Interesting, Jace. My cousin lived in Niagara Falls NY and I had the same experience. The local hardware store carried hobby materials. It was the same experience here in Ontario. Interestingly enough, one of these small dealers still soldiers on in Brockville. Store still sells hardware and hobby supplies.
Daniel McConnachie Retired Head of Music Stouffville District Secondary School --- On Mon, 6/13/11, JGG KahnSr <[email protected]> wrote: From: JGG KahnSr <[email protected]> Subject: {S-Scale List} The Old Days (was Turnouts To: [email protected] Date: Monday, June 13, 2011, 7:08 PM For those of us who've been around the block a time or two, the post-WWII pre-internet hobby retail market was fascinating. Before the courts struck down the co-called "fair-pricing" practices (which allowed manufacturers and wholesalers to cut off retailers who discounted merchandise below the set price), small merchants could generally make a reasonable living selling hobby items. In smaller markets the hobby shop was often combined with something else, often a toy store or hardware store (the most famous, probably, was Madison Hardware in NYC which was a really major Lionel seller). Because back then basement operators were almost non-existent: wholesalers required a bricks-and-mortar presence with regular business hours in the application, and most of them had sales representatives who actually travelled around (like "drummers" in other lines of merchandise) trying to persuade the local shop to stock products the wholesaler could provide. Probably the modest operation in small town SD had bought a few Peare turnouts as a trial to see who might be interested. Incidentally, the nearest AF outlet when I was growing up was a hardware store (specializing in plumbing stuff) in the next county seat, a smallish city; in the same city one hardware also stocked some scale models, railroad and otherwise, and a toy and bicycle shop also did. One had to go to Buffalo or Rochester to find a real hobby shop which dealt only with models (and even those often sold crafts and toys as well). When one saw what one needed, one bought it, as with "fair-pricing" there was no point in shopping around for a better price somewhere else, as almost always there wasn't one. And hobbies cost a larger percentage of discretionary income back then: when one looks through older (1950's and back) magazines, the prices needed to be translated into 2000+ dollars, and even with the increasing cost of stuff coming from China, we still are getting a lot more for our money than in the old days. If one couldn't just put the purchase price down, especially for something major like a locomotive kit, most stores had "lay-away," where the item was put aside until one had paid for it in full--and one didn't get to take it home until it was. And this was considered a sort of favor... Jace Kahn General Manager Ceres & Canisteo RR Co./Champlain County Traction Co. > To: [email protected] > From: [email protected] > Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2011 09:16:56 -0500 > Subject: Re: {S-Scale List} Turnouts > > Very interesting catalog. I'm surprised how many employees the firm had > at the time. I think Branch Line Models in Memphis sold the Peare line > of 172 flex track well into the 60's. On two occasions while on family > vacation in the Black Hill of my home state, I visited a very tiny hobby > shop that was about 10' wide. Being in the years of junior high school, > I wasn't very knowledgeable, but I was always looking for anything S. I > asked the owner/clerk about S as I didn't see any AF boxes on the > shelves. His eyes lit up as he opened one of several boxes of S scale > turnouts with the Peare label on them. Of course, I'd never seen such a > thing, so back on the shelf they went. A couple years later, they were > still there. I wonder how in the world, a hobby shop in the sparsely > populated South Dakota would end up with 4 turnouts and nothing else in > the scale. I think the hobby shop was called Who's Hobby in Rapid City. > > Jack Troxell, has the complete set of Bob's work cars on display shelf > in his house. I've never asked him why they were never on his layout. > > Bob Werre > PhotoTraxx.com > > > > On 6/12/11 10:25 AM, [email protected] wrote: > > > > > > > > > Does anyone know more about these? I want to sell them but > > don't know enough about them. > > I found this: > > http://www.sscalenews.com/downloads/bobpeare1952.pdf > > Stan > > Stokrocki > > > > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > > > ------------------------------------ > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ 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: [email protected] [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/
