The Unofficial Airfix Modellers' Forum

I visited the MacArthur Glen Outlet Village in Swindon on Friday. Nestling amongst the designer shops and coffee shops and a stone's throw from the Railway Museum was a small unit entitled "Hornby Hobbies"!

It was fairly small and consisted of walls covered in all the products produced by Hornby, including Airfix.

The Hornby staff at Yeovilton said that Hornby had opened a shop and that more would probably follow. I shall try to find out more when I go to Hornby next.

jezbrook

Interesting development! Perhaps someone could ask the Airfix staff at SMW what the plans are going forward.

Its as Paul says and interesting development, but it could be a double edged sword, I recall back in the 60's when Woolworths had a monopoly on Airfix kits.

In Folkestone where I lived we had a big Woolworths selling all the latest Airfix kits and three other toy shops who sold kits but could never get the latest kits from Airfix because Woolworths had priority.

The good thing was in the 60's modelling was at its heyday and the other shops could survive selling Revell/Frog/Lindbergh/keel Kraft/pyro/AMT/Jetex and all the other brands that were around at that time, but now take away one brand and it makes it uneconomical for small shops to stock them, so whilst I would like to see Humbrol/Hornby shops appear in our high streets I would not like to see my LMS's disappear for the sake of one brand.

I hope I'm not being too pessimistic but Modelzone was first who will be next?

Regards Splash

Ayup All...

I wonder if they need any salespersons. I may volunteer for something like this.

feanor wrote:Ayup All...

I wonder if they need any salespersons. I may volunteer for something like this.

Good if you get staff discount

Hornby are probably just putting a toe in the water. A shop near the railway museum makes sense, and having a selection of all of the Hornby brands broadens the appeal.

I doubt that they will start taking up retail space in a big way though, retail is not their game, and they know that.

Modelzone's business model required huge volume of sales because of the discounts they slapped on things. They just couldn't shift enough boxes quickly enough to keep the cash flowing.

Cheers

Andrew

Ayup All..

And I appreciate what you say. But what if you had a chance to earn a crust selling your favourite models ? Especially if you got a staff discount and a bonus for shifting stock out of the door ? I could imagine either a GW type franchise or better, working for the company. Selling is selling after all, but if its selling a product that you feel passion for, it's a whole lot easier than just doing something 'for the money'.

Plus, sometimes it's nice to dream too.

Maybe we can persuade Hornby to buy back the FROG brand. After all, in the dim and distant part, both Hornby and FROG were part of the Rovex group.