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[quote user="maxman"]BMMECNYC One of my local hobby shops was one of the retailers cut. I tried to order your SD40s through him (I bought a couple of your first run kits from him), and he told me pretty much what you wrote in your post. He wasnt willing to stock/place minimum order, so he's not a retailer. I think I'm confused by all this.  As I understand, ScaleTrains has a MSRP, a direct selling price they use if you order on-line, and a retailer net price they charge brick and mortar dealers.  That's three different prices, correct?[/quote] Not exactly, they also give bulk discounts for orders over a certain number of the same item, to both retailers and individuals.   [quote user="maxman"]So, for reasons unknown to anyone but me, rather than order on-line I go to the local hobby shop and ask them to order me a locomotive.  Loco comes in and local shop charges me what they want, up to MSRP.[/quote] My shop always is less than MSRP.  I would have ordered/bought from him directly if he was going to carry ScaleTrains.com.   [quote user="maxman"]Are we saying that the local shop is not a brick and mortar shop and cannot obtain loco at dealer net because they don't stock ScaleTrains items?[/quote] No, what I am saying is that I would have ordered these from my LHS, if he was a select retailer.  Since he is not, and there is not a retailer in my area, I ordered the locomotives direct. [quote user="maxman"]Or is the issue that anyone could claim to be a "hobby shop" and wanting them to stock items proves they are "real"?[/quote] I don't think that this is the issue at all.  See Shane's response below, copied from the original post. [quote user="ScaleTrains.com"]That being said, we have reduced our dealer base primarily due to retailers who only want to special order and not maintain inventory of our models in their store.   When a retailer establishes an account, we are clear about our stocking expectations from the initial stocking order to future releases.  Prior to discontinuing our relationship, we have several conversations about our concerns and try to find a solution that works well for both parties so we can continue doing business together[/quote] It seems reasonable to me for a small company to not want to deal with a bunch of little accounts that sell ones and twos.  ScaleTrains.com have a distribution network (30 something percent of sales) through dealers who are interested in carrying their products.   My local shop did not wish to carry their products (understandibly so, he has shelves full of Athearn UP models that no one is buying, and plenty of SD40-2s to go around).  He also is kinda out of physical space at the moment, he has a really good inventory.  I generally am able to find anything that I need or want there in the form of diesel locomotives and freight cars.
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