i decided to pull the trigger on one of the BLI T1s listed in the “warehouse sale” from a well known online store. The shipping label showed the origin as Heartland Hobby Wholesale. I figured it would be shipped from BLI. Why do we need a middle man with another hand in the kiddy for such a simple transaction? Things are expensive enough in this hobby. NscaleDivision’s closing statement indicated high prices as one reason for their decision. Do the other big players utilize the same distribution model?
Heartland is a national wholesale distributor for retailers and has been in the business for over 20 years. Take the time to look them up and see the companies they distribute for as a national and international wholesaler in the hobby trade. They are a major player in keeping the model railroad hobby going today as owners and investors.
Heartland is now the largest wholesale distributor in the country, surpassing Walthers some years ago. They are friendly to deal with, marketing oriented and often have items available that are sold out elsewhere. They are the preferred source for my LHS, Walthers however is the exclusive distributor for several European manufacturers and also Tomix ( Tomy Tec) I think. There may be other posters who have additional information. My LHS is one of the Top 10 or 15 retailers in the US.
I have to agree. The more hands on a model the higher the price is gonna be. Heartland isn't doing what they do for free !!
I just made a track supply order a few days ago. One track part I needed was shown in stock but due to an inventory glitch it was not. It was handed over to Heartland who immediately dispatched the part direct to me. The bulk of my order arrived yesterday from the vender and the part from Heartland will be here Monday. No additional cost was with the service on the part.
There is an old adage in business that says that you can eliminate the middleman but you cannot eliminate his function. That function has to be borne by either the producer or the retailer. If either chooses to undertake the role of the middleman there would be additional costs involved which will be reflected in the ultimate price of the item. Usually, it is the retailer who undertakes the middleman role. Think of Walmart, Target, Kroger, etc. where their size permits certain economies of scale to be had in doing the middleman activities of warehousing and distribution.
Throughout my embedded electronics development career, the component distributors were our 'middlemen'. We could rely upon them for a lot of extra services and product support, as well as to put us in touch with factory experts when we had problems integrating their components. The factory, in turn would send out reps to meet with us and the distributor to discuss our forecast product needs, as well as their upcoming products for consideration. They often supplied pre-production evaluation boards, etc. so our SW engineers could get started before our own hardware would be available. Sometimes just getting the factory component engineers, the distributor's applications engineers, and our own design & manufacturing engineers in the same room (or just on the same conference call) would solve some very thorny problems quickly and easily.
I am no means a big player but have been doing this for about a year (not model railroading but the business end of it) and From the product research I have done It seems to be very expensive online! If you have a brick and mortar. They usually have better prices but some things I see there also. Are EXTREMELY expensive compared to the cost. I get it you have to keep the doors open but I have been able to keep my doors open for way less of a cost and been able to get people some good deals compared to online retailers. Especially if you go and look around on ebay for anything new. The seller has to pay ebay 13.25% + .30 listing fee if they are not on a seller account. This is before shipping cost too. That account lowers fees but it is still ridiculously expensive. Another frustrating thing is the fact that in my experience with most of these retailers. Is that for BLI as an example. If you have a warranty or broken item. The retailer wants nothing to do with it. So you have to brave the waters and deal with the company yourself which is a pain and you have to jump through hoops. I offer to handle it for the customer so they wont have to worry about it. I cant see why these other retailers wont do it. Or have a specific team. I get it cost money but if I do my math correctly they make some good money in sales. It is not like they have a lot to take care of. I also run an automotive business and I have to pay for insurance up the wazzo including bio hazard and hazmat certificates. So that is a lot of other cost I deal with. Model railroading equipment doesn't come off to me as to dirty of an industry lol. Speaking of all this I have noticed that Amazon does not have really ANY Broadway Limited Listings. I wonder if there is a reason for this ? Didn't mean to rant but the whole reason I started doing this is because I saw how I was treated as a customer and couldn't stand it! Not only do people think you are a moron but the time frame and cost that things get done are very disappointing. It is 2023 and we have flying cars but the model railroading hobby cannot seem to catch up to the times. Yet they want to sell you there top product for a million dollars and it breaks the next day. Takes 2 months to get back. Anyways hope all well with you guys. Let me know If I can help or find anything for ya. Another thing to look into is what they call "Online Arbitrage" or "Retail Arbitrage" Basically it hits 3-4 people before it even gets sold online. This makes the cost SUPER Expensive. Cheers all -sams
