Mike Kieran Wrote:Keep in mind. Manufacturers and distributors can't always keep the brands, models, and road names that we want, not because of greed, but because of economic survival. Let's say, for instance, if I sold Athearn CF7s in Santa Fe paint and CF7s decorated for Pinsy railroads. The Santa Fe engines 10 to 1, I would be more likely to stock the Santa Fe engines. Why? I have bills to pay.
But your business model would likely lead to bankruptcy in a relatively short while, because you serve only a small segment of the market which you will soon saturate.
Diversity is the key to marketing survival. Yeah, you may only sell on particular oddball item a year, but the person who buys it is also likely to shop for other items while he is at it, and if you cannot attract him to your business, you're a goner. Looking back through my old MRR magazines, I followed the ads for four, then three, then two and now no railroad hobby shops in Colorado Springs.
The Colorado springs owner who is retiring and closing his shop focused mainly on large scale stuff, mostly garden scale, which is expensive to purchase, and did not cater much to other modellers. He once told me that was where the money was - people came from all over to buy his large scale stuff, and no one bought much N-scale. At that time I jokingly pointed out that a) one can only put so much large scale stuff onto a layout before hitting the saturation point where sales drop off, and b) if your aren't selling offering much in N-scale, no one can buy it anyway and the word goes out that your store is not stocked across the spectrum, after which you involuntarily become a single scale shop like it or not.
Of course, he now has to dump his remaining N-scale inventory, which he did not choose wisely in the first place, and there are no takers, nor any prospective buyers seeking a failing modeling business. No "good will" to make it attractive.
So now we will see if The Caboose can get its act together and do better at its new location, which I have not visited yet, and given that it's on Alameda - a terrible place to drive - I may not.
The real downside here is which online businesses can be trusted, because nothing in the way of enforcement really exists for the customer.
