Who owns a model railway shop?

[The Dorset Wanderer]

but don't miss it because drug dealers lived in flats nearby with their scum customers causing trouble, and hookers hanging about outside, which you couldn't do anything about as their pimps were the drug dealers, all in seemingly wonderful Bournemouth - if only people knew.

 

It's not just me then Paul!

Steve

[chris p bacon]

Is that a scale 10 mile radius or a Peco one where the shops are actually a bit closer together..

[bike2steam]

Is that right about the 10 mile thing with Peco? cos there are 6 shops within a few miles of Sheffield City Centre and they havn't all been there for ever - Though i couldnt say if Olivia's Trains sell owt useful like track cos its wrong wnd of town for me.....

 

Note;- 'good established outlet', perhaps they don't give the return Peco class as good?? A new model shop local to here has come unstuck because of Peco's refusal to deal with them.

[MarkSG]

I once thought about opening a bricks and morter model railway store. What held me back, most of the major suppliers in this hobby. I am talking Hornby, Gaugemaster, Slaters, Peco and many many more. It doesnt help that some of these large suppliers also own many other related companies, or act as wholesalers for other businesses. As a new business, you need business premises before they will talk to you, and when they do talk, they require a large initial order, and we are talking many thousands altogether. To see if the idea is viable, is nearly impossible as they will not disclose standard prices to the trade to a newcomer to the industry.

 

I entirely agree with that. A few years ago, I seriously considered starting a model shop. But the sheer obstructiveness of the suppliers that I initially contacted was enough to put me off. There is a significant barrier to new entrants to the market, most of it imposed by the suppliers themselves.

 

A lot of it, particularly in the smaller suppliers (Peco, etc) is aimed at protecting their existing customer base. In others (eg, Hornby) it's just arrogance - they know that the shops need them more than they need the shops. But the problem is that model shops are closing down all over the place, not just because they're unprofitable but often because the owner has retired or whatever, and they're not being replaced. Yes, there's the challenge of the Internet and the extra competition that brings, but, overall, the model sector is still a profitable one. Hornby's sales of model railway products are actually growing, despite the recession, and Bachmann's gross profit was up 6% for the last financial year. Dapol and Peco are too small for their full accounts to be publicly available, but in both cases their net worth was up in the most recent reporting period. From a supplier perspective, this is not an industry in crisis. It's the retailers which are taking the hit, and, while some of that is undoubtedly the fault of the retailers themselves in many cases, the attitude of the suppliers to the retail sector has to be a part of it.

 

I can foresee a time when the small independent model shop is practically extinct (that's if it isn't already; it certainly is where I live). We'll be left with the major online sellers (eg, Hattons, Rails), the chains, a few large independent regional suppliers (eg, Cheltenham Models) and, of course, Hornby in the toy shops. That isn't going to kill the hobby (I already buy the majority of my stuff from Cheltenham Models or Rails anyway, plus bits and bobs from specialist suppliers at exhibitions), but I still think it's less than desirable.

[pauln]

Are you sure that the number of model railway shops is going down? I haven't done any calcs but looking at the ads section at the back of Model Rail it seems to me that, until recently at least, there are more and more popping up. Maybe the economy is starting to cull them again though.

[MarkSG]

I don't have any direct stats, but my impression is that more are closing than opening. I'm aware of four, specifically, that have closed in locations not far from either where I live now or where I used to live, and not aware of any new ones.

[Happy Hippo]

I have a friend who runs a small model railway shop. He used to have an e-shop, but wanted to expand.......Get in stuff from Peco,Bachmann etc.

 

When his (thankfully) short term lease is up, he is going back to just running an e-shop.

 

Regards

 

Richard

[bike2steam]

Talking of Hornby, for a small outlet they were just a pain to deal with, so I resorted to getting my Hornby stuff supplied by A.B.Gee, much easier to deal with, instead of Hornby supplying when they felt like it, ABG supplied ( if they had it) within a couple of days.

[deltic56]

Yes, and add that Peco will not supply if they already have a good established outlet within 10 miles of you.

 

I think you will find it is a mile. not ten miles

[bike2steam]

I think you will find it is a mile. not ten miles

 

Then they must have changed it in the seven years since I shut up shop - which shop do you own/run/ work at, repeat as before 'good established (large turnover) outlet' ??.

[deltic56]

Then they must have changed it in the seven years since I shut up shop.

 

It has been like for at least 15 to my knowledge. If you think about it ten miles makes no sense at all. When I lived in Bristol there were at least 5 shops selloing Peco certainley not ten miles apart and that was 15 years ago