Supporting your Local Hobby Shop......

[jordagar]

What a load of bulls%$& when they can't be bothered to open on Saturdays!

A pocket full of cash and a shopping list that includes a new Speedpassion ESC, Motor, Servo, wheels/tyres, shock oils, diff oils, a new hauler bag and probably a few more things when I get there.....but guess what??..... my local hobby store (DMS Racing) 7 miles from my house does not open on a Saturday. No problem I thought, I'll take a drive to MK Racing (45 miles from my house) - Oh dear - they now don't open on Saturdays either. Both of these shops have received my support and CASH for many years!!

So I am sure that like most guys on here, you work from 9-5 Monday to Friday and have an hour for lunch. So no time to get to your hobby shop during the week, even if they are open late 1 night a week until 7pm. So Saturdays are the only time to get the stuff you need.

So when the weekend comes and you've broken something from Friday nights 1//10 2wd indoor racing or you want something for 1/8th nitro racing on Sunday your local shop is closed on a Saturday and the nearest shop that has decent stock is 1.5 hours drive away or you have to pray that someone at the track has what you need or that there is someone selling trackside.

I am surprised that in the current economic climate that a retailer can make a decision to close on a Saturday. We have all seen the many model shops gone to the wall over the last few years. It seems to me that the good ones with helpful staff who give advice and help are going bust (eg. Models in Motion) and the ones who rely on us ordering from their websites keep on going and can treat their loyal local customer how they like.

I for one am sick of having to order online, not be home for the postman/courier and have to go to the sorting office/courier depot to collect my parcel. Why can't I go to a shop and buy what I want when I want it? We do for everything else we buy from electrical goods to food!

So I sit here with debit card in hand having placed orders on Modelsport (184 miles from my house, JE Spares (178 miles from my house) & BMM racing (189 miles from my house), all of these good shops that I have visited and have bought from several times before.

So come Tuesday I'll be off to the sorting office to pick up my stuff!

Rant over!

[mattybucks]

I'm open, with free postage, friendly advise, and stock ready to send out! Even if I am closed I receive emails on my iPhone so I usually respond straight away.

I know I'm a webshop but if your in the MK area and I have the item in stock you can pick it up.

[Si Coe]

Sadly ironic that you ordered stuff from JE Spares, who don't open on Saturdays either!

However its important to remember that most LHS's are small affairs with a limited number of staff. That means if they don't close for a day, they get no break - you work Monday to Friday but that means you get two days off so why shouldn't your LHS owner?
Some shops do it a little differently - Roundabout is open on Saturday but not on Monday, NW Model Supplies is open Sat but no Wed etc but ultimately they are open 5 days a week and there are days you can't shop there.
BMM are actually open 7 days a week, but the upshot is that staff service can be a little variable as they aren't all full time staff with lots of experience.

I like you find it impossible to get to a model shop mid-week, but I understand that that just means I need to use the internet. And for further irony my first port of call is normally DMS!

[Darren Boyle]

Jordagar.... Nice first post on oOple, dont know who you are since your "real name" is not your "oople name" so have no idea who I am replying to..

Interesting that I have "just get back from the shop", after spending 2 1/2 hours loading our van up (with my wife and young 5 year old helping out too) for the regional at Stotfold tommorow, ironically I am not even racing in the morning I am purely going there to support the meeting with the shop only.

I was at the shop on Monday from 10am until approx 9pm that night, Tuesday was a "normal" day and a was there from 10am until 6pm, Wednesday, went out to visit a few stores in the morning that we deal with, got back at 2pm then stayed late once more and got home (eat dinner etc at 8:30pm), Thursday, we opened at 10am , closed at 7pm, off straight to our local club which again WE run (which must also be just 7 miles from your house) and got in at 11:30pm, then sat and updated all of that weeks race results and went to bed at gone 1am. Friday, normal day, started at 10am (ish, I was a bit late in myself TBH) and left at a reasonably early 8:30pm (as Matt Owen will vouch since I was still talking to him on the phone from the shop at that time).

Now today is my ONE day off in the week (and when there are Nationals etc to attend, I dont even get the saturday) I spent the morning doing chores around the house, popped into town to get some things, then went to the shop at 4:30pm to load the van as mentioned above, just got in (and now on Oople replying to "work related" threads whilst dinner gets cold)...... Off to Stotfold at 6:30am in the morning, will get home at approx 5/6pm tommorow night, then the week starts all over again, please forgive me for not working on a Saturday any longer, we opened for 17 years on a saturday and watched the days takings steadily decline to the point it was the quietest day of the week, so we changed the hours around in the week (we actually are open for 2 hours MORE now weekly, but just over 5 days and not 6) and as of the end of Jan 2009 we stopped opening on saturdays. We have signs up, on the front door, inside the shop, on our website, on our answerphone message and at the time we changed they were posted all over the forums too, if you have supported us as you say for "many years" how have you never seen these signs or messages before???

My next point is that EVERYTHING on your list we have in stock and on OUR website too, so why did you not just mail order from us instead of having to surf the THREE different sites that you did to get all your requirements.

Next up, you mention, even with our late night you still cannot get to us, then why not pick your stuff up form our club on a Thursday, or even from any of the regions clubs we visit on sundays, where many other people do, we are there until 11pm every week on a thursday.....

You mention the "good ones are closed down" just think for one minute that there may well be a reason why they have closed rather than knock the ones who are still here.....

As also mentioned, you didnt buy from either our site or Marc's site (MK) yet then go home and buy from JE, who also dont open on a saturday!! (which I find odd). It is no coincedence that when you look through thread after thread on here, three of the most popular shops who are reccomended more than almost all others by the users of this site are us (DMS, MK and JE) but all of us do not open on a saturday. I cannot speak for Marc and Josh's "exact" reasons but I know for us we "needed" a day off somewhere in the week, we are not robots and do have to rest see our families at some time, for us the best day for that was a saturday, mail order is a HUGE part of our buisness and a saturday is the ONLY day where the sorting office is shut as are the couriers, no orders left us to go anywhere and hence it was our quietest day. I spoke with Marc (MK) just a few weeks ago about this when he asked me about it and mentioned he was thinking about it himself (I now see he has) and we agreed on the reasons as above.....

Just like Matty (Telstar) many customers who are in the local area to us (Watford) know to juts call if they are running late any day and since we are often there WAY past closing, we are there still for them out of hours.

Si Coe, thanks for your answer and for your custom and supoort too.....

[Garry]

Don't worry Darren, for every one dissatisfied customer, you've probably got 20 very happy customers (myself included). Its just a shame that those who don't think before posting, are usually the ones who shout the loudest.

[jordagar]

Darren, please do not take my post as a personal attack.

I am merely venting frustration in that I had a list of stuff I wanted to buy today and I have two really good model shops near me that I know I could have got everything on my list but both are now closed on the only day that I am able to get to them.

I don’t question your dedication and the amount of time you spend supporting the sport by attending national, regional & local meetings and I was unaware that you had a presence at these meetings as I’m an average club racer and those meetings are far from my ability. I’m also not saying that you guys aren’t entitled to a day off, this is not the case.

I have supported DMS since I moved to Watford in 1995. I have bought 4 nitro cars, 1 electric buggy, 2 RB engines, pipes, loads of fuel, many tools and lots of spares in that time. I also used to go to the back field at Parmiters on a Sunday to run my Hyper 7 and subsequently my Losi 8 (Both bought from DMS and setup/tuned by you). My name is Jordan, you will recognise me if you saw me.

Like you, a young family and other commitments take up much of my time and as a result Saturday is the only day I am able to go to a shop to get the stuff I need. As an average racer with limited talent but loads of enthusiasm for RC, I rely on guys at the track but most importantly the model shop owner / shop guys to give advice or support for the products I have bought or want to buy.

Sitting in front of a computer reading manufacturers descriptions of a product (written by a marketing person) and clicking “add to cart” isn’t the same as going into a shop and talking about the product, buying it and taking it home.

I mentioned that I am surprised that in the current economic climate that a specialist retailer is closed on traditionally the busiest shopping day of the week. You have made the decision based on your declining takings but I am sure that if you asked around that you would be surprised at the feedback about closing on a Saturday and how much business potentially has been lost as a result. Surely I am not the only one who feels this way?!

The reason for my decision to purchase from the 3 sites I mentioned was
purely made on the cheapest price and stock availability alone. My thought process here is that if I have to order online and have stuff delivered I might as well shop around and get the best price. This would not have been a factor if I had the opportunity to purchase from DMS or MK today. Even if you did not have the item I wanted in stock, you could have ordered it and I could have picked it up next Saturday (Thats the way it used to work..didn’t it?)

Regarding the remarks re: JE Spares. I have never had the urge to drive 178 miles on a Saturday to JE Spares to buy some parts so was unaware that they were closed on a Saturday. I live in Bushey, they are in Manchester!?

Please accept my apologies if you feel that my rant was targeted at you, this was never my intention, I was merely venting frustration as instead of building my car with its new ESC, motor, building/filling the shock and diffs with oil, I sit watching TV and responding to your reply instead.

I know what I’d rather be doing.

[jordagar]

Originally Posted by Garry

Don't worry Darren, for every one dissatisfied customer, you've probably got 20 very happy customers (myself included). Its just a shame that those who don't think before posting, are usually the ones who shout the loudest.

Garry, you have got this all wrong. I am not a disgruntled customer, I have supported both DMS and MK for many years. My frustration is not with the people but with the decision to close on a Saturday. I did think before I posted, maybe you should have before you did to slate me for voicing my opinion and frustration.

[Darren Boyle]

Originally Posted by Garry

Don't worry Darren, for every one dissatisfied customer, you've probably got 20 very happy customers (myself included). Its just a shame that those who don't think before posting, are usually the ones who shout the loudest.

Garry, thanks for your support....