The store did participate in our annual show and some other events... guys in the club spoke favorably of the store. However, I think where they had some problems was that the guys who used tools up (contractors, cabinet shops) weren't shopping there. The Woodworker's Warehouse in Kingston, on the other hand, always had commercial buyers in there. For example, I know one local cabinet shop owner that would buy a half dozen or more sanders per year there as well as many other items. The store had the stuff in stock and the cabinet shop wore stuff out... a good match! On the other hand, a hobbyist carver was going to buy one 12 mm No 5 carving gouge in a life time...
How? If club members were buying elsewhere because of price, the only way to get them to buy at Woodcraft would be to offer lower prices. It could be Woodcraft is charging an absorbent markup. Don't know. Or it could be a markup that covers costs and provides an appropriate profit. Don't know. If the latter then cutting costs means the store isn't going to be around long. If meeting the cost of an internet seller, Amazon, means the Woodcraft is selling for less than its cost, it won't be around long.
The Woodcraft I know that went out of business was affiliated with the local woodworking club. Club is about 300+ members. Woodcraft offered the usual 10% off of non power tools every day of the week to club members. Woodcraft also runs those 10% off sales on everything in the store in July I think. And birthday month 10% off. And other Delta days, DeWalt days, etc. where those brands are 10% off. And various sales on items every month too. But if the sale price after discount at Woodcraft is still 10% above Amazon or other mail order, it still isn't going to get the sale. And the Woodcraft had some of the club meetings such as scroll sawers at the store.
That borders on one of the reasons I was beginning to dislike Woodcraft stores.
I try to maximize my purchase dollar. I'd show up with my birthday 10% coupon on a sale day, and tried to get the additional 10% off. No deal. I could get the sale price, or the 10% off list price, but never both.
Every other store I shopped at allowed me to combine sales prices with
10% coupons. But not Woodcraft.
At one time they would have special sales-of-the-week that was something of high quality. But then they started offering cheapo Chinese junk at a price that was higher than the Harbor Freight equivalent.
They had a special "sale" section, and the prices of items there were often marked up, and then reduced.
I have two pieces of ebony bought about a year apart. The first was $30. The second was 60% the size/BF, for $59.99 - on sale for 20% off - or $48. It should have been $18 if the price remained the same. I realize that ebony might have increased in price. But it's hard for me to feel that I got a sale price when I hold the two pieces side by side.
When the store closed, I began to distrust their sales price. When it said SALE - I had to compare it to previous prices and other stores before I believed it.
On Thu, 1 Feb 2007 01:25:52 +0000 (UTC), Bruce Barnett wrote:
Every time I am forced to go to a Home Depot or a Lowes I am reminded how pleasant it is to go into my local Woodcraft store. It's well stocked, there are knowledgeable sales staff to help you and they do not seem bitter about working there. Moreover, I can sit down and browse through a large collection of woodworking books, drink a cup of coffee on them, and unlike the big box stores I usually find what I went there for. It is now franchised and the new owner seems to be doing well. As a matter of fact he has opened another store on the other side of town. The stock has expanded since Woodcraft franchised it out. There is a large section of the store devoted to a woodworking club where one can stroll around and see what people are making. I wish the new owner well. He is keeping some money in the community instead of it going off to wherever Amazon is located. If there is a problem I can return the item and understand the person I am dealing with instead of spending hours on the phone with someone in India. I can carefully examine what I am buying and not worry about a two week delay if it arrives by UPS in a box and turns out to be the wrong item or defective. I might pay a little more for all this but it is well worth it to me. Of course, since most of the Woodcraft stores are now franchises I supposed the local operator has a lot to do with the quality of one's experience there. I usually leave my Woodcraft store happy. I usually leave Home Depot or Lowes with an absolute loathing for the whole operation.
The very successful appearing, visibly growing, Manchester, CT store is across the street from a former WWW, and 15 minutes from Coastal Tool. There is (was) very little overlap between the Woodcraft store and the other two. The owner of the Woodcraft even mentions Coastal during his classes as a good source of power tools.
The power tools this Woodcraft has are not available at Coastal, like General, Jet, Festool, CMT, Freud, and Whiteside. Coastal pretty much has the Makita, DeWalt, PC, Bosch, and Delta, as well as "contractor" items like Stabila levels, electrician's tools, compressors, air nailers and 5 foot cat's paws nailed down. Sorry, bad pun...
Coastal and the former WWW stock(ed) zero high quality hand tools, high quality finishing materials, books & videos, hardware, etc... The overlap between WC and Coastal is mainly clamps, new Stanley garbage, and a small number of handheld power tools, as well as a few supplies, like Kreg screws, glue, and biscuits.
Manchester often had at least half a store of stuff not in the Woodcraft catalog (mainly Lee Valley distributed brands) that eventually made it into the catalog. He's really set himself off as a fine 'dorker's store vs. a contractor supply house. The Orange, CT Woodcraft is similar.
Before Woodcraft was green glint in someone's eyes (and well before the web), we had Tools Plus, Coastal, and several yellow WWW stores. The owner of the Manchester store ran a small independent school and fine woodworking supply shop out of a local millwork shop. Since he had experience, I wonder if he was able to deal with WC Central on a slightly different level than some francise owners.
Don't get me wrong - I LOVED the Woodcraft store. I probably spent about $1000 a year there - as a hobbyist. I spend much less than $100 a year at HD and Lowes for tools/woodworking. There's a big empty hole in my heart when I drive past the empty Woodcraft store.
I'm just saying that Woodcraft says "sale" - don't assume it is.
TANSTAAPS - There aint no such thing as a perfect store.
Define "pay a little more". That seems to be the key issue with all of the mail order/internet/big warehouse/out of town versus local shop discussions on the internet. It applies to all recreational pursuits. Woodworking and bicycling for me. Cameras for others.
If the local shop is charging 5% more on a $100 sale, no big deal to me. If its 10% more on a $1000 sale, it means more to me. 10% more plus 6% sales tax on a $2000 Unisaw, it means a lot to me. Compared to $1800 and free shipping from Amazon. How much service work is needed on a cabinet saw that has been made the same for about 70 years now? Is it worth paying $320 up front for an extended warranty basically? I don't buy extended warranties on electronics and such when offered. Why pay it for a Unisaw at my local Woodcraft? I've dealt with Amazon on purchases and they went fine.
And 5% or 10% markup is maybe on the low end of the difference in price between mail order/internet and local shops. If its 20% or 30% or 40% more plus 6% sales tax from the local shop, will you still buy locally? What if its a product where no service is needed such as drill bits or router bits or chisels or saw blades? Are you paying the extra just because the local shop is a nice guy or maybe in the future you will need his service for something that cannot be worked out fine with a non local vendor or if you need something NOW and cannot wait 2-3 days?
I've bought tools from local stores, mail order, internet in the US, Canada, England, and Australia. The foreign purchases were at a considerable savings from any of the US mail order places. Why mail order from a US mail order if you can save 40% from a foreign mail order place? I have local shops in verious recreational pursuits that are run by very nice people and involved in the community, etc. But I still have a hard time paying full MSRP and sales tax for a product they have to order in because they do not stock that brand/model, when I can get the same item delivered to my door via internet for 30% or more less including the shipping charges.
Good points. And the right answer is a very individual thing. It would be an incredible conceit for me to say that my decision in such a situation is "right" for anyone else.
FWIW, I am lucky to live near Highland Woodworking. And I shamelessly pick their brains as I get stumped on projects, with answers that often involve tools I already have, or something from another supplier. When I bought a jointer, I looked at how much more I would pay from them versus Amazon and decided to buy from HW--not for any sense of consumer protection on that purchase, but rather as a "gratuity" for the help I had received for free.
FWIW, the same guy who has the Manchester Woodcraft has one in Springfield, MA as well. And there's a place in Enfield, Brian's Tool Sales, that has quite a lot (I've never spent enough time in there to see what all he does carry or how his prices compare). For finishing supplies by the way, Clark Paint Company in Springfield (a few blocks from the Woodcraft) has most of the ML Campbell line in stock at what appear to be good prices--for anything that they and Woodcraft don't have there's a Sherwin Williiams Professional store about a half a mile down the street and a Sherwin Williams Automotive store (stock just about the whole 3M line of finishing supplies) a couple or three blocks from there.
Not if you need a roll of roofing felt, (2) melamine shelves, some PVC conduit, two sheets of blue foam insul-board, a downspout, contact cement, some 15 ga. PC finish nails, and a Tony Stewart or Jimmie Johnson water jug in the same trip.
The BORGs do have some value when kept in perspective.
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