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NEWS AND UPDATES
09/14/19
New Operational Policies
As most of you know the model
railroading hobby has had its issues over the last 10 years.
I have done my best to keep you all informed as to what
is going on in the industry. In fact I have done my best
to get you all the best product availability and best
overall prices I can and try to advise and influence the
model railroading industry by passing along your
thoughts as well as my own. But, after 10 years, that
seems to have fallen on deaf ears.
Alas, for the last 10 years of Blue Ridge Hobbies 15
years in business there have many many challenges. I
have done my best to promote the model railroad hobby
and I have placed blame where the blame is due for the
current state of the hobby.
I will not rehash those items at this time.
Part of the problem is that some of the people working
within the hobby have no model railroading experience.
For example, in the sales department at Walthers there
is only one model railroader in the sales
department that I know of. Most of the representatives
around the industry have no clue how customer service
should work. In fact, when I was having some MAP
(Minimum Advertised Price) issues with one of the
manufacturers one representative called me one day left
a message and advised he was going to quit over the
issue. He sounded
like he was almost in tears!
The CEO's and Presidents of these companies seem not see
what is coming. Repeated calls, emails and even in some
cases certified letters from BRH and the Miniature World
of Trains project go unanswered! I have even had
customers advise me that they can not get responses from
many of the large as well as small manufacturers! That
says alot.
So, as the hobbies customer base continues to shrink and
the industry as a whole does virtually nothing to bring
in new customers the end is seems to be near! It may be another 15
or 20 years but with these non visionaries in charge,
the hobby will die a slow and agonizing death. After that it
will be on life support. In fact it is almost there now.
For example, there are about 147,000 items in the BRH
database (the largest del railroad database in the
world) of which only about 37,000 are available to
sell from 3 major model railroad warehouses. and other
smaller ones. As with
any business, you need product to sell to stay in
business. BRH is no different.
As of today orders are down 50% from last year but sales
are up 50% over last year. Go figure.
While BRH sales are up overall, it is still not back to
the $1M a year we where nearing 10 years ago. The
customer base in dying off. The number of hobby stores
are limited and closing due to not having enough customers and/or
enough product to sell. Even the basics like track and
scenery items.
So, as I approach my 62nd Birthday and after numerous
conversations with the industries so called leaders, I
feel the need to make some changes in how BRH will
operate.
With the lack of support (financial or otherwise) for
the Miniature World of Trains project and lack of
consistently available product coming from the model railroading hobby
for BRH from the NMRA to
Walthers and the small manufacturers like Trident, the
lack of response to calls and emails to the lack of
marketing to a younger generation it is time to make
these changes at BRH.
Effective immediately BRH will only show product that is
available that day at 8am and, for now, advance
reservations with actual expected due dates listed. Anything
listed as "Unknown Availability Date' will no longer be
listed. So that will effectively remove some 100,000
items from the database of products.
Retail store hours will change to Wednesday, Thursday
and Friday from 11am to 4pm soon and through the holiday
season I will add back Tuesdays and Saturdays in
November as well. Please keep in mind that
BRH is primarily an online business with 98% of sales
coming from the internet. BRH retail will be available 7
days a week by appointment outside of the posted hours.
Part of the reason for the schedule change are the
delivery times from the USPS, Fedex and UPS for
shipments coming from our suppliers. These all
used to be before 10am now those deliveries come from 12
noon until the end of the day. These new delivery times
to BRH have severally effected the shipping
of product to you, our customers and added an additional
day or two to what used to be a very quick 2 to 3 day
turn around on getting your orders to you.
Another reason is that I am building ny personal 30' x 40' HO
scale model railroad with lower staging and an upper
level that covers about half of the main level. I am
currently working on the main yard and the wiring and
the DCC computer program that will be running the
layout. So, a lot of work needs to be done and I will
need more time to work on that as well.
BRH will not be closing, just changing how I will be
approaching the business model and methods of operations
we started in 2005 that a lot of other companies have
copied. Including Walthers!
I will be consolidating the retail store inventory even
further over time but that will depend upon what is
available from the manufacturers to stock the retail
store. The 2019 Holiday Season sales will play
into that as well.
Without BRH and your local hobby shop the model railroad
hobby will die. BRH still has the lowest prices
available for your overall order and low cost shipping.
That will not change. I hope you will keep supporting
BRH so we can stay in business despite the challenges.
Upcoming Preorder
Deadlines
September 30: Kato Preorders
September 30: Micro-Trains Preorders
September 30: Walthers Preorders
October 7: Rapido Preorders
October 14: Rapido Preorders
09/07/19
Hurricane Dorian
The Greenville, SC
area experienced no effects from the recent hurricane
that skirted the east coast of South Carolina.
Operations at Blue Ridge Hobbies where not affected.
Upcoming Preorder
Deadlines
September 9: Rapido Preorders
September 30: Kato Preorders
September 30: Micro-Trains Preorders
September 30: Walthers Preorders
October 7: Rapido Preorders
October 14: Rapido Preorders
08/31/19
Your Order Cancellation
I just wanted to go
over the Blue Ridge Hobbies™
back order / advance reservation cancellation policy as
there seems to be some confusion.
Per the store policy page in which all customers must
agree to before an order can be processed states:
If you would like to cancel any back
ordered item,
contact Customer Service
please call us immediately during our normal business
hours regarding this item. Please call 864-255-4671.
Emails are not accepted for back order cancellations.
Order cancellations must be
done verbally by the originator of the order (the person on the order), during
our normal business hours. No emails or voice mails will be accepted effective April
12, 2012. You will need to receive an OXL number to confirm your order
cancellation.
Items canceled that will be
charged the 20% restock fee
include items already received by
Blue Ridge Hobbies™,
Blue Ridge Hobbies™
shipped to or in the process of being shipped to Blue Ridge Hobbies®
but not yet received for a supplier, manufacturer or other source, hold bin
items not yet paid for, shipping fees for product from the supplier,
manufacturer or other source effective April 12, 2012.
So if you leave a voice mail or
email the order will not be cancelled! No exceptions!
Emailing to any of the following emails generates an
automated email response that order cancellations must
be done by telephone. We do not receive emails at these
addresses thus we can not respond to them:
blueridgehobbies@blueridgehobbies.com
yourorder@blueridgehobbies.com
Again, you must
call us at the retail store during normal business hours
and speak with me to get the OXL number!
No exceptions.
If you must email us use
contactus@blueridgehobbies.com.
However, cancellations are not reviewed at this email.
You must call per store policy.
Miniature World of Trains™
This is
the last couple of days to invest in the Miniature World
of Trains
So, please
help me create this project by either investing,
donating or volunteering!
INVESTMENT INFO
MORE INFO ON THE ATTRACTION OR HOW TO INVEST, DONATE,
VOLUNTEER OR WORK AT MWOT™
Tariff Update
It looks like the
proposed tariff increase that would effect model
railroading items has been delayed until 12/15/19
August Sales
Again Blue Ridge Hobbies™
sales where again
up year over year and this has been the best August
since 2013!!
Sales month to month up 8.7%. So a good but seemingly
slow month. Year to year new customers up 38% and
returning customers up 82%!
Where's The
Product!
Unfortunately the model railroad industry
does not have its act together! There just is not enough
product to sell. The basics are for the most part, not
always available as they should be and there are very
very long wait times for restock!
Since I know that the manufacturers monitor this email
blast and I know what I share with you just about each
week is about how bad they are in creating the products
we all want and need, i wanted to get you all update as
of this update.
For example. There are about 147,000 products in the
current BRH database. Between three wholesalers and
several manufacturers I buy direct from there are only
about 37,000 items available to sell to you, our
customers, each day!
Over the last month I have been updating image files
from our new wholesaler in Easton, PA. While doing the
448 pages of MTH products (about 13,000 items) listed on
our webpage I was finding items that, in my opinion,
sold not be listed. These items have already been
released and are sold out and most likely will not be
produced by MTH again. A lot of those items where
previously made under a licensing agreement with Lionel
that expired in May 2019.
So why are these products still listed? No one that I
can talk to have an answer when I ask.
Only 29 pages or 870 products are available to sell each
day out of 13,000.
What is going on MTH!
The same problem exists with Atlas products. 4620 in the
database and only 930 available to sell.
Lionel as well. 3150 in the database and only 1230 to
sell.
There are many more examples but you get the gist of
what the picture is.
Walthers, Woodland Scenics and some others seem not to
have these issues.
I have been told in the past when I advise you all of
this that I am throwing the manufacturers under the bus!
While it is not me doing that, you, the manufacturers
are. This all started about 10 years ago now and the
factory closings that occurred back then effected a lot
of the model railroad industry. The recent closings did
not help.
I say bring the manufacture bring back to the USA!
Something I have been stating for 10 years now and
something that President Trump suggested recently.
You, the BRH customers want product to buy but I can not
find that product for you to buy! Even on my own home
layout, I have to think about a year in advance to get
the nuts and bolts items to continue to build it. I can
wait for rolling stock, but to wait years in some cases
for track and signals is ridiculous. And the
manufacturers do not seem to care.
For example. The 2019 Christmas Cars from Lionel will
not be in until after Christmas 2019! Who wants a 2019
item in 2020? I have suggested that Lionel get ahead of
the game. Let's call the proposed 2020 Christmas Cars
2021 Christmas Cars and get them delivered in the summer
of 2021!! Get ahead of the curve!
And the new, just in time, ordering and stocking is not
working. I have been dealing with this now for 10 years.
The manufacturers need to get it together. Keep the
basics in supply, stop announcing items and not
producing them for years and years, if at all.
It is very hard to get 'new blood' into the hobby with
good products at a reasonable price point to sell to
these new customers. There is virtually no support to
help promote model railroading to the general public.
More on that in another update.
Enough about the woes of this great hobby. But if
something does not change, and I mean now, some of these
long time manufacturers and their dealers will not be
able to survive without product to sell to meet the
demand of you, our customers.
To paraphrase that famous Wendy's commercial:
"Where's The Trains"(TM)
Upcoming
Preorder Deadlines
September 9: Rapido Preorders
September 27: Kato Preorders
September 30: Walthers Preorders
08/10/19
Back To Modeling Season
Don't forget to think
ahead about your Fall and Winter projects for your model
railroad. Christmas is coming as well so get your orders
in so that you can potentially have the products you
need when you need them.
There are still a lot of product announcements and also
a lot of delivery delays for a number of different
reasons as I have discussed in the past. From product
made in China to even products that are made here in the
USA. I have discussed the biggest manufacturing delivery
delays offenders as well. So the bottom line is think
ahead on your needs and wants to move our railroad
forward.
I am predicting a very very busy holiday season for
2019. I am already seeing more customer traffic in the
retail store and online orders have continued to be
strong. So if the trend continues, even with the
potential tariff increase and normal pricing
fluctuations.
Upcoming Pre Order Due Dates
August 12: Rapido Trains Preorders
August 21: Atlas/AtlasO/Trainman Preorders
August 23: Lionel Preorders
August 30: Intermountain Preorders
August 31: Bowser Preorders
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