Hurrah for local model shops

realise you got younger one to push it around to justify purchase of 14xx but how did you persuade her ?

cheers, Simon

I charge a service fee for repairing an item not bought at my shop. $5 for "making it go", or fixing a coupler, etc. If it will be a major job, and require the ordering of parts that may not be available, I tell them so -- and many of them buy a better loco at a higher price. Train set locos tend to be, er, fragile. Customers are willing to pay, and most of them come back. Since plumbers, appliance repair people etc charge a minimum of $25 (for the first half-hour), plus parts, my fee looks like a bargain.

"Wolf" wrote

Yes, but Hornby Service Dealers are supposed to do this free of charge, which is fine until Hornby start flooding the market with supplies to 'fringe outlets' who offer no back-up whatsoever. Whilst it's not unreasonable to assume that this will result in spin-off business for the Service Dealer, the reality is that this only happens infequently.

John.

That's not at all nice of Hornby. Tsk, tsk! To expect the dealer to provide free service on the off chance there will spin-off is daft. No car company expects it - why would a toy company expect it? I would think twice about being a Service Dealer under those conditions. What's the advantage? None that I can see. Hornby could include a Service Coupon in those train sets sold via M&S, which would entitle the customer to one "free" service, and would be proof of such service from the Service Dealer, who would get a few quid from Hornby in exchange. Or else Hornby should pay an annual retainer fee, plus additional fees for proof of service provided above some minimum per year. (IIRC, that's what Lionel did for years over here. They even provided training for the techs.) Or else give the Service Dealer the same deal on trainsets as they give M&S.

OTOH, I'm quite sure that M&S cut their markup to zero or less on those trainsets, since they know it will bring people into the store, and a large percentage will buy something else "since we're here already." I mean, how many people come out of an M&S store with only the things on their list?

HTH

What does being a Hornby service dealer involve? What do you get from Hornby? Do you have to repair their products in store, or just send them back to the factory? Did you have to pay Hornby for this, or do they pay you?

Its always puzzled me how some local model shops are Service dealers, some are 'Collectors Centres' (whatever they are) whilst many are just ordinary stockists.

Strangely enough, allowing for the introduction of 'Oliver'.....

Its even possible that M&S were selling it as a loss leader, in order to pull in the punters. This XMas was make or break for them, and they needed to make it a success.

On 08/01/2007 15:48, Wolf said,

Huh - in my local M&S I struggle to come out with the things on my list, never mind anything extra! I've got £20 worth of their vouchers to spend, so I think a trip to The Big City (Bristol!!) might be in order.

John Ruddy wrote in news:PNednQ4NwuhI9D snipped-for-privacy@eclipse.net.uk:

he he ... it was working out like that, even had a "Daisy" and then along came "Colin the Collett" and things took a turn towards the more serious end of the market. :-)

very good way of getting the little 'uns interested though, naming the engines.

"John Ruddy" wrote

In theory we have to repair any item free of charge which is within guarantee (3 months) whether we supplied it or not and in return we get a

25% discount on all the spares we buy, and an annual refund of up to £200 on spares purchased - a figure which has not changed in 15+ years. A stupid scenario really because it doesn't encourage a 'make-do-and-mend' approach. £200 worth of spares equates to say ten hours work for some of the lowest paid tradesment in this country. I've spent more time since Christmas rectifying faulty Hornby products which should have been picked up by their manufacturing quality control department ............... if they had one!

The Hornby service manager got stroppy with us when we returned several items for *them* to repair at a time when we were just too busy.

We are both, but to be perfectly honest neither is worth a song in terms of increased sales, any advantage really seeming to benefit the manufacturer rather than the retailer.

John.

"simon" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@bt.com:

...

Regretably my daughter is very good at breaking things, very good indeed - she takes after her mother (who as she's currently leaning over my shoulder I'm at pains to state I love dearly).

"Chris Wilson" wrote Regretably my daughter is very good at breaking things, very good indeed - she takes after her mother (who as she's currently leaning over my shoulder I'm at pains to state I love dearly).

What ? Wife or Daughter ??? Never admit to loving the wife... Unless you want something ! :-)))) (Only kidding Lisa !!!)

Andy

"Wolf" wrote

Even if that is true Wolf, M&S are able to do that purely because of their sheer size, but it would be commercial suicide for the average model shop to sell something of such value at below cost price, and by supplying them Hornby are still damaging the true base of the hobby.

John.

"John Ruddy" wrote

I doubt that they were sellin g at a loss, but even if they were then their success would be on the back of sales creamed from the true commercial base of the hobby.

John.

Well, it's probable that M&S's markup was not zero, but I suspect it was low. And of course you're right - by supplying mass marketers at such low wholesale prices, Hornby is undercutting the support for the hobby.

I'd like to see some research on what percentage of cheap-set buyers are or become repeat customers at regular hobby shops. Maybe some grad student you know could be nudged into doing it for his or her Ph D thesis. :-)

HTH

Probably not much that Hornby can do about the size of markup that M&S chose to use.

Mark Thornton

"Mark Thornton" < wrote

Probably not much that Hornby can do about the size of markup that M&S chose to use.

Mark Thornton

Funny, was on Trent FM this am that M&S were saying that following the make or break Xmas period, their profits were only up 5% (? If I heard it correct) And I doubt that was from selling a Hornby train set...

And I don not remember seeing one in the Mansfield store ?

Andy

It was up 5.6% compared to 2.5% for UK retail as a whole which is considered a good result.

Nor in Coventry which is quite a large store, just food and knickers.

M&S' standard markup would be 10% which is very low for a slow moving item like a trainset.

(kim)

"kim" wrote

My turnover was up by exactly 5.6% over 2005, which had previously been a year for record turnover.

John.