Hornby supply and demand gremlins.

[The Stationmaster]

First of all we must not overlook inflation - it is still going on and because of the fall of the value of the £ the price of many imported items (e.g. some foodstuffs   ) has risen t well above the headline inflation rate; as ever 'price flexibility' is partially driven by the way we perceive and accept general price rises. In simple terms the £80 loco of 2007 is the £100 loco of 2013.

 

Secondly - and possibly because of this but no doubt also for wider reasons - as LNWR Modeller has pointed out above there is clearly greater price flexibility in the market than some many observers/commentators expected.  I suspect that the commissioned r-t-r model has played a part in this with a sufficiency of folk happy to pay getting on for £100 for a tiny 2-4-0 tank which many of them (including me) don't need for their preferred prototype area but were enchanted by so bought it.  Equally - as Ozexp has pointed out above - Bachmann prices have risen; c.£150 is the going RRP level for some 2-8-0s with them while Hornby's RRP on its own latest 2-8-0 is somewhat lower but it is reputedly an extremely good model.

 

So overall I don't think the £100 barrier is there any more but people paying above that level expect value for money and to get what they are paying for.  If Hornby, as increasingly seems to be the case, wishes to push sales at RRP level through its website and concessions it needs to deliver value at that price level.  If - as seems to also be the case - it is not so keen to see steep discounting then again it needs to deliver value at the price it is seeking to achieve at retailer level.  If it does that then I suspect there is a fair chunk of the Hornby buying market that will continue with them at higher prices, if it doesn't do that then it might lose those buyers as it pushes RRP downwards with cleverer and simpler production methods and produces a 'better than Railroad' version at a higher than Railroad price but that price differential doesn't deliver the extra value.

 

The proof of that latter pudding will come later this year with the P2 and the 'Hall' - the former because it sits, in my view, uneasily in the mass market where it could just as easily be a Flamme pacific for the extent to which it is known; thus the 'better' version will be a test of the price vs added value situation.  The 'Hall' will be a different type of test as it goes head-to-head with an existing, fairly good, Bachmann engine which more than captures the look of the real thing at realistic RRP.  The MK1 coaches however will probably go a bomb because it seems to me that the 'design clever' idea is really well suited to coaching stock, far more so than to locos.

 

And in my case Hornby probably will be just like Tesco - we shop there for the basics, for example  toilet paper is cheaper than the same brand in Waitrose.  But for the things, such as meat, where quality matters, we go to Waitrose and pay the extra to get that quality; we bought meat from Tesco once and that was enough.  Maybe one example of a design clever loco would also be more than enough?

[Ron Ron Ron]

.......we shop there for the basics, for example  toilet paper is cheaper than the same brand in Waitrose.  

 

Same brand doesn't always mean the same product.

Even if the product quality is exactly same and not of a lower specification (which happens), Tesco may order smaller roll sizes.

 

You really need to compare the price per sheet !!!!   

 

 

 

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[Ron Ron Ron]

On the subject of inflation and comparative costs, I had a look at one of the many online inflation calculators.

 

Using the same price point, increased only by £ inflation.....

 

Over 10 years....

A £79.99 loco in 2003 would now cost  £109.59

A £99.99 loco in 2003 would now cost  £136.99

 

 

Over the last 3 years...

A £79.99 loco in 2010 would now cost  £90.39

A £99.99 loco in 2010 would now cost  £112.99

 

That's only accounting for UK inflation (a total of 37% over the last 10 years) and takes no account of the other inflationary costs affecting the price of model railway products, such as overseas inflation rates, increases in labour costs, increases in material costs, increases in manufacturing costs, increases in the cost of fuel and transportation, increases in costs at this end in the UK etc etc.

 

Had those other costs only gone up by a mere 20% over the last 10 years, with UK inflation 2003's £100 loco would now cost £164.40

Had they gone up by 30% over that time, then 2003's £100 loco would now cost £178.10

 

Should people still be clinging to the notion of a perceived £100 ceiling that may have applied 10 years ago, or even a mere 3 years ago?

It's like saying, "I want the same product and quality, but I want a 40% reduction in price" !!!!!

 

 

 

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[Oldddudders]

You really need to compare the price per sheet !!!!   

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I nearly misread that - now I see it says "sheet"!

[The Stationmaster]

Same brand doesn't always mean the same product.

Even if the product quality is exactly same and not of a lower specification (which happens), Tesco may order smaller roll sizes.

 

You really need to compare the price per sheet !!!!   

What makes you think that I don't?

[Horsetan]

.....

Should people still be clinging to the notion of a perceived £100 ceiling that may have applied 10 years ago, or even a mere 3 years ago?

It's like saying, "I want the same product and quality, but I want a 40% reduction in price" !!!!!

 

 

 

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Some people still cling to a ceiling of £29.99....