Sad news, one of the longest-operating model railroad hobby shops in the Los Angeles area has suddenly closed its doors: Dispatched from Allied Model Trains, Culver City, California July 7, 2015 It’s with great sadness we send this message to our friends, customers and vendors. As of today July 07, 2015, we are closed. Due to circumstances beyond our control, the stockholders had to close and declare insolvency. We had sixty-nine wonderful years and we are sorry the journey has to end. All of us at Allied Model Trains, Nick, Fred, George, Karie, Sam, and Dave thank you for all the years of support. Allied Model Trains
Wow, they had everything that you could want, but they demanded top dollar for it. I a surprised that they are gone.
I'm not surprised. Prices were out of this world. In todays market you need to have a website with ordering features and a shopping cart. Plus you need competitive pricing. Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk
Despite our daily bombardment of propaganda from media, the economy is not that good. Extra dollars for discretionary spending are not there for large numbers of people. (Sadly, many of those who do have some extra money are oblivious to the rest of the world. They have a skewed idea that as they've some spare money to spend, so does everyone else.) Businesses must be able to compete for those hard to come by spare dollars, or their shops will disappear. It's simple Business 101/Marketing 101 stuff. With the Internet and discount e-tailers a-plenty, the dollars must have been going to other cash registers.
Exactly! But the owner of Allied whom I know personally owns the original whistle stop in Pasadena. A wonderful gentelman with a great staff but the same high index pricing. A $150 Dcc ready locomotive can be had at a local competitor in one county over for $80. I will drive the extra miles for the savings. Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk
There is a lesson which could be learned here, if his eyes are open. If not, the same fate is on the road directly ahead.
We all think that's where it might be leading. My phones been off the hook lol. Nobody can believe it. Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk
Bummer. They're the US importer of the HOn30 MinitrainS line. So everyone in that community is in a tizzy. It's not just their pricing policies. Their web site needs some very serious attention. In the past, I've tried to do business with them. Not in stock, but we can order it for you. How long to get it? Unknown or guesstimate- Which just doesn't work these days, in a very competitive industry.
Yep! Same problem here. I know that they place a walthers order every Wednesday I think? They do also offer lay away if your a local.lol. But no website to order is a thing of the past. Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk
Good ol' Walthers and their enduring back order backlog system. Maybe you'll get it, if you live long enough.
I've actually had great luck. A friend is a dealer for them and haven't had issues. Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk
We have a local shop where everything is priced MSRP. I still buy some things there because it's worth the extra money to have them available. The last time I was in there and getting rung up, the owner's wife piped up and gave me a 10% discount. The owner was *not* a happy camper that she said that. I let him know that I apprecieated the savings and would be back.
Thats how this place was an exreme mark up and msrp on pretty much anything. Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk
The very last thing I bought at Allied Model Trains was a $3.99 pack of Evergreen styrene strips. The exact one I wanted was out of stock, and in fact the whole Evergreen display had lots of "On Order" tags put on it. As an N-scaler, their N scale stock has been frozen in time for nearly two years. If there's nothing in the store that interests me, I'm not going to buy anything.
I discussed the Walthers backlog issue with Fred Hill when my Whistle Stop orders got backlogged. He wound up explaining that Walthers gives every store a credit limit. If they exceed the limit on their monthly orders, Walthers will hold the order until they pay down their credit balance. This began to be a serious issue at The Whistle Stop for me around 2008. Rather than send orders to discount places, I would shop from the Walthers flyer and put orders for sale items in with The Whistle Stop. But when the backlogs started to get bad, I began to realize that I would be better off using my charge card with Walthers and get the stuff on time, rather than rely on The Whistle Stop to have its credit balance paid. So I tapered off, and the order situation get worse, while the better Whistle Stop staff left, and I wound up dealing with discourteous newbies. So if a dealer tells you your order is on backorder at Walthers, that may not be the full story. My guess is that buying Allied was a bad call and will wind up taking The Whistle Stop with it.
Perhaps this is a part of it. But when ordering directly and it is a no go, and never happens there's another reason. Also, I'd wonder if all shops are on credit? Seems rather doubtful to me. Some, yes. I'm sure a fair number are not. Also, through the years I have done this several times- When I am told either directly, or via ordering through my LHS, it's OOS, I contact the manufacturer. Strangely, I have been told each time that they had previously (weeks, months) restocked Walthers, and it should be available. The last time that happened, I passed it along to my LHS, they called Walthers and suddenly it was coming, arriving in five days. Hmmm.....
My understanding is that typical business terms are "net 30", in other words, you order, they bill you, and you pay the balance in 30 days. If you start to go over 30, problems pop up. In the case of RMC, it looks like they abused that with their printer and eventually got put on a cash-only basis, in other words, no 30 day grace, send check with order. My impression is that when hobby shops start to go under, the first sign of it is in orders. (I've seen this happen a lot in SoCal. Remember Troxel Brothers? South Bay? Train Master? Train Quest?) They can't order without sending cash, having had net-30 taken away, so they tell you yeah, we put the order in, don't know what happened! Walthers put it on backorder! (These days you can just check the Walthers site to see if it's in stock. If the dealer tells you it's on backorder, you have a good idea of what's up.)
I'd suspect some shops still pay cash up front by choice. Whenever I have had the "net 30" (or 10, or 15, 0r 20, whatever they have set up), it was applied for, credit checked, etc. And if I am ordering directly with Walthers, it shows, but the order is not filled? I have had that happen too many times. Because it says in stock, doesn't mean it is, with them.
