Your thread on LHS experience is locked, nobody can reply to it directly. I don’t know if you did that or the moderator did it.
To answer your question from memory, yes, LHS that operate a storefront (a store you can walk into and shop) do have higher overhead than an online seller. An online seller can work out of an area that looks like the storeroom on another store. They can even work out of their own basement or spare room. Much smaller space. Climate control not a necessity. Even employees aren’t needed. They can run the business in their spare time, even while holding down a full time job elsewhere.
Plus, I’m sure there’s other differences that a shop owner can tell you about.
It is amazing to me that everyone wants to name their own price when we are buying but we want top dollar for anything we sell. The LHS has a right to list the items at any price they want, but will not make money if they are too low or if they price the models so high they can’t be sold.
Car dealers do the same thing, If they have the latest hot car that everyone is trying to buy, you will not get any major discount.
Back in the day when Westside was imported models, I was forced to pay twenty dollars over the list price since Westside normally offered the dealers a 30% discount. The dealer I was working with would not accept the short markup and always used a 40% markup. He was the only one left to buyt from if you did not have resevations with the other dealers.
I personally was not overjoyed paying twenty dollars more, but at the same time was not uphappy since they were the only game in town…
If I find an LHS that has the little things well stocked, or can get me what I order in less than 10 days, then I’ll pay a little more. However, my LHS isn’t really into trains. He’s an RC plane guy and most of his staff are RC car guys. He does know stuff about trains, but other than some nice (overpriced) engines, I can’t get the little every day things just from stopping in. If I have to order standard MT couplers because you don’t have them in stock and then it takes you two months to get them to me, sorry, I’ll pay the shipping and buy it from an online retailer. I’ve lived in several places and only two hobby shops I lived around ever were worth paying full MSRP for - Central Hobbies in Vancouver, BC and Pacific Scale Rail in New Westminster, BC. Too bad I’m 1000 miles away now.
It’s funny a hobby shop was compared to a car dealer. I hate car dealers and I don’t use the word “hate” lightly. If that’s the practice LHS want to practice I won’t have to tell them why they went out of business or why their shelves are full of over priced dusty items.
For those familar with computers will tell you what pricewatch and Bizrate etc did for buying computer parts. (You get the cheapest deal from a rated vender.)
Someone could make some easy money designing something similar for model anything.
Seems anybody can close a thread by posting and checking that “do not allow replies” check box down there on the left side of the reply page. Seems like a thing like that is a good feature for someone wanting the last word? Should I close this thread LOL? Fred
I compared a car dealer to the LHS just to talk about list prices and how the prices can be changed up or down, depending on the item. Both of those examples are business types that need to make a profit to stay open.
The computer is a great example you cited, but almost everyone in America or the world is buying them. I believe two thirds of the people in the USA plus all of the companies use computers. I now have four Dell’s for my work, but how many model trains are sold in the USA every day. MR usually talks about three hundred thousand modelers being active but if that is close to the total, it is only 1% of the population.