01-23-2011, 02:55 AM
Unfortunately, I don't think Walthers had much choice in the changeover from distributor to importer. The manufacturer/distributor/LHS model has been and is dying. With the loss of Athearn and Roundhouse lines, and the remaining large importers (Atlas, BLI, Bachmann) selling direct to the large retailers at very close to the same price Walthers pays, the handwriting was on the wall. Only the small LHS buying onsies and twosies still buy their major stock (such as plastic locomotives) from Walthers and other distributors. Then they have to sell at full retail for the business model to work. Walthers, as a distributor, is increasingly stuck distributing and warehousing slower-moving inventory from the cottage manufacturers.
Business models have to continue to change as the world changes. Shipping costs have gone up dramatically within the US as the taxpayer subsidies for the US Postal Service (and parcel post) have disappeared. FedEx and UPS have both had to raise prices to stop the red ink. Other freight companies have simply gone out of business.
I'd love to see even 10% of the rants go in a positive direction by investing even a small but serious amount (to them) in their chosen model railroading manufacturer/importer. Get some skin in the game, and then your "solutions" and "shoulds" have a little more validity. It's just like (especially on some other forums) folks telling you all about what's right or wrong with a given method for layout building - and then you find out they have never built even one layout in their life, much less used the method discussed.
just my thoughts
Fred W
Business models have to continue to change as the world changes. Shipping costs have gone up dramatically within the US as the taxpayer subsidies for the US Postal Service (and parcel post) have disappeared. FedEx and UPS have both had to raise prices to stop the red ink. Other freight companies have simply gone out of business.
I'd love to see even 10% of the rants go in a positive direction by investing even a small but serious amount (to them) in their chosen model railroading manufacturer/importer. Get some skin in the game, and then your "solutions" and "shoulds" have a little more validity. It's just like (especially on some other forums) folks telling you all about what's right or wrong with a given method for layout building - and then you find out they have never built even one layout in their life, much less used the method discussed.
just my thoughts
Fred W