jiml

iTrader: (3)

Which brings up another problem. A hobby shop goes out and gets the latest and greatest craze to hit the market. Carries anything and everything you can possible imagine. Then the day comes the new latest and greatest thing comes out and you're stuck with a couple thousand dollars worth of stuff no one wants any more.

I have a theory that says 20-40 percent of all hobby stuff made never gets used.

jman37

iTrader: (5)

Yeah.. if you have the starting capitol.. I would have to image it would take many 100's of thousands to start with enough inventory to purchase enough inventory to become a "distributor"

teamstrc

iTrader: (23)

It takes money to make money. What the distributor rely on is huge volume, because their profit margin % is even lower (our distributor makes less than 10% selling our stuff and and same goes for majority of the brands they stock) if you're someone like GP or Horizon and you have proprietary brands, then of course you make more. As someone have mentioned, you want to start a distribution company in this industry, get ready to pony up and bring a lot of capital into it.

What we are seeing currently in the industry is a lot of "shifting" of positions, manufactures trying to become distributors (almost every manufacture in the R/C industry is selling direct to shops and end consumers) and distributors trying to become manufactures (i.e. Horizon/Losi, GP/Duratrax)....there are very few "pure" distributors and manufactures left, and the hobby shops are the ones that are getting squeezed in the middle, and the main motivation behind these shifting of position by manufactures and distributors?........GREED!

Steve

p.s. I know too much and if I post any more, I will get my a$$ in trouble.

SweepRacingUSA

iTrader: (6)

PUDDIN

iTrader: (5)

I work at a hobby shop and let me tell you......you are not going to get rich owning a hobby shop online places like amain buy so much they get a discount and when I try to match them most of the time I make 10 to 20 % over cost if that.