NEWS AND UPDATES
From Slow To Busy
Not sure why this happened, but this week has been very
very busy for online sales. This is a good thing. Later
this week it was slow again. But, thanks for ordering!
It is not very busy again the last couple of days. There
is no consistency.
Retail Store Changes
It is planned that the
MWOT™
Project and Blue Ridge Hobbies™
will sharing space again for some possible meetings and
to start building sections of either Phase I of the
Miniature World of Trains™
or the Christmas Model Train Display™ next
month!
As of this email the center of the retail store has been
cleared so the area can be used for
MWOT™
Project activities.
As of this email, this will not affect online sales at
all.
USPS Rates Going Up
Effective Sunday June
10th, the USPS shipping rates will be going up!
So get your orders in this week to avoid the price
increase!
4th Of July Week Shipping
Shipping inbound to BRH deliveries as as well out
bound deliveries will be of cycle for about a week
following the 4th of July. USPS, UPS and Fedex will not
deliver or ship on that day putting the overall world
wide shipping system out of sync of about 10 days when
they are closed for holiday.
As always, BRH will be processing your orders as quickly
as they come in!
06/19/22
HAPPY FATHERS DAY
Walthers Prices Are Going Up!
BRH was informed on
Friday that MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) will be going
into effect. With Walthers being our main source for
product sales this could effect our overall pricing on
the BRH website.
From Walthers:
Walthers New MAP
Policy and modifications to the WalthersMainline®
discount and Preorder Program
Effective July 15, 2022, Wm. K. Walthers, Inc. will be
introducing a new Minimum Advertised Pricing (MAP)
Policy as well as modifications to our WalthersMainline
wholesale discount and Walthers wholesale preorder
program discount.
New Minimum Advertised Pricing (MAP) Policy
Walthers new MAP Policy will cover WalthersProto®,
WalthersMainline®, and WalthersTrack™. Our goal is to
maintain, protect and enhance the value of our brands
and products.
New WalthersMainline wholesale discount
In response to ever-changing market forces and continued
rising costs, we will be introducing modifications to
our WalthersMainline wholesale discount and wholesale
Preorder Program discount.
WalthersMainline wholesale discount: The discount will
go up by a least 5%.
What do these dealers changes mean for BRH?
The new MAP Policy combined with the discount changes
was designed to help support your margins on these
products as well as your overall profitability. In
addition, they make WalthersProto, WalthersMainline, and
WalthersTrack more accessible to our entire dealer base.
What do these changes mean for our customers?
Combining the new MAP Policy with the discount changes
will ensure we provide an overall value to your
customers by continuing to offer high-quality products
at competitive prices, which is especially important
during these inflationary times.
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So, when this occurs
BRH will be adjusting its pricing to reflect the price
increase on the in stock items we offer on our website.
Be prepared and order at the lower prices by 07/14/22!
BRH does not
agree with the discount change so that Walthers can line
their pocketsIt is also a virtually no enforceable
policy. This is the same MAP message we have
stated about BLI, NCE and Kato's MAP policy.
BRH wants you, our customer to get the best overall
pricing! BRH does not have the time to adjust pricing on
these products and product lines so the chips will fall
where they will.
I would be better for Walthers, in this case, just to
raise the product pricing and not put pricing
restrictions and time frames for discounts or MAP in
effect. But, as with all of these types of
announcements, the manufacturers do not care about their
customers and makes it harder for dealers to operate and
make an operating profit! Regardless of what they think.
I have been proven wrong yet!
More Walthers Changes!
In addition to the
MAP Policy, Walthers recently raised the minimum
wholesale order from $100 to $250. Which is one of the
reasons BRH changed our ordering and shipping schedules
as a back up if it remains slow.
Well here is some more bad news!
From Walthers:
Walthers is updating our terms and conditions regarding
handling fees for minimum shippable orders. Under the
current terms, a $5.00 handling fee is applied to orders
totaling less than $150 in shippable products.
Effective July 1, 2022, Wm. K. Walthers, Inc. is
increasing the handling fee to $10.00 for all orders
that ship with less than $500 in shippable products. The
$10.00 fee will apply to all orders, regardless of
On-the-Right-Track Tier Status, program status,
promotions, or existing backorders, and cannot be
waived.
All qualifying orders containing over $500 in shippable
product
will be exempt from this handling fee.
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What is not clear is
whether if this applies to wholesale accounts like BRH
or if this is consumer direct customers, or both.
Just like the surcharges now being charge by Atlas and
Rapido these charges will have to passed on to you our
customers since this handling fee is not part of the
product cost.
Most orders BRH places are over this levels, there
should be no issues. However, until we
receive and invoice we at the time the shipment arrives
at BRH, we will not know what that cost, if any will be.
For 18 years BRH has not paid for shipping from
Walthers, or any other wholesaler or manufacturer
because of the volume of product we purchase per
Walthers policy.
Not sure how this announcement will affect things.
I guess we will find out in 2 weeks!
06/12/22
Slow Slow Slow!
The last 4 months as gas prices rise BRH sales have
slowed considerably.
So BRH is adjusting its shipping schedule to match the
current situation. Currently it is talking 5 to 8
days for transmitted to the warehouses and manufactures
order to arrive at BRH for shipping to you. That is up
from just 3 days pre Covid. The wholesalers and
manufacturers are processing the orders the same day,
the delay is in the USPS, UPS and Fedex systems.
At this point the plan is to ship Monday, Tuesday and
Thursday until ordering volume increases and
shipping infrastructure changes back to pre Covid . We will change
ordering from the wholesalers and manufacturers to
match as needed.
So, orders received from Friday 6am until Monday 6am
will be ordered as needed from the wholesalers and
manufacturers at 6am Monday. Items should arrive late
Saturday based on current inbound shipping schedules
from UPS, Fedex and USPS and should ship on Monday.
Orders received from Monday 6am until Wednesday 6am will
be ordered as needed from the wholesalers and
manufacturers at 6am Wednesday. Items should arrive late
Monday based on current inbound shipping schedules from
UPS, Fedex and USPS and should ship on the following
Tuesday.
Orders received from Wednesday 6am until Friday 6am will
be ordered as needed from the wholesalers and
manufacturers at 6am Friday. Items should arrive late
Wednesday based on current inbound shipping schedules from
UPS, Fedex and USPS and should ship on the following
Thursday.
BRH is trying to save gas and limit trips to the
shipping department so that we keep prices down!
Also, the USPS did not pickup this past Fridays shipment
until Saturday thus adding an additional day to the
shipping mess!
Kato Ends Free Shipping
From Kato 06/09/22
To start, we want to
thank you for all of your support of Kato USA,
especially over the last few years since the pandemic
started. It has been a very difficult time for all of
us, with difficulties getting electronics manufactured,
increases in shipping times out of Asia, and more. Thank
you for sticking with us and your patience throughout
this difficult time.
Unfortunately, due to a
variety of reasons including rising shipping costs I’m
sorry to say that we will no longer be able to offer
free shipping on dealer orders starting this month and
will be instead charging exact shipping via USPS or UPS
(if you have a preference, please let us know!) for any
orders placed to Kato USA. We will also no longer be
holding orders for more than a period of one (1) week in
order to combine orders with other items. If you have a
UPS account that you’d prefer we use to ship items to
you, we can accommodate this. We hope that this will
help prevent delays in shipping to hobby retailers of
products that customers are eagerly waiting for.
What is not clear here is whether direct to consumers
and shipments to dealers will be effected. Currently BRH
does not order direct from Kato we order from the
Milwaukee and Easton warehouses.
My feeling is that
if free shipping ends at the wholesaler level the
wholesale cost to BRH will most likely go up shortly.
So as I have stated many times, if you see or need
something either now or in the near future I would
suggest you order it now if it is available on our
product search page.
Kadee Announces June Release: Sort Of!
It seems that product shortages are starting to occur so
please be aware.
Here is the Kadee June Product Announcement received on
06/09/22
Sorry due to labor
shortages, There will not be a new car release for the
month of June.
Not
sure where the labor shortage is. Is it a Kadee or in
China at the factory.
Regardless, I feel this is going to be happening more
and more with more and more companies.
Miniature World of Trains™
MWOT™
will have an update a news letter
update this week so keep an eye our for that.
06/05/22
Back From Vacation!
Got back from another Disney World vacation late on
05/26 after attending the previews for the new roller
coaster, Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind and a
free late night at Hollywood Studios. Great times
and a great new roller coaster!
Also, we got a chance to the a SpaceX launch of the
Boeing unmanned Star Cruiser which was pretty cool as
well!
Unfortunately during the stay at the 'mouse' I was not
able to get orders into the warehouses from 05/16 until
05/27 thus putting the shipping of the orders to you,
our customers, in a timely manner. Also, with memorial
day, another day was added to the delay.
As of this update orders from 05/16 6am until 05/27 6am
have been received and shipped. Orders from 05/27 6am
forward until 05/31 6am arrived late yesterday and
should ship tomorrow, Monday.
As of this update there are no plans for travel until
late September.
Horizon Hobby In Financial Trouble Again?
According to our sources, Lionel Trains has cut off
Horizon Hobby from any future orders.
Back in 2012 / 2013 Horizon Hobby was having financial
problems thus Blue Ridge Hobbies stopped doing
business with them due to their cash flow issues. The
company subsequently sold internally to the CEO.
Are they having financial problems again and is that why
Lionel is cutting them off?
Recent purchases of Hobbico (2018) and
AKA Products
(2021) may be causing the issue.
Please note that any orders already
placed through
Horizon
Hobby will be honored according to our sources,
but Lionel we will not be accepting any NEW orders,
including orders for the upcoming 2022 C2 catalog.
BRH is not having any issues in getting product from our
the Easton and Milwaukee warehouses. The problem has
been product availability.
All available items are listed on our product search
page.
Still Slow!
As of this update sales are still very slow and
product availability is tight and limited.
BRH has no control over this and can only offer what the
wholesalers and manufacturers have to sell.
Classic Metal Works
As other manufacturers have done, Classic Metal Works
has imposed
a six percent surcharge on newly shipped items thanks to
increased materials and shipping costs. The surcharge
will be
reflected on the product search page.
THANKS FOR THE
SUPPORT! |