Why do model railway builders expect a discount

[Clive Mortimore]

It doesn't matter which business model a shop uses, or how they price their products for sale, when confronted with the angry "I am a member of the BETTER THAN YOU model railway club, and I want my DISCOUNT" is not a nice place to be.

 

As I have said before, I do not expect a discount but I am very pleased when the sales person offers it to me.

[Trains4U]

Hattons' latest accounts show they hold a lot of stock - almost four months sales - so relatively little of the business is financed from supplier credit.

You really can’t base that as an assumption

You don’t have visibility of what that stock is made up of.

 

I’d say most businesses of this type hold stock to a value of several months turnover.

 

It doesn’t mean they don’t need or use credit, be it supplier or otherwise.

[Trains4U]

The big DFS type places get away with it by having several almost identical products - e.g. they will have Sofa A with blue piping and Sofa B with purple piping. Sofa A will be in the sale, "50% off", Sofa B will be tucked away towards the back of the shop at full price. When the sale ends on Tuesday, they swap them round - Sofa B at the front with the big discount, Sofa A at the back at full price. Of course the salespeople never show the punters the one at the back...

“Full price” being twice what it is worth and twice what it is intended to be sold for.

Juliette and I once looked at a DFS sofa. It was £1800, but on sale for £900

It felt cheap, you could feel the springs and the softwood frame beneath

 

In the end we bought a similar one from John Lewis.

It was £1200. Not on sale, far superior hardwood and still good after 12 years...

[Junctionmad]

I really don’t see the issue here , I recently bought a large amount of track for my club and I placed the business woth a local shop after clearly using Hattons as the benchmark, ( I included hattons pricng in my tender ) . Yes the retailer went on abit about costs and his family and so forth , but in the end he came within 3% of hattons and I was happy to place the business locally

 

Discounts are a fact of life in any business , and your customers asking for them are not insulting your parentage or trying to take bread out of your mouth , they are merely engaging in the centuries old process of haggling

 

Dave

[Talltim]

I think that’s slightly different thing. A discount for bulk is common, the retailer only has to one lot of work for the sale so the discount they are offering is the saving of their time.

[njee20]

This is a strange analogy. Why would a business with the cashflow to lay out £30,000 on purchasing product sell at a loss.

Purely an exaggerated example to show that you cannot simply say “selling more models is better” because that just isn’t necessarily true.

 

Edit: and to answer your question - any number of reasons; As a loss leader, because they’ve over stocked, because they’re obsolete, because they’re reckoned to be rubbish.

Edited September 28, 2018 by njee20

[Guest]

I admit to double standards. Money for most of us is hard earned. So if I am looking to purchase a RTR loco etc that is sold by many retailers, both by physical retailers and online retailers, I will always ask for a discount. If it is refused then I consider my options and may or may not make the purchase. However as most of my modelling is now towards the kit building end of the spectrum I would never dream of asking a kit manufacturer/retailer for a discount. My rationale being that are highly likely to be the only one producing the kit so I have no other option. Plus I hope my support of them will encourage them to produce other kits I maybe interested in.

Double standards? Yes. Hypocritical? Possibly.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

..if I am looking to purchase a RTR loco etc that is sold by many retailers, both by physical retailers and online retailers, I will always ask for a discount. ...

However as most of my modelling is now towards the kit building end of the spectrum I would never dream of asking a kit manufacturer/retailer for a discount. My rationale being that they are highly likely to be the only one producing the kit so I have no other option...

 That's actually perfectly rational. You are treating RTR as a commodity, kits as akin to boutique or bespoke items, and your perceptions of their value to you reflects in your price tolerance.

[Nearholmer]

Hmmmm........ this interesting thread really boils down to the same thing as many other interesting threads here: all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, behave like selfish nerks.

 

When not in selfish nerk mode, we all get the bigger picture about supporting local traders, understand which goods and services are ‘hagglable’ in Britain (different in other places, of course), and how to haggle with no offence in either direction. When in selfish nerk mode, it’s short-termist greediness.

[Mark Saunders]

Hmmmm........ this interesting thread really boils down to the same thing as many other interesting threads here: all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, behave like selfish nerks.

When not in selfish nerk mode, we all get the bigger picture about supporting local traders, understand which goods and services are ‘hagglable’ in Britain (different in other places, of course), and how to haggle with no offence in either direction. When in selfish nerk mode, it’s short-termist greediness.

The working class has proven over the years to be their own worst enemy!

[Guest]

And there's the rub, looking to the past.

 

The present and future are changing out of all recognition and the days of the corner retail shop, of whatever hue, are looking to be severely limited. I do value my local (say a 15 mile radius) model shop but of the four there are, one I will be surprised if it is there much longer.

 

The reason, not pricing but customer service. It is abysmal. I did enquire very politely if there was a discount available on a Dapol O Gauge Terrier which was on display at above list price. I was curtly told no, and the 20 something shop manager then ignored me and began to play on his mobile while leaning on the counter. The part time assistant who used to manage the shop when under different ownership looked sheepish at me but it wasn't his part to make any comment obviously. Previously I used to spend several hundred pounds, if not a thousand or more, a year there.

 

The manager, now assistant used to discount for me but not near Rails or similar prices. But I was happy at what I was given as I valued their extensive stock, knowledge and general banter. I have not been in it for over a year now. And model shops wonder why we take our custom elsewhere?

[Nearholmer]

Mark

 

I’m not at all sure class comes into it.

 

I’ve spent a fair bit of time on station assistant turns in pressured circumstances at central London tube stations, and if I had to make a a ‘class pick’ on the (mercifully tiny proportion of) people who go into nerk mode, i’d say that self-important upper-middles might take it.

 

The funniest I had was a serious outburst from a ‘posh’ woman, who was clearly already stressed-up when she entered a thronging station. She really ‘lost it’, but had the courage and good grace to come back the next day and apologise to me.

 

Kevin

[The Stationmaster]

Mark

 

I’m not at all sure class comes into it.

 

I’ve spent a fair bit of time on station assistant turns in pressured circumstances at central London tube stations, and if I had to make a a ‘class pick’ on the (mercifully tiny proportion of) people who go into nerk mode, i’d say that self-important upper-middles might take it.

 

The funniest I had was a serious outburst from a ‘posh’ woman, who was clearly already stressed-up when she entered a thronging station. She really ‘lost it’, but had the courage and good grace to come back the next day and apologise to me.

 

Kevin

 

I can't say 'agree' because I didn't work at central London tube stations but I do agree absolutely with your categorisation because over many years on the other railway that was almost entirely my experience.  However said group could indeed be very gracious and apologetic once they realised that they had gone too far.

[Trains4U]

The absolute rudest person I’ve ever had to deal with was a chap in his early 40’s with a plummy accent, tweed jacket, flat cap, wellies, an over-the-top sense of entitlement and an absolute surety of his consumer rights. (He was wrong!)

[Clive Mortimore]

The absolute rudest person I’ve ever had to deal with was a chap in his early 40’s with a plummy accent, tweed jacket, flat cap, wellies, an over-the-top sense of entitlement and an absolute surety of his consumer rights. (He was wrong!)

Sound like the geezer (apart form the wellies and cap) who at a show picked up a scratchbuilt loco turned it over and said "Oh!! Not Hornby" and just plonked it down not even back on the tracks. I just stood there in shock muttering "he hasn't put it on the tracks" ......my mates took me away to get a cup of tea. No sorry when another of my mates challenged him.

Edited September 29, 2018 by Clive Mortimore

[GreenGiraffe22]

Customers who think they know the law are always a delight...

[The Johnster]

The working class has proven over the years to be their own worst enemy!

 

I think a thousand years of landed gentry and capitalism has very effectivley holed that theory below the water line, but I'll concede that we're sometimes not our own best friends...

[SGJ]

Sound like the geezer (apart form the wellies and cap) who at a show picked up a scratchbuilt loco turned it over and said "Oh!! Not Hornby" and just plonked it down not even back on the tracks. I just stood there in shock muttering "he hasn't put it on the tracks" ......my mates took me away to get a cup of tea. No sorry when another of my mates challenged him.

 

It`s bad enough when the train derails on its own let alone the "hand of God" doing it too 

[Clive Mortimore]

It`s bad enough when the train derails on its own let alone the "hand of God" doing it too 

Worse than that he just picked it up off the layout turned upside down  "Oh! Not Hornby" and plonked it back on the layout.

 

No "Please can you tell me what model is it", or even "Please can I look at it." Just 'king picked it up as if it was his own model. Totally obvious to me the owner of the layout and loco and my mates who were helping me.

 

He is the rudest person I have come across at a exhibition.

 

He even beats the person who picked up another scratchbuilt loco off the stock table and started to have a go at the trader next to me because it didn't have a price tag on it. At least that bloke said sorry when me and the trader explained why it didn't have a price tag.

Edited September 30, 2018 by Clive Mortimore

[rovex]

I wonder what answer I'd get if I asked my landlord for a discount next rent day, or the council for a discount on the rates, or the taxman or my Secretary next pay day. I could go on but I think you get the gist.

[Guest]

I’m sorry but they are not very good comparisons. All the ones you mention are contractual obligations. An asking price, as has previously been mentioned, is an invitation to treat and therefore legally different. Also your decision to purchase is discretionary while your examples are obligatory.

[caradoc]

If a displayed price is just an 'Invitation to Treat' rather than a fixed sum I'll try that on the cashier next time I'm at Sainsbury's !

 

I have never asked for or expected a discount at any kind of shop, whether selling model railways or anything else. However, until it sadly closed, my local shop was D&F Models in Glasgow, and as a regular and recognised customer they voluntarily gave me a discount, which of course made me feel a valued customer and therefore more likely to visit the shop again.

[rovex]

I’m sorry but they are not very good comparisons. All the ones you mention are contractual obligations. An asking price, as has previously been mentioned, is an invitation to treat and therefore legally different. Also your decision to purchase is discretionary while your examples are obligatory.

Yes but in order to pay them I have set my prices at a level that makes the business profitable. I give discounts to my customers then I don't have the funds to my outgoings

[Guest]

And that is perfectly acceptable. Your customer pays your price or doesn’t purchase. As I have said in a previous post I have double standards but for an item available from multiple sources I will always ask for a discount and am never offended if it is declined politely.

[GeoffAlan]

I wonder what answer I'd get if I asked my landlord for a discount next rent day, or the council for a discount on the rates, or the taxman or my Secretary next pay day. I could go on but I think you get the gist.

see 

HMRC do indeed give discounts, to large corporations. It's us poorer types that have to pay 100% of the bill. 

 

HMRC are a nasty lot!

The beggars even refunded me £1.59 last year when we ended up paying Capital Gains tax on a legacy [long story, don't get me started]. Why did this upset me? They'd owed from 2000, not that I was aw\re, when apparently they'd overcharged me on tax I paid on some shares I sold. Can you imagine them not clawing back the £1.59 on my PAYE in 2001 had it been the other say around?