Another Train Shop Closes

Sorry to hear about that.  How long were they in business?  I did a Google search on them just now, and I needed to enter the town/state before anything came up.  Looks like they don't/didn't have a website.

 

Not that a fancy website is the "be all" and "end all" for having a successful business.  But NOT having even a simple web presence these days would certainly challenge even the best of businesses in terms of visibility -- unless they had an unbelievably long list of steady customers that would sustain their business.  And even with that, businesses always need to adapt.

 

Just sayin...

 

Then again... the owner may be ready to retire.  Don't know... 'cause I don't know anything about this specific situation.  Nonetheless, it's always sad to see an established business close its doors though.

 

David

That's a shame.  I moved down to SC 5 years ago, but used to live nearby and went to their store on Padanaram Road often.  When I was up in January, I stopped by the new store and was amazed at how much smaller it was.  Great Guys.

Doug, I had a funny feeling after they had moved and did not seem the same. That is where I bought my first MTH engine and met Mike Wolf. 

It is a shame to hear that I would stop in when in the Danbury area.

Didnt get a chance to see how they are going to reduce there

products for the closing , possibly new ( like me), peope might see a

way of more purchasing power.

thanks

That's not good. They do excellent locomotive repair. I gotta stop by and see if there repair man will do repairs put of his house?

It's my understanding that he will.  Stop and get his info.

 

Doug

Doug, that is great news! Good bunch of guys @ Railworks.

David....in response to your comments about a business needing a website.....  You are absolutely correct.  In today's world, a good website, even if it is not one that has e-commerce, is the way business is promoted.  Over time, it is the most cost effective way to present, communicate, and interact with your clients and customers.  Use this forum as an example.  It is part of the OGR website and this forum alone demonstrates the power of drawing those interested in a product or information.  Those businesses that are not part of the web are certainly missing out on a huge demographic that may not know of their existence....

 

Alan

Alan,

   I do agree with your opinion on operating a growing business, however in this case if might not be what the business owner was planning.  I give you this example, maybe the store owner is older and is slowly shrinking his business to retire, he would not want to expand his business on line, if that is the case. 

This particular business down sized once before, he may have been planning on

retierment, not expanding his business.

Hate to see another good train store closing however.

PCRR/Dave

 

 

It is always disappointing to see another train shop go out of business. Unfortunately this is a product of a sluggish economy in a very tight market. Today in order to survive in the retail market segment you must use every tool available including e-commerce to reach the buying public. I wish I could say that we have seen the last of this trend, but alas this no doubt will continue.

 

Like many of you, my "local train shop" is over a two hour drive and for me it involves a drive over three state borders. No more for me is the opportunity to be able to have a leisurely visit at the local train shop.

 

It is what it is.

Sorry to hear about this. I have purchased many things from Railworks over the last few years. It was my impulse buying store. Last time I was there you could tell it wouldn't be long. I now really only have 2 LHS stores Western Depot 3000 miles away and Ready To Roll 1700 miles away.

Very difficult for them to compete with Internet sales. Charles Ro, Trainland, and other such stores kill the little guys. Railworks had excellent service and repairs.

No question the internet is hurting traditional brick-and-mortar retailers in many industries.  Some above have cited price/margin, and I agree that's hurting them, too.

 

But, with gas at $4.00/gal, I wish my LHS at least had a basic website so I could check his stock before driving over there. 

 

The other thing hurting traditional retailers are sales taxes that online dealers often are able to escape.  Sure, here in Ohio, I have to report our online purchases on our state income taxes, but I hear that some people don't report their online purchases and, therefore, escape sales taxes that should be applied to online sales as they are to brick-and-mortar retail sales.