03-25-2010, 04:50 PM
I used to deal exclusively with the local hobby shops, but long before the Internet they seemed to think they had a captive buyers mart. The prices got to be too high for my budget so I started mail order. At that time I was buying 4 Athearn locomotives for the price I paid for 1 at the LHS.
Having been in retail sales for a long time, I understand you have to make a buck, but I also understand that you have to be competitive too. If you can't make a profit selling at 100 percent mark-up, you aren't ever going to make it. Most modelers want what they want now, not in a week or two.
My nearest hobby shop is 23 miles. If I go there for and item and he doesn't have it, that is 46 miles wasted, and if I order and go back that is a hundred miles of travel, and at the cost of driving at 40 cents a mile or better that is 40 dollars, which will pay a lot of shipping and handling and I get most orders in 2 days and the worst is 5 days, so I guess that is why I'm called cheap chuck.
I also like the Idea of shopping here at home. It saves time for other things, like talking with my friends on the Gauge.
Charlie
Having been in retail sales for a long time, I understand you have to make a buck, but I also understand that you have to be competitive too. If you can't make a profit selling at 100 percent mark-up, you aren't ever going to make it. Most modelers want what they want now, not in a week or two.
My nearest hobby shop is 23 miles. If I go there for and item and he doesn't have it, that is 46 miles wasted, and if I order and go back that is a hundred miles of travel, and at the cost of driving at 40 cents a mile or better that is 40 dollars, which will pay a lot of shipping and handling and I get most orders in 2 days and the worst is 5 days, so I guess that is why I'm called cheap chuck.
I also like the Idea of shopping here at home. It saves time for other things, like talking with my friends on the Gauge.
Charlie