I just happened to sign into walthers.com this morning and found their new web site. I think it is very cool and up-to-date. Nice going Walthers!!
- Now if Walthers would be price competitive with others that would be truly complete
It would also destroy the market and force numerous hobby shops out of business. Being a distributor/manufacturer Walthers does not undercut its distribution chain. If they were to do so, they could effectively eliminate the need for a down-stream retail operation. The Walthers web site is a great reference, but is not the place you go to look for discount product.
Look again…Walthers does have monthly “sale” prices for direct order.
These sale prices is supposed to be honored by LHS I am yet to see that from the shop I go to.
Indeed Larry, and as you state these sales are supposed to be carried through to the hobby shop and done in cooperation with them. But in general Walthers does not offer accross the board discounts. My LHS for example advertises 20% discount accross the board on Walthers pricing. It is their choice to take less margin, it is not generally foisted on them by Walthers. For the most part Walthers pricing on the web is list price. This is especially true for new releases. The retail chain, either on-line or at the LHS, is where the price wars come in as business’ compete for market share.
You are right, I should have probably qualified my statement and said something like “it is not generally the place you go looking for discounts”
I pick up the sale flyer every month. When I find something I want, I order it through my LHS. He gives me the sale price, and I don’t pay for shipping. I have to pay sales tax, but on the small items I usually get, that’s cheaper than the shipping would be.
As far as the web site goes?
Who cares? Like a lot of the “improvements” these days, it’s full of big pictures, flashing icons and constantly-changing images. Some time ago, they did a study of what TV shows were most interesting to chimpanzees. (Yes, they really studied that.) The result: Game shows, with the flashing lights and excited screaming.
The new Walthers site is designed for the mobile-computer user - phones and tablets. Big print, big icons, bandwidth-intensive. But, it’s hard to find the real content.
Build a model railroad site for smart-phone users, and you’ll discover most model railroaders just aren’t big into smart phones.
I don’t like the new search box. I couldn’t just type in what I wanted for a quick search, it went to the advanced search automatically.
Walther’s prices are fine, particularly with the sales and all the hobby shops I deal with take about 10% or more off of their list price anyway.
Richard
Actuallyt I meant other web sites. I still patronize LHS as well
This goes along with what my dog watches on TV. We do not watch game shows, but she is attracted to ads which are similar in action to game shows.
Same difference, they are not going to undercut their on-line customer base either. Many of those are both web sites and bricks and mortar stores as well. Walthers is still in the mode of trying to protect its retail chain. Some manufacturers like Exactrail, have decided to cut out the retail chain altogether. They are small, so it does not have much of an effect on the LHS or web retailer. But if Walther or Horizon decided to do the same then the market would be turned on its head.
Type what you want in the ‘Product # Search’ box. It works like the old ‘Quick Search’ box.
I’ve got Walthers bookmarked, but not the main page. I go straight to the Advanced Search page, anyway. I never liked their simple search. It was too broad, and would often come up with 80 pages of distantly-related items.
Jeffrey,
Just tried it again from your suggestion. Every time I click on the search box at the top, the advanced screen comes up and the new website won’t let me type into the search box at the top. So, for me it doesn’t work like it used to. Maybe it’s a browser compatibility issue that arises from the new website, never had this problem before?
Richard
There are two search boxes at the top. Use the one which is to the right of “product#search”.
Look to the right of the large search box. There’s a smaller search box labeled ‘Product # Search’ right above ‘Getting Started’. That’s the one I was referring to. I’ve tried it with Firefox, IE, Chrome and Opera. It worked with all of them.
That did it, thanks. Should have known that the # sign meant keyword vs the word “keyword” on the left. Anyway, thanks again.
It’s things like this, to me anyway, too much effort given to something that wasn’t a problem before the change.
Richard
Don’t feel bad. It threw me for a bit too. Perhaps a whole five minutes!
For good reason. When Walthers has those really good sale prices, they are sometimes below the original cost to the shop. Honoring the price would mean selling at a loss - yet Walthers expects them to do that.
This from a friend who works in the train department at the biggest shop in the area.
–Randy
Walthers dealers absolutely do not have to honor the sale prices in the monthy fliers. Only PARTICIPATING dealers in the monthly sales should honor the monthly sale price.