bobfox
Posts: 37
Joined: 12/16/2002
From: Jesup, GA, USA
Status: offline
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Lot's of interesting discussion. Here's my $.02 worth:
The industry- Producing, distributing and selling RC products is a tough business. In my opinion (I'm a financial analyst by day), you have to be either a very specialized (and high cost) producer (AKA Violett, BTE, etc) that addresses a niche market or a very low cost, high volume producer that addresses the majority of the market. In either event, you have to address modelers' needs in a quality way or you're out. I can think of several middle of the road producers (Goldberg, Sig) that didn't do either and apparently are having some difficulties even though their quality is excellent. LHS's are a different ball game. You simply can't be competitive unless you are large. A typical LHS with $8,000 of overhead (Salaries, inventory carrying costs, rent, ads, phones, electricity) needs $40,000 a month just to break even at 20% markup! That's about $2,000 per day and that get's no profit for your risk! I suspect that the few remaining LHS are running on a small percentage of loyal customers who don't mind paying a bit more and on a handful of newbies who need help and don't mind paying for it (Or are too dumb to know it).
By the way, I think that producers do an absolutely wonderful job of providing innovative and quality products at a reasonable cost.
The new ARF's are of great quality. Radios and servos are better and more reliable than ever. Engines are very reliable- all at much lower costs than ten years ago.
The typical modeler is somewhat guilty (Myself included) of fostering the environment that we're in. Hobby dollars come last (Well, for some anyway) and they are dear- we want to get the most we can, so we shop where we get the best bang. That's not the LHS, in most cases.
Now to the AMA.
I imagine Sam Walton starting his now famous chain of stores. He decides that the best strategic plan is to spend $10M on a Supergiantcossolialmonster Wal-Mart in Muncie Indiana. People from all over the U.S. would drive thousands of miles just for the privledge of shopping there. His business would grow inconcievably fast because the centerpiece of his business was simply so impressive that it would awe customers. They would have no other choice. K-Mart would have loved that scenario. As we know, old Sam has a lot more smarts than that and did things differently.
We (AMA) spent millions of dollars on the "National" site in Muncie, are continuing to spend significant dollars maintaining and upgrading it and we honestly think that we will influence people outside the hobby with it. Earth to AMA: It's not going to happen, just like it wouldn't have happened for Sam, even with quality merchandise, good service and low prices. The people don't come to you, you have to go to them. Of all of the people in the U.S. now, possibly 220 million (???), perhaps 1 million may visit the Muncie site in the next ten years- perhaps .5%. (This is just a guess, but I can't be too far off- How many people ever get to Indiana in their entire lifetime, much less Muncie, much less the AMA site there?)
Simply put, we got a "pffft" and not a "bang" for our buck with Muncie, if the real goal was to grow the hobby. Since AMA leadership is not dumb (Probably not as smart as Sam, but still logical and reasonable), I must conclude that the stated goal was growth of the hobby but the real goal was that the leadership wanted a showcase national site and was looking for a reason to justify it.
If you really believe that Muncie was money well spent in growing the hobby, consider this experiment: Randomnly survey people who are not already knowledgeable of RC. Ask them about Muncie. What percentage would you expect to answer that they had visited the AMA site or even heard of it?
It's like a corporation building a fancy showcase headquarters (EG Enron, Worldcom, AT&T, etc). It doesn't help the business much, if at all. It sure helps the executives' egos.
If anyone from AMA reads this, I'd appreciate a counterpoint.
Bob
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All Forums >> RC Airplanes >> AMA Discussions >> What do we get and what do we need 
What do we get and what do we need - 
, but the questions was are the biggest gripes with the AMA and not the RCU AMA Board. 
What do we get and what do we need - 
