Bad news that I missed! This well known Maryland Woo-Woo train store closed in December. It had recently been purchased by the UK Hattons train store that has also now gone out of business. "Customer Notice We regret to inform you that woo woo woo woo woo woo Inc. (woo woo woo) has now ceased trading. Thank you for your custom and support over our incredible 111 years of continuous operation. Our customer service agents are available for a limited period to assist with any final queries." Tonkphilip
I'd just purchased from them back in November and many things over the last few years. I was checking just the other day and noticed their stock had been stagnant then yesterday a notice of re-organization and now today it's closed. Bummer.
And a sad day it is when wu wu closed down. Of course it's no secret who wu wu is, can't keep that from is like a state secret! The previous message was that they were going to reorganize and come back but it seems those plans fell through. Wu wu won't be around any more to filter. Hm.
This is another bit of bad news. I was thinking of placing an order with woo woo woo. That’s not going to happen. Oh well.
Forum rules question... If the woo woo store is no longer in business, can you then name the woo woo store and not be in violation of the rules?
No we can't name the store, hance the "woo woo woo..." Really sad news to hear, I've purchased a lot of great woo woo woo from them over the years.
I wonder if the closing of H*tton's in England and Woo Woo in Maryland is a result of steadily declining sales. If so, that's a worrisome trend for all of us, as it likely impacts many other model train retailers. Ours has become an increasingly expensive hobby, and inflation and shipping costs have served to accelerate the trend.
I actually found this info out on my Google feed (I was surprised that it would rate being on my Google feed).
Well it certainly wasn't due to declining sales from me! I'd love to know what happened in detail. I have to think the buyers had a poorly thought out plan and/or didn't do due diligence before buying. That shop HAD to be one of the biggest in the industry in the U.S. at least. Oh well. I guess the shop that is in Illinois is now my new top source.
Been many, many years since I bought anything from them. I prefer to support the Trainboard advertisers whenever possible. https://www.trainboard.com/highball/index.php?forums/advertisers.155/
That's pretty much what happened. The plan wasn't thought out as well as it should have been from what I've read elsewhere. As for declining sales, I doubt it. There might be a dip in overall sales for awhile after the mess that started in 2020, but I doubt it will turn into a trend that will affect the hobby overall. Hopefully by 2025 things will get back to normal, well somewhat normal...
That makes the most sense to me. Definitely seems to be some mixed signals with everything going on. Lots of new items coming into the market. Rapido just announced with the reaction to their possibly releasing an RDC in N that this project is likely to go through while they just cancelled n scale reefers due to lack of interest. BLI seems to be making a lot of N scale locos and Atlas is churning out all kinds of stuff. Woodland Scenics/Bachmann, scaletrains etc. I guess regarding woo woo woo I missed a few signs. I received an email in December stating that I had a week to redeem my rewards points before they went away due to them ending that program. I didn't have enough nor did I want to make a purchase to get them up to get the minimum $15 coupon so I let that go. They were always a bit slow to ship until the end though so that threw me off. I would have though if anything the opposite would have been observed. Fortunately I've a long list of retailers still in business. Tophobby would probably get most of my business if they would just expand their offerings. I've done business with them for years (long before I came here) because their prices are some of the best but Inventory.
Allen, Hattons, probably the largest train store in the UK purchased Woo-Woo recently but just closed their own UK store. Their web site mentioned declining sales and the difficulties of International business with the increased customs red tape since the UK completed Brexit. The UK model train sales were very strong during Covid but may have cooled since then. Tonkphilip
Before I retired the last time, yup retired twice from two different jobs, I used to drive up to Baltimore to the old shop in the city. Sensory overload to say the least. When they moved it was much less, usually when there was a show at Timonium MD. The old management had some sense getting into mail order early and then the internet sales. I think the newer management probably saw dollar signs and greed took over thus the sale and grab the cash and run. Another case of overseas poor management destroying both businesses. Look for the liquidated stock to show up on Ebay a 2 to 3 times the prices.
This has been unfolding for a number of weeks. I haven't really followed it because I really don't buy much of anything anymore. It will be interesting to see what other information emerges as we move forward. Retail at all levels is very dynamic. With ebay, Amazon, etc., it's hard to predict where we are heading.
I hate to say this but it might be time to just be happy with what we have and stop buying. Or buy direct from a place like Scale Trains that has their own manufacturers and sells direct. They manufacturer sell their own, plus bought out FVM and ExactRail. They have released ExactRail build and are working on the Fox Valley products as well. They have a new build of BN SD40-2's coming in next week in Rivet Counter......
Something here doesn't make sense... They buy wo-wo-wo in Sept 2023 and then both shops close and go out of business 4 months later? Why would they spend the cash if they were already in financial dire-straights? And what happened to the inventory both stores already had on hand (granted, one is in England, but the US store I'm sure had more than a few items in stock). No 'going out of business sale', no nothing. Trains just fell into a black hole? Something isn't right here...
I agree! Maybe the "restructure" is organizing a new entity in the US under new management/name. I've been with two companies that have gone through restructure and neither time did they completely, or even partially, close for business.
Well we will have to wait and see, I am sad though I did a great deal of business with them and this caught me by surprise.
