I also sell and repair computers, and lawn and garden equip in my B&M. I
am in a town of 9000 not enough of any of these things to suport a
buisness by themselves. I also have to order from Walthers in order to
get Cornerstone and detail parts. Luckily Walthers only requires $100
ninimum order, no monthly min.
" snipped-for-privacy@CreditValley.Railway" wrote:
I am running my own business up here, Huntsville has 18,000 while
Bracebridge (35KM south) has 9,000.
My company is computer related. I sell, service and train also do DVD
production.
Not a big business, but it gives me the freedom and money to do what I want.
It is in Bracebridge that "The Right Track" is located, he gets business
from all over. The nearest big city, Barrie, is another hour south on Hwy
11.
"The Right Track" in Bracebridge carries model RR as well as car and
airplane models and RC.
1/2 his store is trains, the local club has 18 active members and runs 2
train shows a year. The guy seems to be doing good with his store, everytime
I am there he has a couple of customers and they always seem to be buying
something. The owner goes out of his way to listen to his customers and then
brings in the product that he thinks they would like.
easily
official
Could it be because they are operating out of a real brick and
mortar commercial building they could take pictures of, and not
the basement of a house?
--
Len
Head Rust Scraper
KL&B Eastern Lines RR Museum
commercial building they could take pictures of, and not the basement of a
house?<
That would make it a warehouse and not a B&M which I take to mean a walk
in store for customers.
Horizon's stated policy is that they require a retail, storefront
operation. The business I am referring to does not have a retail,
storefront operation, and openly admits it on their website.
Peter King in NY
And it's not germaine to this discussion, but the same exact phrasing
is in the description of at least one other company selling custom
wheels for cars and trucks. And the domain names are registered in
the same town... Maybe the guys at Horizon are driving around on some
new crunk dubs?
Jeff Sc.
Spinner, Ga.
Very much False.
Although they still do not carry detail parts they have added considerably to
products carried. Horizon has been adding to it's railroad product lines since
1996. Horizon was initially primarily an R/C distributor. These days they carry
a very wide selection of products including plastics, trains (n to G scales),
rockets, crafts, activity kits, R/C boats, cars, and planes among other items.
Train lines carried:
Accurail, Athearn, Model Die Casting, Broadway Linited, Kato, Atlas, Blair
Lines, Miniatronics, Life-Like, Miller Engineering, MRC, Aristo-Craft, Lionel,
MTH, Bachmann, Boley, Bar Mills, Caboose Industries, Chooch, Life-Like,
K-Line, McHenry, Micro-Scale, Classic Metal Works, Scalecoat, Floquil, Woodland
Scenics, Nu-Comp Miniatures, JL Innovative Design, K-Line, and more train
related products sucjh as Midwest, Plastruc, and others.
They have excellent in stock percentages.
Basically the premise that Horizon is an R/C Distributor is a misconception.
They have been agressively expanding their product lines.
Dave
snipped-for-privacy@aol.comspamthis (Dave Henk) wrote in message
writes:
Thank you for the constructive info Dave. Looks like they are
expanding their MRR product line and that could pose more competition
for Walthers. Is that a bad thing? Walthers after all has their own
exclusive lines and is there a shortage of Cornerstone buildings on
the market? Yes they eventually sell out and are out of stock but has
there been a single Cornerstone building you haven't been able to get
on the secondary market?
These guys are in business to make money. They do this by selling
product. They want everyone to have their products so they will
agressively market to their retailers. That will drive prices down. If
enough hobby shops get calls from Horizon trying to sell them each a
case of Athearn but those shops say they are buying a case of Accurail
from Walthers instead what will Horizon do? Pack it up and go home? Of
course not, they'll be offering specials on case lots of Athearn to
compete.
Regarding the basement operators a lot of companies go into something
new with all kinds of new policies and over time because of real
business situations they get watered down. Do you really think that if
some guy pulls up to Horizon in a truck with $20,000 in cash wanting
to buy Athearn at dealer cost they'd turn him away? They can spout all
the hobby shop only rhetoric they want but I'll bet at the end of the
day money talks. And if you each send me $10.00 in cash until we reach
$20,00 we can test this. (Just kidding! before someone accuses me of
running a scam).
Jim
I'm not all that worried about Walthers as I am worried about the other
distributors of Model RR stuff (if there are any). We hear a lot about
Walthers and now Horizon. Are there anybody else out there who does a lot
of distribution? What about on a smaller regional level? What about those
guys?
Kennedy
--
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Usenet Newsgroup Service New Rate! $9.95/Month 50GB
Actually there are actually quite a few distributors and they all have many
other lines besides Athearn. Stevens International (whom I use for certain
plastics and detail items) for one.
Dave
So far I haven't found that one. Maybe a clue as to what state or country would
help.
I did go and look at several states and didn't see as yet one listed that did
not list a storefront. I looked at:
http://horizon.hobbyshopnow.com/support/locator.asp#SearchResult
I suppose it's possible for an operation to slide under the radar.
Again without knowing who I couldn't say.
Dave
.
Rats. I go off to Timonium and a great new thread breaks out... <g>
I think the above point is valid, except I'd say it may be bad for
both Athearn as well as Horizons. (Keeping in mind that Athearn
technically remains a separate entity.)
When the blue boxes and engines disappear from the train show vendors,
how will Athearn replace those sales? Are all those B&M shops out
there going to double the shelf space they devote to Athearn? I doubt
it.
Shelf space is critical to sales. If it's not there for people to see,
they can't buy it. I don't see how Athearn is going to make up the
loss of "eyeballs" at train shows.
I have spoken to several vendors and most are looking to dump Athearn
where they can and carry other stuff. That was evident at Timonium
already. Several boxes of "discontinued" Athearn items were apparent.
I guess it's a psychology of "I won't be able to get them soon, so I
might as well get rid of them now" thing.
Mike Tennent
"IronPenguin"
Operating Traffic Lights
Crossbucks
Special Effects Lighting
http://www.ironpeng.com/ipe
I think the Athearn blue box selection is already on its way out.
When
I visited a large hobby shop in Dallas he showed me a large area that
use to be about every blue box item Athearn made. It was about twenty
percent blue box and the rest was Athearn RTR and other mfgs. In his
opinion RTR was going to take over the hobby. Thanks Marty Hall
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