Toys R Us, others sell basic Lionel sets at the max retail price...much higher than places like Charle Ro. Yet the public is brainwashed into thinking these stores are the cheapest way to go. That bewilders me.
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Originally Posted by Mike W.:
Toys R Us, others sell basic Lionel sets at the max retail price...much higher than places like Charle Ro. Yet the public is brainwashed into thinking these stores are the cheapest way to go. That bewilders me.
Generally, the folks that buy at places like TRU are not model railroaders, they're buying toys for the kids, probably more on impulse than anything else.
Rusty
Because they can.
They'll sell them for what they can get for them. If they don't sell, or don't sell enough, they won't carry the item. Same applies to just about any retail operation.
Originally Posted by dkdkrd:
Similarly insidious are the 'Gift Cards', the plastic cards that Gramma and Gramps buy and send along with a 99-cent card to the grandkids for....whatever we're celebrating. So, heck, let's send Ralphie a $100 Toys-R-Us gift card. Fine. Ralphie wants a Lionel train. The gift card can ONLY be spent at TRU. I think you get the picture.
FWIW, always...
KD
That's why I've always given my nephews a UGC (Universal Gift Card)...
CASH! 
Works anywhere and everywhere. No hidden fees. No expiration date. Fits conviently in the wallet.
I haven't heard them complain once!
Rusty
I like gift cards, so please feel free to send me gift cards for Lowe's or Home Depot. I can NEVER have too much $ available to spend at either of those places! 
Big box stores will give you a no questions asked refund if the trains don't work or for any other reason you want to return them. Try getting Charles Ro to do that.
Originally Posted by Rusty Traque:
CASH!
Works anywhere and everywhere. No hidden fees. No expiration date. Fits conviently in the wallet.
I haven't heard them complain once!
Rusty
I've yet to hear my great-grandchildren or grandchildren complain. The older ones who love trains have their choice. 
Once upon a time, wife signed up for a card at a store to get 15% off during the Holidays. Come to find out it actually carried a 24.99% rate and we paid off, closed the card the following morning.
One Big box one holiday had a rack full of Lionel prominently (Spelling?) displayed with a sign that towered over everything else in the store. With pricing to match.
Decades ago, big box did not exist except for Toys R Us that I recall, there were major department stores in those days along with the 5 and dimes. (You young folks might want to google 5 and 10 along with Woolworths) that carried train cars and engines in various scales and usually colorful paint. Those days are gone forever.
Originally Posted by Allan Miller:
I like gift cards, so please feel free to send me gift cards for Lowe's or Home Depot. I can NEVER have too much $ available to spend at either of those places!
Me to. I'll take all the gift cards I can get from those two.
Originally Posted by Jumijo:
Big box stores will give you a no questions asked refund if the trains don't work or for any other reason you want to return them. Try getting Charles Ro to do that.
Good point! 
Things changed from years ago when Department stores and toy stores Kiddie City etc would have a Train Dept with someone there that knew what they were selling and also had discount prices and sales. And remember when Department stores and 5&10s would mark there trains down 50% off after Christmas?
I expect this behavior from the big box stores. What I don't understand is that 2 of the last 4 LHS's I have visited have been asking full retail and won't budge. I don't understand why they feel it is better to not sell to a willing buyer just to hold out for a few more percent of profit. That baffles me. I typically know the "street" prices of the items I am looking for. If I don't I simply use my barcode reader on my iPhone to do a quick internet search. I never ask the LHS to match the lowest price, but to come somewhere in the middle and I will buy. When they said no I just walked out the door and purchased the same item elsewhere. If they aren't going to let me see it, run it, hear it, and give at least some resonable discount then I'm going to spend my money somewhere else.
I'm lucky though as I am within driving distance of 3 really good shops that I have "supported" recently :-) : Stockyard Express, Aaron's City Trains, and Mercer Junction.
If they aren't going to let me see it, run it, hear it,
That's almost enough to pay full boat at your LHS, vice getting something defective off the Internet and going to a lot of trouble getting it fixed, returned, whatever. However, no see, no run, no hear=no buy from the LHS.
Toy trains in big box stores is good for everyone. It's good for the little kid that gets a train. A kid who will probably never see a hobby shop unless he grows enough interest to go look for one.
It's good for the box store because they make some money off of it. It's good for mom and dad because they don't have to run all over creation for it. The manufacture wins because they sell more product without the cost of advertising and it's good for the hobby shop owners. They will draw the fifteen to twenty-five percent of the folks who wont to spend more cash on the hobby. If customers find that they like trains they will make a point of finding the best price and service.
When people call a manufactuer for help who do they send them to, Toys are Us, or Nicholas Smith?
As for the LHS that insist on selling starter sets at the MSRP, I think they do it for the same reason the box stores do. Train sets take up alot of shelf space, are heavy to handel and don't generate that much proffit as compared to smaller items like engines, rolling stock, switches, and accessories.
Starter sets in the toy train market waters are like bait to a fishermen. You throw some good stuff out there to see what bites, then you reel them in. They are not trying to reach the trained eye of the hobbyist. Most of the starter set market goes to the one time buyer. These folks will never pay four or five hundred dollars for an engine or one to two hundred for an accessory like we do. But, two to three hundred for a set with everything they need to get going is a resonable investment to them.
Like I said twenty-five percent at most will be back for more trains, then the ten to fifteen percent discount is worth it to the retailer because they see a long term customer.
I still feel that the best bang for our toy train buck is the starter set. If you bought all the items piece-meal it would be about fifty percent more, and we get a nice storage box to boot.
Originally Posted by dkdkrd:
Originally Posted by Jumijo:
Big box stores will give you a no questions asked refund if the trains don't work or for any other reason you want to return them.
That's generally good for, say, 30 days...maybe (if you're lucky) up to 90 days.
That's 30-90 days more than Charles Ro, et al.
Lionel, et al, warrants their items for 1 year after purchase.
The other 330-270 days are covered by 'your nearest authorized Lionel Service Center'...which is NOT the Big Box Boys...last I checked. Try LHS.
If a starter set doesn't fail within 90 days, it's probably going to be OK. After that, send it to Lionel. If it does fail within 90 days, you can take it back to the big box store for a full refund or an exchange, no questions asked!
And Lionel's service policy for warranty work requires proof of purchase...a.k.a., store receipt specifying the purchase...which we've found is harder to come by when the item has been purchased in the midst of housewares, lingerie, shirts, school clothes, hardware, appliances, etc., etc..
Keeping receipts for new trains until the warranty expires is something I always do and recommend to others, no matter where I buy from.
My grievance is about warranty and sales receipts. It ought to be a federally mandated, Supreme Court ordered requirement that the danged "ink" on the receipt last longer than the warranty!
Mark, you can say that again brother! I had an item that had to be brought back to Circuit City, one of those box electronic stores. When I presented the receipt they asked for it had faded to almost nothing. Naturally the manager said that they could not honor the receipt in that condition. But when I produced a copy I made the day the item was bought, along with a warranty his jaw dropped.
The warranty was on the same crap paper. They tried a number of other underhanded tricks but I wont go into that, it was not one of my better days.
Oh, they did honor my contract in the end.
And Lionel's service policy for warranty work requires proof of purchase...a.k.a., store receipt specifying the purchase...which we've found is harder to come by when the item has been purchased in the midst of housewares, lingerie, shirts, school clothes, hardware, appliances, etc., etc..
Whenever you have multiple purchases pay for you train purchase seperately..
Mario - I started hard 'copy' after a little spat down at the local BB.
Now the routine is: Scan the receipt. Save it as a PDF....AND print out a hard copy (just in case the computer croaks...again)
