I have used Litchfield Station in the past and just made another online purchase this morning.  Good prices and great customer service.  I hope it continues under the new ownership.

I have also been a loyal customer of Tony's Train Exchange, with great prices and great service, but will not be making future purchases from them until they return as a MRH sponsor!

I also was a regular customer of Standard Hobby Supply and I am sorry to see them go.

I am a regular customer of MB Klein aka Model Train Stuff and would like to see them become a MRH sponsor.  I will mention this next time I place an order.

My number one Supplier is ebay.  Great prices, great service, and I'm directly contributing to the deepest pockets in this business - my fellow hobbyist.

My favorite vendor thus far is Dan's Train Depot in Flordia.  GREAT place to get stuff.

I agree, this is a tough business.  MRH and all of the readers though must recognize why the mainstream magazines have so many advertisements, though.  It takes not a handful, or two, but hundreds to consistantly cover the bills.  If that means MRH goes from a bimonthly to a monthly, with an increase of 20-40 pages for advertisements alone, that's what it takes to support an American Magazine.

I like to think I am doing my part.  I had an article published in MRH and was well compensated for my work.  I put about 80% of what I made into my MRR budget and then spread slightly over $1000.00 US around between some of the MRH sponsors.  In fact, I placed an order with Litchfield, but it ended up being just a small order because an item was out of stock by the time I ordered it.  I will one day be making a DCC system purchase and as of this writing will buy it from Litchfield if at all possible.

I used to be a Standard Hobby customer and asked them to support MRH by becoming an advertiser.  My request was ignored so I stopped buying from them and took my business to an MRH sponsor instead.  I am sorry to see Standard Hobby Supply go.  They always looked after me well.

I will continue to spend my hobby budget with MRH sponsors exclusively unless I am unable to get what I want from one of the sponsors.  This is pretty unlikely since Craig at Dallas Model Works has accommodated every request I have made for special order items so far.

I don't spend a lot of time shopping for hobby deals.  I find a supplier who treats me well and I stick with them. 

However, like Jim mentions above, Tony's Trains is off my list of potential suppliers unless they return as a sponsoring advertiser.

My loyalty is to  MRH first so if a hobby supplier wants his share of my hobby budget they'll have to become sponsoring advertisers of my favorite MRR magazine!

While I agree with many of Bruce's comments I don't feel sorry for any business that fails nor do I feel the failure is in any way the responsibility (loyalty) of its patrons. Every entrepreneur knows the ground rules going into business and the risks associated with not formulating and executing a business plan that takes the risks into account. The beauty of a free market is any industry eventually finds the equilibrium between price/service/quality. It is the point at which the commoditization phase begins. And also the point at which consumers receive the best value (blend of price/service/quality). All industries go through the phases - innovation, acceptance, growth, commodity, and finally obsolescence. Different economics theories will have different names for the phases but they all are referring to the same thing - the beginning and eventual end of an industry. The model railroad business has been around for a long while. Innovation, acceptance, and growth phases are ancient history now. It would be a shock if price wasn't driving the model railroad market considering its level of maturity as an industry. As much as it may hurt to think so, the market as a whole has placed a value on LHS service and it does not offset the cost difference else new brick and mortar stores would be popping up everywhere. The real message should be “Wake up hobby shops, adjust your business model to deliver what the market says is of value not what you think is of value”. By you I refer to all LHS owners in general not you specifically Bruce.

Personally, I do support vendors that advertise in MRH. In my eyes MRH shifts the price/service/quality equation sufficiently to compensate for any potential pennies saved shopping elsewhere.

-a

Every entrepreneur knows the ground rules going into business and the risks associated with not formulating and executing a business plan that takes the risks into account.

I have to agree with the points LK makes for the most part.

The qualifying factor I see for people who start MRR  based businesses is that often there is sentiment behind them starting and staying in a model railroad based business.  It's the love of the hobby and wanting to do their part to promote model railroading, aid other modelers and sustain the hobby, that I think motivates them more than dollars and sense.  Pun intended! [wink]

I agree with Bruce for the most part, but I do want to say that loyalty is a two way street.  I don't frequent a couple of LHS' simply because of the way I was dealt with as a customer.  One, they didn't stock something (which is fine, there are thousands of products a retail store can't stock) so I special ordered it.  It took four months to get the product in, however, my patience wore thin after almost three, so I looked at some online suppliers and found what I wanted, ordered it and ended up saving a few dollars, even with the shipping and got it four weeks sooner, but could have had it months sooner.  The reason I was given is that he wanted to have a large enough order from that supplier before he ordered to save on shipping costs.  That is his business of how he wants to run things, but that was the first catalyst that moved me to online retailers. 

The second incident was when I heard him telling a customer who was looking for 1:64 scale trains that they didn't exist.  "Its either 1:48 or 1:87, there's nothing in between."  I'll give him the benefit of the doubt that he really didn't know S scale existed, but a guy in the hobby business for 20+ years should know that and I felt he was trying to avoid making another special order for this customer. 

As I said, I've moved to online retailers and have a few favourites, all of which are MRH sponsors.  Every hobby purchase I have made (with the exception of the odd book or magazine) in the last year (save the one example of stuff I pre-ordered from somewhere before I came to MRH) has come from MRH sponsors because, first and foremost, they sponsor MRH and I want to support those that support MRH, but I've stayed with them because they have also been great to deal with, Bruce included.  I bought my Digitrax (MRH sponsor) DCC system from Litchfield last Christmas and purchased some more decoders since Litchfield came into new hands and I have nothing but good things to say about both of them.  As Kevin mentions, Craig at Dallas Model Works is excellent to deal with as well and I order from him regularly (and have several pre-orders with him for another sponsor's product - Rapido Trains).  I also had my first opportunity to order from CMT (Canadian Model Trains) and they were another quality dealer that I will order from again.  I also have some Canyon Creek Scenics incredible trees and I feel I was given exceptional service by Canyon Creek Scenics with the tight timeline I had requested (but not expected as it was my fault for waiting so long) from him.  They showed up before the "show" and my made my daughter's day.

Bottom line is, provide a competitive price (not necessarily the lowest), a good shopping/support experience, support MRH, and treat me like a valued customer and I will be your customer for life.  All the above named companies have done so for me and I encourage anyone who has not purchased from them to give them all a try.

I agree with LK&O.  It's the free market, baby!  The free market rewards innovative, well-run businesses.  Look at BLMA.  That guy's like 24 years old or something, and look at what he's done.  I do agree with Bruce about people shopping him over price.  I've ordered from a particular "internet superstore" place a couple of times.  Their prices are low, but I think their "superstore" is really some guy in his basement since it took FOREVER to get my orders, and they would offer no explanation other than "we're waiting on some items so we can fill your order".  You need to find a competent and competetive business and build a relationship with them, and conversely, if your current guy is a schlub, move on.

I'm not sure how to respond to this thread, as I'm not sure that the original topic was designed as a conversation piece.

What I can comment on is how my experience with Litchfield Station falls in line exactly with the business practices that Bruce noted.

I found Litchfieild through the MRH sponsor site, and after a couple of dealings, have used the extensively for my DCC and related electronics needs,  most recently purchasing a new DCC system through them.

I have enjoyed the benefit of Bruce's expertise fist hand, as he walked me through a series of steps concerning my IHC 0-8-0 conversion to DCC. He was patient, understanding, and was more than willing to share his knowledge for what was at that time a single decoder.

Suffice to say, I've ordered, and plan on ordering, substantially more from the Station, and go there first when I'm shopping in that genre.

When I heard that Bruce was selling Litchfield, I was worried that things may change, and indeed they may, but I'm willing to continue my relationship with the business until they do.

Thanks for everything Bruce! 

The different between Capitalism and Socialism is that in capitalism, capital is the driving force and in socialism, society is the driving force.  Capital is at face value, and ANYONE can build a pile of capital.  "Soceity," however, depends on politics and who has the most power and it may stay constant for thousands of years.  In all of these regards I'm happy with our system - it is why we have model railroading still, because I assure you the "ruling class" would use our space for more "social" purposes than a model railroad!

Naturally, of course, any real world system is a cross between both systems - we cannot separate Capital and Society.  This is the root of business relationshis, afterall.

Bruce touched on some interesting points, in the Midwest we like to say land rich and cash poor because if you have the space for a layout you might have trouble buying the rolling stock or electronics let alone paying the electric bill. Many retailers get defensive or insulted when asked if they carried the train I wanted or could they special order it.  Joe could start selling clicks to viagra, ebay, amazon, apple and make the money he needs/wants once membership is at a healthy level, but that wouldn’t inspire the community to support/join this venture.  As everyone knows especially in the hobby industry, it ain’t easy to raise a golden goose, and the feed is expensive. This is one of the cleanest, best run hobby sites on the web and it doesn’t have the volume of some of the more established forums that we also follow. Promote it when you can, let the businesses you buy from know where you “saw them”, and if we’re putting out tip cups to support enthusiasts in becoming businessmen then don’t forget my cup, because me and my railroad are going bankrupt.

I don't see why Joe should not pursue the Ebays and Amazons of the world just as much as any other of the potential supporters.  MRH runs on Capital; fluffly feelings about the hobby do well to fill the pages with content, but it does nothing to push a magazine.  Captical pushes any venture - show them the money, you'll have no end of feast.  Go bust, and it's famine time - no matter how good of a person you are - that was the mining days for me!

We've had free "Article" publishing on the internet for a good ten years now, we called them bulletin boards and now we call them web forums!  At it's full maturity, MRH will have to assume its cover just as cold as the cover of RMC or MR.  That's a distribution of 100,000 per month upon initial download within the week that the magazine hits the cloud.

This site has a nice folksy feel to it, a good small localized community, but ultimately, if this venture is successful, the forum almost MUST reflect the traffic levels seen on sites like Atlas.  And that means you'll see the people that come with that volume - the experts, the trolls, the curmudgeons, the internet warriors, every last one of them.  Yes, this will be bad for those who like te peaceful overture of birds and flutes and pretty fluttery classical music in paradise.  But controversy is GREAT for selling traffic, and if there is anything that sells advertisements, it's Traffic!  As they say, who in their right mind can look away from a train wreck?

MRH has already put out a nice cup for us - we just have to fill it with article submissions!  But the other cup - well, we're gonna have to let the market win us over jsut as much as MRH wins them over to the magazine!  Why is Craig Martyen successful thus far?  It's not because he's cheap - it's because he's got a great product and it's a great price for what we get - we'd buy it even if the make wasn't BLMA!

MRH's biggest job right now is attending those pesky model maker expos - the ones where the makers come together to display their new wares.  The biggest challenge is reaching the cottages - but the cottages, even if they only sign up for a couple magazines, turn the page one page futher into the black!