Out of stock

[Toto]

I am a strong supporter of trying to use my local model shops where I can, even if it means that I will pay a bit more than I could do if I bought from the bigger online suppliers.
The high street shops profess that the benefit they offer is that you can see the product first before committing and you can also get advise and have a bit of a chinwag with fellow modellers etc. I would agree with the second statement but unfortunately not the first. It would appear that some shops carry very little stock and most of the time, they need to order it in. I may as well order over the Internet myself, save some money and also the hassle of driving to the other side of town and the added hassle of trying to get parked.
I am currently in the throws of planning my first layout and when I start buying, there will need to be a few quid spent as it will be a reasonable size of layout. ( 12 x 10 ) garden shed. From very rough outline plans I estimate about 25 to 30 sets of points, all the motors, switches, isolation switches, code 75 track, possible 4 panel controllers , transformers. It goes on and on.

I visited my local shop today to start buying some of the switches and control equipment etc to enable me to commence building one of the control / mimic panels and all they could offer me was 2 on / off isolation switches ( which were overpriced). YES 2. "We can order some in ". I CAN ORDER SOME IN. I wanted them today. Surely these things are cheap enough to hold in stock. Another well known "electronics"retailer was the same, 2 in stock.

The shop only had 1 controller that I needed out of a potential 4. I won't complain too much as they sold it to me approximately £9.00 cheaper as it was old stock.( not discontinued ).

I got home, went online and bought bulk bags of the switches that I required and saved a fortune. However, if the shop had them in stock, I would have paid the extra.

The moral of my story is, they cannot have it both ways. I will continue to try to use them ( who remain unnamed ) but come on, some pretty basic items should be available over the counter.

What is everyone else's experience of this with their local shops ?

Toto

[Bufferstop]

Like you I try to use a local shop for the run of the mill items, but they are getting fewer and fewer. I'm now looking at a forty mile round trip to any shop that carries the "bits and pieces". I have one 4 miles way but the height of their specialist parts are a couple of display stands one for Plastruct one for K&S metals and I suspect those only get re-stocked when the salesman calls. Once you are faced with a journey to get an item you may as well order on line. There are few good shops dotted around the country that I will make a point of visiting if I'm going to be in the area and stocking up on items they have otherwise I can order on line and have it delivered before the opportunity to visit one of the shops arises.

[Toto]

Thanks for the reply, you say you have travelled around the country to stock up, have you ever visited Hattons and if so,are their in shop stock levels generally good as I would probably be happy to have an away day when I have built up a sufficient slush fund and nearer to the time when my new build gets underway in earnest.

I would be travelling from the Edinburgh area, would it be worth the journey ?

Toto

[Admin4]

I guess it really depends on the size of the shop to what you can expect they have in stock (as well as how many of each) as they may not have space or the capital available to tie up in stock that wont shift or will take a long time to. There are items that any shop should have in stock - track, points, decoders, track rubbers, paints etc - more things you need on the day then when building a layout because they just wont be able to have the number of points in stock.

With the number of points your looking at hattons would be the best bet as you would save a massive amount - ebay for wire and switches as well for the same reason they just take a little more planning due to posting (Hattons are very good and offer next day before 1pm for £7)

I have just had a local shop open and love having one so close - 15 minutes drive and will be supporting it as much as i can but at the end of the day if i can save allot of money on large orders online that's what i will use but for the smaller more regular shopping trips for odds and ends my local shop is my first port of call.

if you know you need that many points and still want to support the local shop take a list in of all the track you need and the price hattons charge and let them know you want to order it with them and see if they can beat / match the prices - with such a large order they should jump at the chance as it is guaranteed sales not stock for their shop.

I did this with coach kits (X6) and saved money and have also have asked for a price on the hornby turntable if they match hattons I will order it through them to help support them and because it gives me an excuse to look in the shop again even if i need to wait until they place their next order as its not urgent and if they are ordering mine with a normal order they place it will save them having to pay extra postage costs etc?

all of that aside last time i was after 3 sets of points we went to Model Zone in Cambridge to get them as i wanted to fit them over the weekend and they didn't have a single set in stock! and yesterday I went to Lake Side Model Zone and only came out with a tunnel entrance as the selection of rolling stock etc was really poor and very expensive but i think i am just spoilt now with a local model railway shop that has a good selection

I would love a trip to Hattons but 4-6 hours on the train each way + £100 - £160 on tickets make it a no go - if you do make a trip i believe they let you order and collect so if there are bits you want to make sure to get order them online for collection?

[Pennine MC]

Surely these things are cheap enough to hold in stock.

And therein lies the rub. Your requirement was switches, but somebody else might want rail joiners, or paintbrushes, or fibre washers, or whitemetal figures, or three-link couplings; the list of bits and bobs we use in this hobby is endless. You dont consider those myriad other items, because naturally enough you're focusing on your own requirement. As Alex says, it could be slow moving stock, or it might not - the retailer might go months without selling these items, then have a sudden run on them. Now try multiplying the value of those switches hundreds or even thousands of times, to represent those other little bits and bobs, and you end up with a lot of money tied up in potentially dead stock.

[Bufferstop]

Hi Toto, funny you should ask, I was in Hattons yesterday. My wife was on a craft course just off the M6 20 minutes or so down the road. First time I'd been in there. If you've phoned, they've got it and you are passing use them, not really a browsing shop, but if you want to look at a specific model before buying it, they are all there behind glass and they'll get one out for you to inspect. Parking on a Saturday morning was no problem, drive down Smithdown road to the lights where Penny Lane crosses (can't miss it) Hattons is on the corner of next left, turn left and look for a space. I turned a further left and then a right out onto Penny Lane, spaces getter bigger as you go away from Smithdown Road. No limits apart from double yellows at the corners. You can still pop into the barbers, but the fire station's gone.
John W
aka Bufferstop.

[johnco]

Rumour has it that the large box shifters are squeezing the smaller town shop out of existence by bulk buying the releases of models from the major manufacturers and thus depriving the smaller dealers of new stock.
You can't blame the manufacturers as they clear their production runs at a fast fixed cost. You can't blame the boxshifters as the can offer a reduced price for the products as a resultt of their bulk buying. Unfortunately the large retailers don't sell the little nicknacks associated with the hobby and with the demise of the small shopkeeper these parts are becoming harder to find. The major manufacturers also demand that a retailer has a large cash value of stock for sale and that reordering has to have a high value, not many off high street shops can afford to keep such high value of stock that may take a long time to sell ,if ever ,as some items are too specialised or on the other hand too trivialised. This unfortunately is the current way of commerce as the smaller shopkeeper is being forced out of existence in all sections of trade, how many small village ironmongers, grocers or even milkmen do you see theese days.

[whynot]

"... I estimate about 25 to 30 sets of points, all the motors, switches, isolation switches, code 75 track, possible 4 panel controllers , transformers. It goes on and on."

If you give them it all in one big list, will they not give a discount? Worth asking?

[Flashbang]

Hi
Most, if not virtually all model shops, will only sell a very limited range of switches and wire and often at a premium price!

If you want to build a control panel and need lots of items then look on ebay.
Otherwise use a specialist suppler for wire and switches etc like Rapid, http://www.rapidonline.com/ but always try and ensure your order value is above their minimum order value to obtain free delivery.

Note: Use as a minimum 16/0.2mm equipment wire for all solenoid point motor feeds from a CDU to the switches and out to the layout. Smaller 7/0.2mm equipment wire, which is often sold by model shops as "Layout wire", is normally suitable for track feeds where the wire run is no greater than approx 3 Mtrs and any LED indications back to the panel, control of signals (colour lights especially) and building lighting etc.

[GWR_fan]

I do not know if it is the same with British stores but downunder, the distributor for say Peco may require a minimum order from the retailer of say, $250.00. Thus until the seller has sufficient orders to meet the minimum purchase order then he cannot get the item through his distributor. Thus anyone ordering the item would need to await until other customers placed orders eventually reaching the minimum order cost.

A local hobby store I used to deal with did not advise of this. For several months I kept enquiring as to whether my items had arrived. Each time the answer was NO! It was only after I felt that nearly six months waiting for a simple order was more than enough that the seller advised that actually he had not even placed the order as he needed other orders to enable an order through the distributor.

If say purchasing/ordering through Bachmann, a seller has minimum order numbers to comply with. Thus a seller may not be able to order a single item. In my city of several million people, hobby shops are basically extinct unless one is a fan of R/C helicopters. The local hobbystore has empty slots on the shelves where Plastruct used to be/should be and even simple things like plastic glue and piano wire are generally not in stock. Forget about K&S Tubing or brass shapes as they do not exist. The only hobby paints are colours not popular with the masses and so do not sell. The seller is reluctant to order new supplies. Over a period of two months I cajoled him for not even having plastic solvent glue in the store. Eventually he relented and actually purchased some from his distributor. This store has shelves full of old plastic military kits and 1/24 scale cars and yet no glue.

Forget about a chin wag while in the store. If you engage an assistant in a conversation, the assistant is always nervously on the lookout for the boss in case he sees him not working. Give me the internet any day.

Tim

[seanhellen]

I use my local shop in Preston, they always have stuff in and will order stuff that they dont stock. They are more expensive than online, however, like you i dont mind for the convenience. I have also been to Hattons on a number of occasions and they are excellent. Always have enough stock in (i was using code 75 large points and needed 25 of each way and they managed it) and their prices are always better than anywhere I have found online (barring ebay...sometimes)

[pointstaken]

May I put a word in for a shop relatively local to me ? "Church Street models" in Basingstoke have a website, with a fair range of stock, and are a short walk from the station. Usual disclaimer applies. But watch the Dalek in the window - supposed to be a security guard, but I can never get a word out of him.

Dennis