Im a student at mcmaster university doing a report on the hobby/railroading industry. Please answer 2 simple questions, it would be greatly appreciated!!
Why do you buy/collect trains?
Do you think a toll free phone line is significant for a small business selling train/hobby merchendise?
Iluvtrains wrote:Im a student at mcmaster university doing a report on the hobby/railroading industry. Please answer 2 simple questions, it would be greatly appreciated!!Why do you buy/collect trains? Do you think a toll free phone line is significant for a small business selling train/hobby merchendise?
Why do I buy/collect trains? I don't think there's a single simple answer for this. It probably began as a childhood fascination with big machinery. I'm a history buff, and collecting trains helps get a bit of a handle on that history. There's a sense of travel and, yes, romance that you don't get with other forms of transportation. Modelling trains and the scenery they run through gives vent to the need for artistic expression. I like trains and I can't afford to buy the real thing!
A toll free line can be significant, especially if it is included in your advertising. People who might call are far more inclined to call a toll free number. Of course, if it doesn't lead to more sales, the significance is wasted.
iluvtrains;
If you give us a little more info about what in particular you need for your report, we might be able to help you more. Is this a psych class report? Humanities? Engineering? These questions are somewhat vague.
That said:
I buy trains because I need something to put on my tracks and my wife's sewing machine looks foolish.
An 800 number is relatively moot in the age of cell phones and mega minute packages.
Mark
Gee, I don't really buy or collect trains, but I have a lot of them anyway! You forgot about the ones that build, but don't buy, and not everybody is interested in "collecting" as such.
However, I am into model trains because I enjoy building models, and it's even better to build a model in context of something larger i.e. a model railroad as a miniature transportation system. It gives a "theme" to the whole bit as it were. It's been mentioned before about a fascination with machinery, and I guess that is a common thread with me as well- models that work, cool!
800 numbers? It helps, but if I need to call a small business for whatever reason, and I assume you mean a US small business, then I don't mind paying for the call if I get real customer service. I've wasted untold hours of my valuable time calling 800 customer "service" numbers to India or Pakistan, it would have been easier to pay for a toll call within the US and talk to a real representative from the company and not just a contractor.
The Dixie D Short Line "Lux Lucet In Tenebris Nihil Igitur Mors Est Ad Nos 2001"
1. I have been a model train addict since being infected at age 5 (months) in 1937. Since that time, I have always been involved in some kind of toy/model train activity.
2. Especially at present, when many model retailers are only available through the internet (no brick-and-mortar storefront,) a toll free number is vital. I will NOT order over the internet, so the only alternative is to call the retailer's toll free number. (However, with the growth of cell phone use, which effectively eliminates long distance toll charges, this may no longer be strictly true. I have noted that when a retailer has both a standard and a toll-free number, the toll free number tends to be answered more quickly.)
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Iluvtrains wrote: Why do you buy/collect trains? Do you think a toll free phone line is significant for a small business selling train/hobby merchandise?
Tom Trigg
Hi lluvtrains
I do not collect trains It is not right to keep them on a shelf behind glass never to turn a wheel train collecting is a separate hobby in its self.
I operate my trains as they where meant to be.
I have been interested in trains for as long as I can remember my first train set arrived when I was 4 years old.
I come from a family with strong railway links a couple of my uncles my late father and now me all work for the railways so I guess in my case it must be genetic or at least have had a strong influence in my childhood.
I am sure under the right circumstances a toll free number is very useful for the business concerned, my train shopping is influenced by does the store have what I want is it affordable how much is shipping going to be my local hobby shops are quite a considerable distance away.
There is a 50/50 split on toll free phone numbers on the businesses I buy from.
I hope My answers to your questions are of some value to your report please let us know how you get on with your report.
The fascination trains hold for people I don't think it really has a simple answer.
Railway Modeling is Fun
regards John
Apart from being a train nut since before I started school I don't consider myself a collector, I have a railway, therefore I need trains. When I can afford to buy, I do. When I can't afford to buy, I still do. It's all about the garden, if I want to run trains then I must do the garden, if the garden is nice then the house manager is nice and she also appreciates the trains, especially on night runs. In the final analysis, why do people do hobbies? Garden railroading gets me out of the demands of here and now and puts me in a place that I am very much at peace in, a place that I've made but a place that changes as the light/weather/seasons change. That's why.
I don't really care about freephone numbers, nothing is free, never has been, isn't now and never will be.
Enjoy your studies,
Kim
Hello:
A large part of my attraction to trains, both collecting and running, is simply nostalgia. ... I'm old enough to vividly remember those huge steam locomotives pulling the freight and passenger trains between Montreal and Toronto.
Your question regarding toll-free telephone numbers raises a number of issues concerning our Canadian hobby shops. The essence of my response has to do with the ease by which Canadian hobbyists can purchase their goods from U.S. suppliers (all of whom have toll-free numbers), have them shipped to Canada, pay the federal and provincial taxes, and save 25%- 30% of the Canadian dealers' asking price. Thus, I really don't think that, in the over-all scheme of things, the existence of a toll-free telephone number will really make a significant difference to the sales of a small retailer. On the other hand, a number of Canadian dealers present themselves as large volume hobby providers - particularly those who have successfully mastered internet shopping - and I'm under the impression that toll-free access is imperative.
Hope this helps and good luck with your paper.
Jim
I invested most of my estate into Railroading. I only buy to Run.
Doing is Fun. Looking is passive.
Toll Free number is a must. Why should I hear my meter clicking away, Listening to your message, checking your stock, Giving you my business.
Do You pay to walk into a store?
The head is gray, hands don't work , back is weak, legs give out, eyes are gone, money go's and my wife still love's Me.
Why? Pure rebellion! With my wild and out-of-control life, I model a calm, rather pleasant summer afternoon.
800 number? I didn't have one yet, but that didn't seem to stop anybody from calling. Web site was important. Unfortunately, mine kept getting nuked by the hosting company.
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