Reading the post on the Mishasaka store closing, (pictured below) the store peaked my curosity.
I spent 12 years working as a architect, for national retail stores and restaurants before starting my career as a stay-at-home dad. In retail, product quantity, and selection were the rule, at the expense of store design.
So where would you shop for trains?
A: Extensive train layout with a limited stock, probably have to order what you were looking for.
B: Extensive selection with boxes to the roof? It’s in there, somewhere.
While I like nice display layouts, I prefer store space be used for merchandise. Location is important too. I wish the two LHS that closed in Montgomery were still open. They were not big, nor discounted, but they had an excellent selection of trains plus knowledgeable employees. That means a lot, too.
A store layout sufficiently sized to show off new engines and special rolling stock features is improtant and leads to some impulse buying. A good inventory of rolling stock, sets and engines is important in todays market with the number of options for purchasing available and our have-to-have-it-now mind set.
Have to agree with Jim. While layouts are always nice to see and sometimes give me ideas to improve my own, a clean, organized shop with good service and knowledgeable sales people are a ‘must’. I like to “get in” and “get out”.
READ ON ONLY IF YOU HAVE TIME On the other hand:
On my travels, I have visited a few retail stores where the owners have no idea of what they have, have never heard of or seen a dust cloth and, if you were to really look around, you could find an older boxed item that they will sell to you at the original listed price. (These are few and far between but, when found, are a real treasures)
A few years back, I came upon such a store in West Virginia. When I made a selection and questioned the price marketed on the box, the owner asked if I thought it was too high and that he would take a few dollars off. It turned out that he was retired, had received the bulk of the merchandise from his late uncle’s estate and only opened the shop when he wasn’t “fishin”.
PS I paid the old ‘listed’ price (half the then current price for the same item) because if I took him up on his offer I wouldn’t have been counting ‘box cars’ to fall asleep that night, I would have been tossing and turning all night to avoid them.
Beyond the impulse buying, a layout is absolutely the most important draw for buyers who are not yet confirmed hobbyists. New folks respond best to that kind of demonstration. I think Lionel was on target when they requied a layout of their dealers.
