Well said Frank. There is only two true hobby shops in my area, (one being an 50 mins away). The closest of the two is only brick and mortar, has a terrible customer service, 4 times I asked them to order something in for me and failed to follow through four times. The owner is the worst of them all and if he is working when I go in I will just leave as I have no time for this idiot. The other shop I asked once to order in something for me no reply from them either, though it was questionable if they could get the item, positive or negitive reply on that would have been nice. They do both online and have a store. So I guess what I am saying is brick and mortar or online the make or break of a business will be customer service. I have got great advice and quick delivery from Japan from the comfort of my home so for me the choice is clear. Greg
On Dec 12, 12:33 pm, 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
