I personally have found that hobby shops not having websites is quite annoying. The most local one has one, but it is pitiful and doesn't tell you anything http://www.franktonmodels.co.nz/. The other RC shop right next to it though, has a rather nice website: http://www.rcbandit.co.nz/catalog/ so I'm far more likely to buy a plane from there.
-Gregory On Sun, Dec 13, 2009 at 5:33 AM, Frank Pittelli <[email protected]>wrote: > Bill Hamilton wrote: > > > > And people wonder why brick and mortar hobby stores are failing left and > right. > > > > There's nothing "sinister" about how retail is changing around the > world, it's business evolution driven by consumers searching for the > lowest cost. Custom manufacturing in colonial times was replaced by > standard products produced in factories because they were cheaper to > produce. Main street shops were surpassed by mall shops a couple > decades ago because consumers could find more shops in one place, > reducing the number of shopping trips and making shopping easier. Where > malls aren't possible, big box shops dominate for the same reason. But, > evolution is relentless and now malls and big box shops are scrambling > to compete with online shops which have cheaper prices (sometimes) and > convenient shipping (sometimes). Keep in mind, the consumer is driving > this evolution because of the relentless search for cheaper prices. > > The only new wrinkle about online evolution is that for the first time > ever, the new approach can be used by new and old stores alike. That > is, any brick-and-mortar that wants to stay in business need only > embrace the new approach and change their business model to use it. So, > the savvy ma/pa hobby stores adjusted years ago to the new approach and > started both selling online and purchasing online themselves, to stay > competitive. Personally, I buy from a number of online hobby/surplus > stores that were originally brick-and-mortar. And on the other side of > the coin, whereas before a shop might only have one supplier of plastic > model kits, now that shop can buy kits from anywhere in the world, > probably at lower prices. All business owners have to constantly > re-evaluate their own processes, for lots of reasons, to stay in > business. Any store that doesn't adjust will lose ... not because of > evolution, but because they failed to adapt to evolutionary trends. > > The biggest failing of ma/pa shops (and small computer consulting firms) > is that they get too comfortable with how they did things yesterday. > That might have worked for our parents and grand-parents, but change is > more rapid now with regard to communication, purchasing and logistics > (the main ingredients of business), requiring more self-evaluation at > more frequent intervals. > > I had some personal experience with this issue when web sites first > started appearing on the Internet. As people who knew exactly what was > needed technically, many new customers sought us out to help. Although > such simple tasks wouldn't fuel our revenue needs, we knew that the > aggregation of those tasks would be "good money", so we focused our > skills on the area for a couple years. The problem, however, was that > ma/pa shops were looking for something for nothing. They didn't want to > pay a couple hundred bucks for a simple web page that could be seen by > literally millions of people, even though that price was competitive > with their long-standing "yellow pages" entry seen by a couple thousand > people. The more they counted their pennies, the more their online > competitors snatched up the dollars. Everyone, including the shop > owners, saw the change happening (it was reported in every paper, > magazine and news report almost daily for many years) but not everyone > took "action" to ride the wave instead of being crushed by it. > > The best advice I can give to anyone who likes their local ma/pa store > (regardless of what they provide) is to "ask" them if they provide any > online service (even if it's only for local consumption). If enough > loyal customers ask them about such things, even the most stubborn ma/pa > owner will figure out it's time to change. Without that communication > between consumer and retailer, both will be responsible for the demise > of that shop ... not evolution and the rest of the market. After all, > they don't even know that shop exists. > > Frank P. > > -- > You are currently subscribed to the "R/C Tank Combat" group. > To post a message, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected] > Visit the group at http://groups.google.com/group/rctankcombat > -- You are currently subscribed to the "R/C Tank Combat" group. To post a message, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected] Visit the group at http://groups.google.com/group/rctankcombat
