Widnes Model Centre

In case you don't know. Widnes is a small fishing village on the River Mersey. Situated between Manchester and Liverpool. It's name derives from the Viking description of Widens as in where the Mersey starts to widen. When translated when Granted it's Charter it was spelt Widnes.

I honestly don't know. Will find out tomorrow when I try to put my 2022 Airfix order in. We haven't officially been informed that we cannot place our Hornby 2022 preorders until the 24th. That information came via a Tier 1 stockist who had that explained to them. I am presuming I can place our orders tomorrow but they won't be looked at until the 24th. Good luck to the Hornby sales staff with that one. Can envisage "order from Widnes, what Tier are they?" Response "where about in Widnes?".

Thanks for posting this Phil. Had our first preorder for this at 1131. Hope Airfix isn't embargoed for Tier 2.

Hi Gary, Good to see a shop owner on here. Just to clarify: We will be paying the new price on anything delivered after 15th January. New prices I believe are on the Hornby website. I think what is being asked is will Hornby be selling products to us at the preorder price, when customers first placed their orders? In August 2021 there was a minimum 10% price increase on all Hornby railways. That became the New Price providing it is delivered to us very soon. New releases are expected into the warehouse this coming week. I won't say which in case @Markwj makes a mess on the living room floor. Anything despatched after the 15th January will have had a few price rises. That will then become the Price. You can of course expect 10% discount at a lot of retailers. If a customer ordered at £100 and it's now £347 6s 6d then they won't get it for £100 (exagerated figures... I think....) If I have got it horribly wrong then apologies in advance. Yesterday a regular customer who has been absent due to long Covid came into the shop. He said that he knew he had no chance as he knew this item was sold out everywhere, but just in case did I have a ??? coming into the shop spare. How many would you like, as we are Tier 2 customers have cancelled preorders in case we let them down? I quoted him two prices, one if it arrived before the 15th and another price after 15th January. Discounted by 10% on both prices. Beaming toothy smile and he has one on order. I am expecting them this week. Any other retailer agree with my take on prices?

I think the simple answer is, you can't. I know what Tier we are in and I know one shop who is Tier 1, one that is Tier 3. One might think their local model shop is Tier 1, 2 or 3. But only the owner and Hornby will know. Hornby does not give details of who is in what Tier, I can understand the confidentiality side of this or do I? We were informed this week that we had once again failed in our appeal to get to Tier 1. No reason was given which doesn't help. Hornby are well aware of our frustration at this and we see it as counterproductive to our maintaining and growing our business. We have and will remain loyal customers to Hornby, their products are important to us and I have a family history with my mother and pretty much every aunt who all worked at Binns Road. There are some really nice people at Hornby and many we would refer to as friends. Just to repeat the information we received from Hornby: "As we moved into 2021 and acknowledging that the allocation system was not functioning as hoped we introduced a Tier system where each of our existing retailers were placed in one of the three tiers. Tier 1 relates to those retailers that amongst other things maintain a clean and well laid out store and who promote several of the Hornby Hobbies ranges. These retailers will usually have an effective website and mail order service. Importantly they should also be able to provide help and guidance to their customers as well as having a good credit and payment history, while at the same time adhering to the Hornby Hobbies terms of trading. Those who have been nominated to Tier 2 tend to be the types of outlet that include heritage centres or museums. Those outlets designated Tier 2 must also be able to offer help, support and advice for their customers and are willing to promote Hornby products. Good credit and payment history must also be a factor and their willingness to accept and work within the Hornby Hobbies terms and conditions of trading. Tier 2 will also include those on-line retailers who are also prepared to offer help, support and guidance to their customers." This was the frustrating element for us. Referring to the "Types of outlet that include heritage centres and museums.... include those on line retailers who are prepared to offer help etc.....". That really hurt being put into that classification. If it had said anything but as above I think we would have been happy. My wife, Gill was particularly upset as she well remembers and overheard conversation between two reps "I'll give them six months before they close". That was in February 2011. Nearly eleven years later we have built a "superb shop and business". Not my description. We have helped other model shops set up and assisted as best we can with advice etc. What I would say; is get your order in early to your local model shop, preferred seller and give them a chance to supply your new order. Otherwise you may lose your local shop, seller due to not knowing what Tier they are in. We have told all our customers our Tier Status. It is better to be upfront, that is our opinion. On Friday of this week we asked all our customers to get their orders in as quickly as possible. If we cannot supply them they will be the first to know. Support your local shop, preferred supplier otherwise they may end up in Tiers or Tears. Looking forward to Monday, but it may well be a bit of a Jim Bowen Bullseye moment..... "Here's what you could have won". We will certainly be placing our orders as soon as allowed to do so.

If I understand correctly,no. But that is only my understanding. Logic would say.. Hornby make 1000. A Tier 1 shop orders 999. Not going to work.

Hi John, fully understand where you are coming from. We have been asked the same thing by our customers. We couldn't answer. As someone who has visited our "Museum" you can probably understand our frustration.

Hi John, my earlier post. We were informed this week that Tier 1 Retailers can order from 10th January, Tier 2 will be able to have their orders looked at on the 24th January.

No, not quite right. If you are going to criticise please be aware of the facts. The press release was in response to the media requesting clarification of the Tier System . The trade were informed much earlier than the 21st of May. The Press Release wording had also been slightly altered from the original to the trade. The trade were disappointed that a Press Release had even been issued.

Quite right Mike. I think the original poster was referring to Centenary products. But I am sure he will corrct me if I am wrong. In my view the Banding/Tiers started then. I had placed my order for Centenary Items within an hour of announcements, only for it to be rejected as some items hadn't been allocated to us.

Hi John, yes we didn't have to take what was offered. There was a lot of swapping between reps who had been allocated regionally geographically less likely to sell items. The reps did their very best. Have to be honest never been told we had to take quantities of any loco, although wagons, carriages etc do come in minimum order quantity.

Not quite, the Banding System was introduced in January 2021. Hornby were delighted to inform us that we were in Band B. No one outside of Hornby knew what that meant. Allocation of stock to retailers started in January 2020. We couldn't just order what we wanted, we were told what had been allocated to us. Seemed like a fairer system at the time....

We stock; Hornby, Airfix, Scalextric, Corgi and Humbrol. Thats the full range for Hornby products within the criteria. Still Tier 2. We know Tier 1 shops that just sell Hornby and Humbrol. Confusing isn't it?

We are in Tier 2, but we consider ourselves to be a decent bricks and mortar shop. Photo is the only one I have at home. Hornby have decided to class us in the Museum and Heritage Centre classification. Did think about trying to claim from the Government Culture Covid Fund aimed at Museums etc. Thought best not haha. Todays view would be that there is not an inch to spare to put anymore shelving and racking in. It's a big shop and the photo doesn't really show how big it is. Some of our suppliers and all of our customers consider us to be a fantastic shop.

We have been led to believe by Hornby that Tier 1 Retailers can order from 10th January and Tier 2 Retailers from the 24th.

TBH I am that Elf. Let them know straight away.

I’m not sure what R7304 actually is. The trade price indicates that £21.99 is a correct price. Certainly available to preorder from various retailers for around £5-£8. Is that the biggest price reduction for a yet to be released item?

Talking of price increases, anyone want to buy some Hornby R610's? https://uk.Hornby.com/products/quarter-straight-r610

May I ask of those who have received damaged loco's; were they packed with foam inserts? Ours arrived today and they had three pieces of foam preventing the loco from moving around in the clamshell. No damage, all perfect. No need to put on Ebay and sell for a small fortune due to damage.

We haven't yet had our delivery, presumably there will be other retailers awaiting their stock .

No Michael, l get that part. It’s the retail price is 120% that l don’t get. l don’t profess to know the VAT system and all it’s vagaries. What l don’t understand is why a non VAT registered business quotes the RRP when selling. That RRP includes VAT which they aren’t allowed to charge. So shouldn’t their selling price be the RRP ex VAT? Back to VAT school for me?

Have to admit, this has confused me.

Slightly Off Topic: Prices seem to be changing with every day that passes. One of our suppliers has cancelled orders due to rising prices. He informed us that 20-30% rises to make imports profitable. Wisely he wants to wait until prices of shipping etc stabilise. Might be a long wait. Two items we sell lots of, one was £2.60, now £3.99. Another, £4.99, now £5.99 and we are led to believe another rise in January 2022. One of of our suppliers announced a 10% increase in prices. When we came to price up new stock, we quickly worked out that some items had gone up between 19 and 20 %. I queried these prices and was told it was actually an ‘Average 10%’. I naturally asked what had gone down in price, to give an average 10%? Nothing was the reply. We worry about stock being stolen.. For that reason we keep the very valuable items locked away. So if you want any balsa or hardwoods, please ask! We have noticed an increase in the cost of pricing labels. Well, what did we expect? Soon be Christmas.

Scalextric launched a Demolition Derby set in 2013. The set featured as you say Hot Rods that blew apart on impact. They were called Quick Build cars. Scalextric cars are 1/32. Quick Build doesn’t have scale. But as you say, they are a lot bigger.

Thanks Paul for pointing this out. Some of the products we sell are almost smaller than our pricing labels. We have to be careful that we don’t cover the safety information with the price. Tedious but necessary. Label is placed underneath the product. One company that supplies us with paints, glues etc have to replace all of the information on those items with the English version. Every single bottle has to be relabelled. Imagine you worked there and a forty foot container of paints arrived. Think l would book the day off! If we didn’t price all our products, l would shop elsewhere.