Anger? Hardly; I'm long past that. My point is, that Walthers claims to have the exact same rules and fails to enforce them. I only hope Horizon stick to their guns, or the demise of the local hobby shop will only accelerate.
You'd have to look in your old issues of MR, RMC and MM to find the ads. Oddly enough, you'll never see any ads from any of the local basement bombers who dealt with Walthers during the same time frame.
The Nashville Depot; 4924 Thoroughbred Lane; Brentwood, TN; 1988-1995. RIP
You must be very popular at the psychic's conventions. Does Horizon's statements say ANYTHING about this?
I quote DIRECTLY from Horizon & Athearn's announcement (first paragraph as a matter of fact): "Product support and warranty repair service will also remain in the Athearn facility, along with product development and manufacturing."
Then you haven't seen Walther's reseller agreement. It requires a commercial retail outlet, with signage; advertising in your choice of locations (magazines/Yellow Pages, etc.).
They NEVER shut down my local bomber even upon submission of proof, including a statement by another major national distributor who visited the supposed store location in the man's house.
I have no problems with mail order businesses who are doing so in addition to their normal retail business. In fact, I do most of my business with two shops in Houston, Texas, while I live in Nashville, TN.
Not to nit-pick, Don, but Horizon is dictating where the _retailers_ can buy Athearn. We still have somewhat a choice, unless all local sources dry up, which is more their loss than ours.
Could Terminal Hobby Shop buy Athearn? Or since that's attached to Walthers, and it's a distributor, would that be verboten? I wonder.
From my understanding of the items I forwarded earlier, I interpreted Horizons intentions to limit their customers to those brick and mortar shops that will sign minimum monthly order commitments. That can be disastrous to smaller hobby shops that basically and traditionally made small, one time orders to fill vacancies on the shelves. I wonder how long they can compete if these shops are forced to purchase (by contract) 300 units a month but can only move 180 a month (example). That to me would be a frightening scenario.
enforce them. I only hope Horizon stick to their guns, or the demise of the local hobby shop will only accelerate.< As they say it's just business! Horizon will stick to their guns as long as the bottom line doesn't change. If it goes down so will their rules!
If that is true, I would have to agree with you. However, if it is true, then eventually, Horizon would have to sell Athearn to someone else after they look at the bottom line. No doubt they would also decide to sell to other distributors as well.
You know, I have a perfect example on this problem. I bought an Athearn R-T-R Frisco 8000 gallon tank car out in the Central Valley while on a trip. I will not name the town or the shop but I was not happy. I paid $15 for the car (list price + Cal. Sales Tax). I made it 50 miles before noticing that it had a broken truck frame and was therefore unusable. I called the shop immediately and was told I could not return it for exchange as he did not have another. I was also not going to get a refund but I could take one of the other road names. Okay, lesson learned... stay away from that shop in the future unless they have two models.
I then began a 2 week long email session with snipped-for-privacy@athearn.com. Basically, these are limited run Chinese made kits and Athearn does not stock replacement parts AT ALL. There is also no correlation for RTR and the mainstay plastic kits. Basically I am screwed. I have a $15 car that I cannot use until I put Kadee (or other) trucks on it. As I like to display one copy without running it, the model is completely out.
Since I can get Walthers from Big Al, or FS Hobby, or Tom's Trains, none of those who have a brick and mortar, I'm not sure you have much of a case there.
My local supplier is pretty much a full price shop, but he marks up about 15% less than the other shops in town, and he also gives discounts to active or retired railroad employees like myself. He no-longer carrys any model railroad magazines in his shop because most of the adds therein are for WebSites. I don't blame him - I refuse to order stuff over the WEB as long as it can get it locally from a dealer, who is also a HO modeler and a friend, and who is not ripping me off. Railroadman
That is the problem, I did not know if I was interpreting the sentence correctly. But out of all this, This is the area I am most concerned with. Will I or will I not be able to buy from the nearest hobby shop or not. As far as I can see, he alone is willing to stock the items that move the slowest. The larger hobby shops out here stock mainly the items that move out the quickest. All else is special order. My local (if 17 miles can be considered local) actually special orders quite a few items for me and allows my previewing them before I actually buy. I have met few out here willing to do that.
No, they are dictating where the dealers must buy Athearn. True, some of the dealers (mail order only) won't be able to buy from Horizon but that's no big deal to me. It won't change anything should I desire to buy an Athearn kit. Normally I stay away from Athearn completely since I prefer craftsman kits, not shake-the-box kits.
Hmmm, Walthers...this scenario seems to follow the same course that they took a couple of decades ago. They bought up Ulrich and it's now dead and buried. They also bought up Silver Streak, which was sold off to Ye Olde Huff 'N Puff. How many other manufacturers did Walthers swallow up over the years and what has become of them?
I do not think that was called for sir. I believe there is a lot of middle ground that all can work in.
The problem can arise that "getting with the program" is exactly what puts a shop out of business. Not all hobby shops can be profit leaders. I am unsure if having one purchase method over another is the best route for the future of the hobby itself. Rather, perhaps a blending of the two would be best.
That is what, from what I have read, I interpret Horizon (and companies like Horizon of which I am not knowledgeable of except by what I just read here) wish to accomplish. "Get us with the program," by making themselves the only program in town. At that point they control quality, product pricing, and service after the fact. Like it or not, be you Pro or Con, this is the Microsoft business model for conducting business. But Horizons risk of failure is much, much greater. If they fail, Athearn may not shut down, may be sold, but will definitely affect for an unspecified term, their ability to put out quality new products.
The 'shop' has to get approved by Horizon. But more important, 'shop' today means alot more than traditional LHS's, the only place that Horizon will sell to. So your choices are smaller.
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