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Post by gevohogger on Jan 31, 2021 4:57:03 GMT -8
There was a discussion on Rio grande io.groups recently about hobby shops in Denver and they said the same thing, nothing left. I believe it. The same is true for many cities, sadly. I think the old Caboose Hobbies location on S. Broadway had an inherent advantage in that it was a quick drive from the old Stapleton airport. So an out-of-towner just coming to Colorado for vacation, skiing, railfanning, visiting their kid at U. of Colorado, etc could drop in without dragging the wife very far out of their planned itinerary. Just like Desplaines Hobbies in Chicago... It is five minutes from the rental-car lot at O'Hare! Unfortunately, the airport moved, and Caboose moved... And the result was no one going skiing or to Boulder or Longmont or wherever went to the hobby shop any more. It was too far out of the way. |
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Post by riogrande on Jan 31, 2021 5:58:24 GMT -8
It is sad and sucks.
But one of the inherent problems with local hobby shops is they are usually single owner and eventually the owner retires. Duane decide to retire rather than move, but he was at that point in his life anyway, so if he hadn't lost the location, I'd guess he would have retired within a few years anyway. Most shops that have closed during the past 10 years seem to be owner closes it due to age, illness, retirement etc.
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Post by riogrande on Feb 10, 2021 4:48:31 GMT -8
The Caboose website still falsely claims "since 1938" when it should read "since 2017", which is when that shop opened to fill the void left when Duane closed Caboose Hobbies the year before. Supposedly words mean things. Maybe it's an attempt to do the Jedi mind trick on potential customers; but as Obiwan said, it only works on weak minds. Maybe some of the fans actually know this, but are willing to over look because after all, the ends justify the means. Right?
The website says down for maintenance but also announces they are planning "a new online shopping experience to better serve our community."
The thing is, any online hobby vendor can better serve their community because the products will still arrive in a box via USPS or UPS. It may take a little less shipping time due to proximity. But if one of their stated goals is to better serve the diverse population, aka, minorities and perhaps hobbyists with limited budgets, then other online vendors can actually serve those folks better. Why? 1) Because they are color blind as to who their online customers are and therefore would generally treat all equally, and 2) there prices would be lower, which would help those of more limited means.
Add to that, available product is important too, and Cabooses track record has been poor in terms of available product; remember the empty shelves? If there isn't product, shoppers need to hunt elsewhere. I can recommend some shops that generally have a much better selections. And Cabooses prices were at or near MSRP, which was not competitive with most of the major online vendors already established.
Maybe it is a lofty goal to add another online vendor to the mix but is it really needed? Maybe, because the field has been narrowing as more and more hobby shops close as owners retire. Maybe since Caboose is "employee owned" it can outlast Mr. Ruble, but they have an uphill battle starting off with quite a bit of debt and the challenge of buying a lot of product to offer online. Where is the money going to come from? Is that good money after bad after what has happened? As a lender or someone who is risk averse, this seems like a bad investment if people are pouring their own money into this venture which already has a bad track record. And I would be surprised if they could recover the majority of the money spent on the cool albatross out in the parking lot. Hopefully it will find a good preservation home as I like those D&RGW shop built cabooses.
The question now is can they overcome the current debt obstacles and actually provide another good online option to compete on the playing field of existing vendors. Also, who would trust them sending money for pre-orders when other hobbyist have reported being stiffed? I would be reticent to do business with them.
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Post by Judge Doom on Feb 10, 2021 13:11:35 GMT -8
...But if one of their stated goals is to better serve the diverse population, aka, minorities and perhaps hobbyists with limited budgets, then other online vendors can actually serve those folks better. Why? 1) Because they are color blind as to who their online customers are and therefore would generally treat all equally, and 2) there prices would be lower, which would help those of more limited means. That's just the typical 2020 corporate-speak virtue signalling. All companies now have to peacock how they're now on the Diversity, Inclusion and Equity bandwagon (some call it the "DIE" religion). Colourblindness is actually BAD now since it disregards the lived experiences and systemic inequity of the BIPOC and POC groups in a white- and Euro-centric western culture (so says my Identity Politics and Critical Race Theory 101 rulebook). And, just wait until subscribers to that ideology get wind that railroads assisted in the colonization of North America by settlers, and that model RR companies are producing trains with old logos and names taken/culturally appropriated from indigenous (native / "Indian") peoples. We've already had sports teams change names and discontinue using logos. Nobody would ever make a "Super Chief", or a TP&W boxcar with a specific livery ever again. And you'd get hitpieces about how modelling railroads is celebrating colonization and systemic indigenous displacement and genocide, and done typically by old straight white males ("Why 2021 Model Railroading Has A Straight White Male Problem and Needs To Be More Diverse"). Let's hope model railroading doesn't go full woke.  |
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Post by riogrande on Feb 10, 2021 13:35:13 GMT -8
Jedi hand wave for the weak minds or those who want to be stroked. I get it, every one is doing it and jumping on the PC bandwagon. So if online vending is essentially color blind, or choose your favorite euphemism, how can they actually address all these injustices? They are filling some hobbyists order basically. Unless the grill the hobbyists to find out their details and then try to help them in some way, cheaper price? But then Caboose couldn't survive on full MSRP so I'm not sure with all their major debt, how they can help disadvantaged people. I have noticed that the SPT&HS (Southern Pacific) has jumped on the bandwagon: sphts.org/diversity/Apparently someone felt guilty enough of the sins of SP's past to make an apology. The strange thing is those people making the apology probably didn't do those egregious things and the people who did do them are long dead. And if they believe in the almighty, then they will get their just reward or forgiveness, perhaps. The real truth is all the snow flakes will have to either hide history or re-write history because it is littered with discrimination and unfairness and abuse and all kinds of terrible things. I remember my mother many years ago reading to us a book about The Trail of Tears and all the horrible atrocities committed against the native Americans. As society becomes more woke, the sins of our past become more and more reprehensible. I imagine there are some who may demand our generation pay financial reparation to the descendants of those who were wronged many generations ago. But wait, why should we pay for the deeds of people long dead? Speaking of sports teams, I live in the Washington DC area and it was a long time in coming, but the Redskins have finally been renamed, the latest to fall. Of course statues of many founding fathers of the US are being systematically torn down. I would guess all of us some day would be found wanting of something, but not all of us have statues to be torn down by the woke crowd. As for model railroading, part of the reason we do it is to forget about all the BS going on in the world. It's part of our escape from the insane masses. |
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Post by gevohogger on Feb 10, 2021 14:05:29 GMT -8
...But if one of their stated goals is to better serve the diverse population, aka, minorities and perhaps hobbyists with limited budgets, then other online vendors can actually serve those folks better. Why? 1) Because they are color blind as to who their online customers are and therefore would generally treat all equally, and 2) there prices would be lower, which would help those of more limited means. And, just wait until subscribers to that ideology get wind that railroads assisted in the colonization of North America by settlers, and that model RR companies are producing trains with old logos and names taken/culturally appropriated from indigenous (native / "Indian") peoples. We've already had sports teams change names and discontinue using logos. Nobody would ever make a "Super Chief", or a TP&W boxcar with a specific livery ever again. And you'd get hitpieces about how modelling railroads is celebrating colonization and systemic indigenous displacement and genocide, and done typically by old straight white males ("Why 2021 Model Railroading Has A Straight White Male Problem and Needs To Be More Diverse"). Let's hope model railroading doesn't go full woke. And of course, there is the not-unrelated issue of embracing an industry which was only made feasible thanks to its long-standing policy of burning non-renewable fossil fuels and consequent release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. |
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Post by csxt8400 on Feb 10, 2021 21:03:24 GMT -8
I'm among my peers here. Getting to be a treat to say that lately.
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Post by GP40P-2 on Feb 10, 2021 21:19:48 GMT -8
Wasn’t the original Caboose woke before woke was cool? I seem to remember that Gary Coleman worked there part time for a couple of years; and no one cared what color he was as he was a train guy.
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Post by kmaster on Feb 11, 2021 8:14:54 GMT -8
200,000 dollars for an Estore is outrageous, if you go on wix or something, you can set one up for FREE, I'd say lower that price down a lot, the only thing that should have that high of a price is possible property that comes with it for storage. Like MB Klein in Baltimore, MD, They rebranded into Modeltrainstuff.com a while ago, and converted their store to storage space. If that is what is going on with caboose the 200,000 seems a bit more reasonable but is still really high.
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Post by narrogauger on Mar 9, 2021 20:55:10 GMT -8
Folks, I have a slightly different take on this. The old Caboose Hobbies was a large store that sold a lot of low volume items. It was likley run on a lot of love, perseverance, intuition, and art. Sometime one must toss the business plan.
I live about 60 miles from the old Caboose Hobbies and over 20 years I'd been there a lot. If you live on the East coast and think "60 miles is a major trip", in the west that is "hop in the car and go" distance. Not far at all. The old Caboose Hobbies was a wonderful store and had "everything". Caboose Hobbies was not about a place to get x-acto blades and paint, but all the oddball items that were hard to find anywhere else. They had a whole section of wall with Precision Scale castings, a large Grandt Line section, every scratch building supply you could want, and 100's of brass locomotives on consignment including On3 items. Perusing the brass display cases was its own experience. I'd bought several On3 locos there, like a DSP&P Mason Bogey. It was truly a write your list and go fill it experience. Need a train set for a kid or for around the Christmas tree? They had that too. There was something about the way the store was set up. It was crowded and densely packed. Some of the shelving was makeshift and stuff went up to the ceiling. This gave Caboose Hobbies a special atmosphere like no other place. A lot of items which were there did not seem to turn over much.
The new "Caboose" was not the same place. I went there once. Being local I'd heard that it wasn't worth going to. I went there in December of 2019 about two weeks before Christmas. It was a boring run-of-the-mill kind of store. There was too much space between the isles giving it an empty feeling. The shelves were empty. It was not a Christmas rush kind of empty, but a "we don't have anything to sell you" kind of empty. The atmosphere that made the old Caboose Hobbies special was gone. At Caboose Hobbies, two weeks before Christmas I'm sure there would have been stacks of train sets. At Caboose I could not find one "Christmas Tree" type set for sale. I had a couple items on my list and none were in stock. How could they not have code 100 rail joiners? It was so disappointing I swore I'd never go back. The trip was a waste of my time.
There was some evidence of the old Caboose. I recognized the old home built flex track racks, and I found a lettering display rack from the old store with a few oddball lettering sets remaining. It appeared neither of these racks was being restocked. Here was a store -- this is before the pandemic -- which two weeks before Christmas had nothing worthwhile to sell. It was clear to me Caboose was dead. Frankly I'm surprised they kept going another year.
I know someone who knows the owner of the new Caboose. He argued that it was an internet business and they probably had rail joiners in back. I recall telling him something to the effect of "So what! If they aren't on the shelf to sell, it doesn't matter if they have them. The customer needs to be able to find them and buy them. The customer facing portion of the store is presented so poorly there was no point in having it. It was just a wasted of overhead consuming floor space in a premium retail location. If they want a net business, they need a warehouse, not an expensive unstocked retail location." You would be surprised at the push back I received for that opinion.
Having seen it, and having owned a business, my guess as to what happened (remember this is speculation) is that the new owner really wanted to recreate what Caboose Hobbies was. There were too many expenses in buying the business, securing the location, enacting plans for expansion (internet), and so on. However, the "numbers" or margins were never going to support the dream. Trains aren't as popular as they once were, margins are lower than ever due to internet discounting, and the customer base has a completely different mindset than the customers in the new owners previous business. I'd bet the new owner has suffered a huge personal loss.
People can speculate with the practicality of spending 200K for web enablement, but after seeing the new store I saw a major problem that I believe assured financial difficulty. You can't sell what isn't in stock. That includes brick and mortar and internet. People don't want to wait. They will order from someone who has the item in stock. One would need a war chest of money to recreate the old Caboose Hobbies.
A few other things have also happened. The old guard who built a major portion of the hobby are no longer with us. They made a living making very nice stuff but they did not get rich. They also loved what they did. I make things, so trust me when I say there is more to it than a business plan. There is a certain art involved and it is very difficult for a new owner to have or gain that art. It is low volume stuff. What is the market for Gramps tank cars? There was also a personal aspect to the vendor side of the hobby in that people knew one another. Corporations count inventory turns. Stagnant inventory earns no money. A store with high volume turning inventor will not be Caboose Hobbies.
I hope that helps people understand what might have happened to Caboose Hobbies. I emphasize "might" because I don't know.
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Post by edwardsutorik on Mar 9, 2021 21:13:19 GMT -8
I'd bet the new owner has suffered a huge personal loss. I believe the new owner is the employees of the store. You may recall that it was sold to them. So the employees suffered a huge personal loss. Ed |
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