Walthers is attempting the dominate the marketplace at the expense of their own retailers! Yesterday, we received the June sale flyer and it contains sales on Walthers Cornerstone kits with markdowns as high as 37%! It seems to us that Walthers wants only to make money any way they can, from retail to wholesale, and no matter who they hurt in the process. Tell everyone you know to buy your kits on eBay instead of Walthers direct!!! [:(!]
Frank, I was always under the impression that the Walthers sale flyers were done in cooperation with the retail hobby shops? I don’t have the June flyer yet, but there always seemed to be a list of hobby shops that were participating in the sale. Do they not discount these same items to the retailers?
I always thought that one of the objectives of these sales was to help drive business to the participating retail stores?
I’ve ordered things through my dealer from Walthers and I always got the item at the sale price. There was one time that I didn’t but that was just the hobby shop trying to rip me off, I don’t go there anymore.
In my opinion Walthers cntrols far too much of the hobby. I don’t deal with them unles absolutely necessary.
They may control the hoby, but they do offer a wide veriety of quality products that are essential to the modest model railroder. Personaly I love their product and service.
I don’t have much choice. The only hobby close to me is in Alexandria, La. and they deal directly with Walther’s. I don’t have any credit cards so I can’t order online.
Maybe Walthers is trying to clear out slow-selling stock?
Walthers is a very good company . At my local hobby shop if its sale a walthers
they will give it to you for the sale price. If the hobby shop got from walthers or another
dealer … Walthers has superior customer service …Freight cars are great. gold line
ready to run …Thanks tim
Walthers offers retailers a meager 3% above their regular discount if and only if, they happen to need to repleni***heir supply during the sale.
That probably is the case, but what retailer can afford to sell the same items at 37% markdowns, when they’ve bought those items at 40%? 3% profit isn’t even the minimum markup required by the state of Wisconsin (which is where we are located).
If Walthers was really concerned about their retailers, they would offer stock reduction sale prices to them and let them reap some of the benefit of their massive advertising campaigns. But they seem content to stick it to the retailers who buy from them.
Guys,The Walthers sales has been going on for years and isn’t anything new nor are they ripping their dealers off.
If you guys REALLY KNEW( love the speculation ) the retail prices you would understand how it works much better.
Even distributors have mark down sales,discounts for large orders,discounts for timely payments and cash payments.Don’t expect your friendly dealer to tell you his discounts.I am no longer a part time dealer and I won’t even tell you that and other behind the scenes information.
Sure, if a hobby shop orders $10,000+ per month, they get an additional discount. If you order by the truckload, you can probably negotiate your own discount. This is great for Caboose Hobbies and MB Klein, but what about the average shop?
If you want to talk about hobby shops being ripped off, take a look at Bachmann. They have a retail price that is totally unrealistic, which makes the wholesale price very high. That’s bad enough, but then they undercut wholesalers and distributors. When brand new bachmann items are being sold on ebay by basement dealers for almost half off the legitimate wholesale price, there’s a problem.
I try to purchase as much as I can directly from a distributor to avoid the above problems. Most everything is 30-40% off of retail, and when “they” are trying to clean house, I can get some unbelievable deals that eBay can’t even top.
Frank,
I dont hear or read any other retailers complaining only you. Now I cant boycott Walthers I live 45 mins away and instead of going to most LHS I go directly to them for their buildings.I dont do much shopping at one at all. But the way you worded your website sounds I am sorry to say a little kiddish. If you have complaints go to Walthers and ask them why they did that, or dont honor the sale. true you may lose customers but so what, whats the difference, Plus the sale only last maybe 2 months and how many customers will buy those certain buildings.
Walthers service is excellent everytime I have used them. Most of the time they are a little more on items than I can get at my LHS. Ebay is a waste of my time. Place a bid monitor it then place another only to have people mad rush at the last second to get the item and jack up the price. I want convience. Walthers will deliver to my door what I want. I also buy from IHC, MBKlein and others online. I still buy things from my LHS and support them. Walthers only puts certain items on sale every month and a very small percentage of their catalog. I’m sure if they really wanted to they could put LHS’s out of business but why would they want to do that. It’s in their best interest to sell as much product as they can. Many LHS’s I have seen go out of business do not adapt to changing market conditions and live and die by the full 40% retail rule. Good cheap structure kits??? http://www.ihc-hobby.com and they have even gone up a bit. Great to kit bash. Hate having to use IE to access the site but oh well.
RMax1
videotrains,You have no real idea…I have picked up P2K locomotives for $15.55 each and sold them at $35.00 each.Why? My distributor had a large clearance sale on all P2K engines.As far as Bachmann you can pick those up on sale as well-Spectrum was the best sellers for me…
My budget several thousand dollars less then $10,000 a month you use and I still got a discount for paying with cash.[:D]
The sale prices are also given to the dealers at a percentage. I just bought 3 of the Heaveyweight Passenger cars that Walther’s has on sale for under $30. Not only did my dealer give me the sale price but discounted it in addition. That and I paid no shipping charges. Walther’s tries to help the LHS and won’t sell to internet retailers unless they also have a storefront. I don’t see them as a “bad guy” at all. I buy most of mt train related stuff at my LHS through Walthers.
I paid about US$20 each for Walther’s heavyweights a month ago, via internet hobbies. That’s a reduction of about 45%! The fly in the ointment was getting them to me (shipping and good old Canada Customs and Revenue Agency duty).
I’m pretty sure Walther’s and internet hobbies both made a few bucks.
Well, maybe just being a new shop has something to do with it, but I haven’t seen any deals that good yet. Not saying they’re not out there, just anxious to take advantage of them. [:)]
Okay. I’m trying to figure this out. Because Walthers hurts retailers we should avoid doing business with them? Unless I’m mistaken, every Cornerstone kit, regardless of where purchased touched Walthers in some way. Same with the new Proto stuff. It would be the same as buy your new Mustang from a local dealer - Ford doesn’t deserve the income.
I also think it is safe to assume that the vast majority of Walther’s sales are to retailers, not direct. If Walther’s goals are to cru***he retailers, they’d run some sort of price match deal and undercut virtually everyone out there.
Of course by not undercutting the retailers they get slammed by folks that say things like - “Walthers is a rip off - I buy my Cornerstone buildings from internet shops that way Walthers won’t get my money.”