Looks like Atlas is sorting out their issues!

[sirenwerks]

Bryan,
 Quite honestly, the stuff stagnating on the shelves is the middle era stuff 60's-80's. Modern era stuff sells just fine, steam era stuff sells just fine. The Atlas outside braced, single sheathed and rebuilt boxcars sell fast. Modern intermodal sells fast. If it distinctly looks the era, it sells. The grey area and esoteric stuff is where the problem lies. The esoteric road names I am talking about are all the unusual short lines and one off's that most people don't have a clue about unless they live in the region that the roads run. As much as I would love to see Atlas do some Indiana and Ohio GP30 and 40's, I don't expect it to happen yet I see similar roads anounced each month that have a very localized appeal and no need for us to even bother carrying.  We can't sell PC, Chessie or Conrail at all yet B&O, C&O, CSX, NS, and even UP and BNSF sell fine. Both ends of the time line with nothing in the middle. Keep in mind, we are a HobbyTown but also one of the last full line train shops in town. We get both casual and craftsman type customers so I see a full range of interests.

 I wish the manufactures would do more like MicroTrains and put a little history of the car on the box. Build and in-service dates would be extremely helpful for when the customer is just not sure. My knowlege of a cars history when talking to a customer can help sell it but I'm not there the whole time the store is open. The dates my kill a sale just as easily as it makes the sale though and might be why they are not doing it. It's not so much to educate the customer but give them the information they need, should they care. If the customer is just buying NYC because it's NYC, dates and such are not going to sway or deter him anyhow.

You're right. I'm a 1960s modeler and can speak to the fact that modeling the 1950s is easier because there's plenty of information, as well as stability in the RR world, and modeling contemporary times (which I started in) is easier because we're there and can gain info first hand. The 60s and 70s were a period of upheaval and change, both in the merger arena and in technologies, and it's not as well documented. Hence the need for education. As I stated, the manufacturer has likely done the research (or should have) so providing the information is a no-cost option, giving the product a value-added stature. If you want to delve deep into the psychology of purchasing (and many may laugh at this), providing the detail of a specific car (not a generalized description, per se) creates a one-on-one customer to product link, much like personalizing a hostage to a kidnapper creates a bond that deters hostile action, and this link will act as a attractor to the potential customer and increase the possibility of purchase.

You're example of someone buying a NYC car because it was NYC is absolutely right (a fine example of brand recognition), I did the same thing when ordering online the other day. Some people don't set a specific era for their layouts, have bad eyesight, and/or never photograph their models up close, so that doesn't matter to them.

When I grabbed those RI hoppers the other day on impulse I had to return them later when I saw the dates were wrong for me. Now, the dates may stop someone from buying up front, like they would have stopped me, but I can tell you the transverse of what you hint at would have been the case - while the immediate sale would not have occurred I would have thought highly of the company (Bluford) or the retailer (Kleins) for going the extra step to provide the data, and my loyalty to them would have been bolstered. Certainly getting that here and now sale is important to pay the bills, but given the cost of securing new customers is much higher than the cost of maintaining existing ones (a well documented fact across the board), attention to those you have is not something a manufacturer or retailer should not ignore.

[Mark5]

Massive thread drift! ;D

Build and in-service dates would be extremely helpful for when the customer is just not sure.

 

Add latest shopping data ("NEW" date in many cases).

This would be SO SIMPLE to supply (since the manufacturer/importer already knows). This is key info I look for when evaluating a freight car.

Mark

[cv_acr]

Atlas does do that (on their website) for _some_ products. Be nice if it were more consistent.

[Dave Schneider]

There are a couple of easy solutions for the wrong shop dates (assuming no change in paint scheme). Take away the reading glasses of middle age and older modelers, or redo the dates. Many (perhaps most?) cars have simple paint patches over the shop dates. The Milwaukee Road typically just slopped on some black paint and used whatever stencil was handy at the time. There is no need in many cases to try to remove the numbers or match fonts etc. I have done patches on a laser printer by using white decal film and creating a black text box with the text in white.

Best wishes, Dave 

[Mark5]

I don't sweat much about shop dates, but since they already have it ....