something that we do not or are you being a little sarcastic? Are you a current or former hobby shop owner? If so, I would like to hear your side as well.
Not sure who you’re posting to but I know exactly what I’m talking about. I didn’t come here to wine either. And yes, I know how to run a buisiness and what to expect out of employees for what they are paid. I also know you have to walk the talk if you expect to suceed. To not know about the product is one thing. I can live with that. To suggest to the customer he buy it and find out is as lame as it gets. Well maybe he meant I can return it. Still that is not an answer and it’s not the first time I’ve heard similar answers. My questions were pretty basic and this shop advertises to have a qualified staff.
Selector, pop another bag of popcorn and I’ll set with ya, this is gonna be good.
I worked in the LHS for about six months laast year, We sold trains,planes,r/c equipment,gold prospecting equipment. which I had no idea about. Metal detectors which I laso had no idea about. GPS stuff.Even less knowledge.Sometimes my line was! “you’ll have to wait til the boss gets back” Oh!! Did I mention we also did U-Haul rental contracts? One difference though I treid to remain as polite and attentive as I could although it was different with some of thew customers.Ahhhhhhh, nuff said.[soapbox]
I understand what you are saying…Stuff like you mention along with near or full MSRP is why I now do 90% of my shopping on line…I gave up on several hobby shops that I found to be useless,trying to sell me a sob story on why he’s out of basic paints-that old whine nobody buys decals any more so I no longer stock them-funny I can order all I need from several on line shops…
Who wants to hear that kind of stuff anyway? My closest shop is 26 miles away and I sure don’t want to hear…I am out or I can order it for you.
I have to agree with One Track Mind, running a sucessful retail operation requires a set of skills that ninety percent of the current LHS owners donot have and some are not even aware exist. A recent thread decried the lack of product mix in their LHS, and the lack of refills of out of stock items. The first order of sucessful business is ordering the things that the business sells regularly, and tracking the refills from the supplier to reorder the items that were out of stock at the distributor until they come into stock again. Then have the insight to understand what will be hot before it becomes available from the manufacturer three to six months from now. Oh also balance the cash flow so there is enough “profit” to pay the suppliers(and or the bank) for that inventory, the rent, the utilities, staff salaries, and hopefully the owner enough to put food on his own table, plus keep a roof over his family’s head.
In the LHS owners spare time he has to impart the knowledge about a very wide variety of products that are required to establish and maintain a base of customers. He has to hope that the kid who can expertly describe, build and operate an RC car, doesn’t wind up looking like a deer in the headlights when you ask about 18 inch radius capabilities of a “toy train” on the night he “has to go to his kids school” for family reasons.
With all the other little “business” things managed, the owner may actually get some time to be with his customers to learn their names, their interests, their wants and desires, and about what the customer has expertise in that he can use for his business. All of this while using the extra set of eyes in the back of his head and extra set of ears to catch the tell-tale signs of head lights and deer, gracefully excusing himself from the current conversation to do one minutes worth of teaching to make your future visit satisfying. I used to be amused at the neighbor who after years with the local city police thought he would go into sales when he retired,
Hopefully everyone understood that I’m wasn’t tryin to flame anyone and actually tryin to sympathize a little with One Track Mind and the orignator of this thread at the same time. Its amazing to me how Hobby shops can differ so much in the same locale and how almost all of them have to diversify in some form. The really good train shop I go to in Spokane 120 miles away is pure train,but hes the only train shop for 200-300 miles in any direction with the exception of one in Pasco,WA. I’m under the impression that he has people who look out for estate sales etc in the region for MRR equipment which he sells as used at the two big swap meets in Spokane each fall and winter. Anyways as the song goes “Its hard out there for a p–p” On the other hand I’ve been in shops that just don’t seem to give a rats patooty.[soapbox]
Its a fact that 80% of buissness fail for a lot of reasons, bad game plan is one, like I said before if you compeat on the high end stuff, and charge full retail on the bits an peices you will make money ( among other things when I worked for Home Depot selling lets say toilets, they only made a dollar or two but make major markup on the wax ring, bolts,new supply line, seat ect.).
I have to agree with One Track Mind, running a sucessful retail operation requires a set of skills that ninety percent of the current LHS owners donot have and some are not even aware exist. A recent thread decried the lack of product mix in their LHS, and the lack of refills of out of stock items. The first order of sucessful business is ordering the things that the business sells regularly, and tracking the refills from the supplier to reorder the items that were out of stock at the distributor until they come into stock again. Then have the insight to understand what will be hot before it becomes available from the manufacturer three to six months from now. Oh also balance the cash flow so there is enough “profit” to pay the suppliers(and or the bank) for that inventory, the rent, the utilities, staff salaries, and hopefully the owner enough to put food on his own table, plus keep a roof over his family’s head.
In the LHS owners spare time he has to impart the knowledge about a very wide variety of products that are required to establish and maintain a base of customers. He has to hope that the kid who can expertly describe, build and operate an RC car, doesn’t wind up looking like a deer in the headlights when you ask about 18 inch radius capabilities of a “toy train” on the night he “has to go to his kids school” for family reasons.
With all the other little “business” things managed, the owner may actually get some time to be with his customers to learn their names, their interests, their wants and desires, and about what the customer has expertise in that he can use for his business. All of this while using the extra set of eyes in the back of his head and extra set of ears to catch the tell-tale signs of head lights and deer, gracefully excusing himself from the current conversation to do one minutes worth of teaching to make your future visit satisfying. I used to be amused at the neighbor who after years with the local city police thought he would go i