Another thread today about a hobby shop closing, and yet another response that “all” model train shops are going to be put out of business by the internet.
I dare say the rumors of our death have been greatly exaggerated.
For you guys that have been flippin’ through your old issues of MR to prove that prices are “too high” today, while you’re at it, check out how many mail order/internet places have gone out of business. My store has already outlived many of them in the past 9 years.
Remember eHobbies??? Gonna put all of the little shops out of business. Just for a fact-finding mission I tried to place an order with eHobbies soon after they opened and when the ads said they sold Champ Decals but the guy I spoke with didn’t seem to know what a decal was, I knew we were all going to be OK.
There seems to be a constant flow of fools who think you can pay your bills by selling items for next to nothing. Reminds me of the old joke “We lose a dollar on every sale, but we make it up in volume.”
Guys, like a lot of stores all around the country, I’m livin’ thrivin’ and survivin’…been so busy today I really have not even had time to screw off here on the internet until now.
Just be assured that if you are new to our hobby, no matter how many times you read that all hobby shops are going to go out of business, it’s just not true. Maybe sometime I can express my thoughts on why we’ll be fine, but the phone has rang twice during this paragraph and another customer just walked in the door so I gotta go!
I didn’t say there were going to close. I said probably. There have been a lot of people on here in the last two years talking about their LHS closing. Do you think the ones being talked about here are all of the LHS closings in the country? Not hardly. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Now, don’t get me wrong, I would love doing business with a good LHS, but I’m not going to pay 45% markup on anything, when I can get a better deal, shipping and all online. You’re entitled to your own opinion. We all have one, and you know what they’re like. Do me a favor next time though. At least come up with the balls enough to reply to me directly in the thread you mention, instead of trying to skate around me like I’m not here.
Everyone wants to make Buck. That includes shoppers.
When sellers can’t, they close up shop. Why invest your time and money paying rent and local taxes if you can’t make money. It isn’t the Internet. It’s the cost of doing business and not earning enough ROI to stay alive. For us it’s a hobby. For them it’s a business.
Savy buyers shop for discounts - It’s a way of life. It’s cost is fewer places to buy, with less selection. Savy Dealers are meeting discounters, only as long as they can afford to.
Interestingly, SEARS & WARD’s mail order got dropped in favor of their retail stores after IL sales tax was imposed on mail order…It would seem that when the cost advantage was gone, people preferred the convenience of retail stores.
I would not worry too much about the dealer who provides a small discount, they are the ones that stay in business longer. The retail shops that sells everything at “Hard Retail” or catalog prices trying for a profit usually fails.
Mark Twain would be too busy taking care of stories to keep the shop open!
My LHS is one of 3 in the area, and They do great, becuase they aren’t just Model RRing, they have a little bit of everything. my number 2 shop is also the same way, I get a 20% discount there but, it so far that what ever i save in model RRing stuff, i loose in gas. and the third, Sells cheaper than the other 2, but its so far i loose anything i save to gas, And the people that work there don’t know much of anything about model RRing, which is sad considering thats all they sell
…and I thought the lack of consideration was equally as much when I was spoken of in the third person. I don’t remember pullin your chain anyway, buddy.
Glad you had a good day today, and I’m always glad to bring my $$$ in your door! Your business is a model (no pun intended) of how a good LHS should be run, and why I enjoy poking around in there as often as I do. I think the idea that all model train shops are in their sunset years is ludicrous. Businesses thrive and die by what they are and how they’re operated. Reminds me of the saying “If you build it, they will come.” If someone builds a good business, then it will work. If they build a bad business and run it like crap, then it deserves to die. Now, I got to get busy and get my next order together for you. [:)]
Well, I’ll tell ya, Huck. If’n Injun Joe’d been buildin’ a model railroad down in that cave, he’d a’ never had a problem, ‘cept maybe from the damp warpin’ the wood under the tracks. Y’know, Huck, sometime when I hears a steam whistle, I cain’t tell if’n it’s a train or a steamboat. I guess steam’s just steam, no matter what it’s comin’ outa. Sumtimes, it’s doin’ a good job and movin’ ya down the tracks, or up the river. But sumtimes, well, Huck, it’s just a blowin’ off steam.
Uh, excuse me, Mister Twain, but have you got your vulgarity filter set a bit too high? The character of Injun Joe is in one of the literary classics of the United States of America, written in the immortal words of Samuel Langhorn Clemens, better know by his nom de plume of Mark Twain. If “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” is being censored, then something is seriously wrong here.