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(Login rgronovius) Missing-Lynx members from IP address 174.50.209.92
It might have been a familiar shop if you were ever stationed in the Fort Knox area. The Hobby Station in Elizabethtown, KY closed up shop at the end of June. He carried a lot of 'stuff', albeit mainly model railroad and RC, but he had quite a lot of model kits of all genres. Most of his armor was priced high at MSRP though.
(Login davidutley) Missing-Lynx members 174.97.197.143
One by one!
July 5 2012, 5:06 PM
Unless they can find a way to compete with the internet pricing I'm afraid there all going to go away! The MSRP days are almost over as well. People just can't afford it! My 2 cents worth!
lol, yeah didnt ya know! B&M shops are thriving and abundant too! ..
honestly though ,there are too many B&M shops that work strictly off walk in sales, and of course thell fold trying to compete with the web prices. hell, web stores are folding because of web prices. Its hard to compete when the distributors themselves are selling to the public at or below wholesale prices.
(Login rgronovius) Missing-Lynx members 174.50.209.92
He did eBay and mail orders
July 5 2012, 6:57 PM
Very big store with a lot of collectable large movie figures (those high end Star Wars, horror movie, Lord of the Rings, etc.). I don't know why he closed (no sales, retiring, or what).
http://www.tncenterpriseshobbystation.com/
(Login MikeRoof) Missing-Lynx members 99.197.128.57
Wait?! What? No, no, no... That can't be right...
July 6 2012, 10:29 AM
I thought that price fixing by the importers and distributors was supposed to protect the LHS' profit margin!
How could this be? How did this happen? Hey, all you distributors! You said that you were going to keep this from happening if we shoppers just agreed to pay your price...
Geeze, another bubble busted... Is there no one we can trust?
(Login Kurt_Laughlin) Missing-Lynx members 108.39.179.253
Technically, it's not "price-fixing"
July 6 2012, 10:55 AM
because a) price-fixing involves collusion to set prices among competitors, not along the supply chain, and b) price-fixing is illegal and setting price points isn't.
The statements about it's purpose being to prevent downward price pressure are 100% true. It can be effective in markets where there is no reasonable, unrestricted competition (like cars, where you can't just order them from Germany over the internet and have FedEx drop it off on your stoop) or where consumer preference is overwhelmingly in favor of in-person purchases (like food and clothing).
However, when these conditions don't exist, *as with plastic model kits in the internet age*, the only one protected from downward price pressure is the person bringing them into the restricted zone, i.e., the importer or distributor.
(Login MikeRoof) Missing-Lynx members 75.104.96.54
And that brings us full circle...
July 6 2012, 10:12 PM
"... However, when these conditions don't exist, *as with plastic model kits in the internet age*, the only one protected from downward price pressure is the person bringing them into the restricted zone, i.e., the importer or distributor.
KL"
And that brings us full-circle right back to the locked thread below.
The only one who benefits from this is the importer, not the LHS, yadda, yadda, yadda...
I'm sorry to hear that another LHS has fallen by the wayside, but in the absence of an importer-distribution system that is competative with the internet, innovative, and responsive to the needs of the LHS and the LHS' customers, the internet will continue eat into the brick & mortar hobby shop's market share until there are no brick & mortar hobby shops left that are worth that name.
When that happens, then the importer-distributors who were posting below will be pushing up the metamorphical dasies too, and we'll all be shopping on-line whether we want to or not.
