This post may or may not start a battle. I'm just reporting on the answer to this question I asked in a hobby shop a month and a few weeks ago. On our way back from Milwaukees Train fest our group stopped at several Hobby shops. This one was new to me and will remain un-named. This store is well stocked with HO. Very little Lionel, lots of Helicopters (the new rage and easy to fly), lots of plastic planes, cars and Armor and etched brass parts for them. All in all a very well stocked store. I do HO in our club and had a hundred dollars of products on the checkout. I asked the clerk (the owner I found out) "Do you have any S Scale?" His smile dropped off his face and I thought I heard it hit the floor. "Are you one of them? Which one? A HiRailer? Flyer? or Scale? I hope you are scaler. I can understand them. I can understand the flyer guys too. Like Lionel guys, collectors you know? I can see the HiRailer a bit too. But as far as stocking anything, No. I'll order with a discounted price but that's it. The ma and pop manufacturers really hurt me. No discount worth anything by the time I add postage back. Don't expect free postage. But when I pay 12.95 for postage and get the box with a 7.85 postage stamp and a used box to boot! There's a lot of nice S Scale out there but you know what? before I started taking a deposit on a special order, A S scale product was the product that the person ordering would not pick it up. Ever! When I'd see one of these guys later they'd say "Oh I got it for a better price at a show" you know that's just rude, you know?"
At this point the driver of our van said he was going without me so I paid and said good bye. So to the Mom and Pops out there, If my local hobby shop orders from you can you offer them a decent profit and at cost postage? I try to support the local guy as much as I can. If the product is discontinued and they can't get it then I'll go to Ebay but never if it's still made. Ken --- avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean. Virus Database (VPS): 090109-0, 01/09/2009 Tested on: 1/9/2009 6:16:30 PM avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2009 ALWIL Software. http://www.avast.com ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[email protected] mailto:[email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
