ORIGINAL: captinjohn
I hope after Hobby King gets a USA Wharehouse up & running and any and all other Hobby dealers like Troy Built, Hanger 9, Don,s RC & all the product sellers can somehow bring down the Big monoply that Tower has. It seems like Great plains & other big sellers of hobby products are all tied in together in Illinois.
And a huge Chinese retailer (regardless of where they warehouse) competing with Tower (Great Planes) will help us how? Oh lets see here, the Chinese company gets larger and the US companies suffer .... not good no matter how large the US companies are.
In terms of dollars spent, I probably spend about 1/4 of my hobby money with Tower. Mostly for Futaba and Hitec servos and related equipment. Back a few years I also bought quite a few OS heli engines. The balance of money going to other online sellers, specialty companies and my local dealer. We have a great hobby shop here in my city but they don't cater to large scale plane builders at all. The owner is a good friend of mine but he only gets a fraction of my business because of his stocking practices. I get tired of walking in looking for something common (like a 22-8 prop for example) only to walk back out empty handed because it isn't stocked.
As far as Tower pricing ..... the discount coupons are always in force so using them makes pricing very competitive. As for service or returning items, every order comes with a no questions asked return shipping label. You don't like something ... return it for credit. What could be simpler. I've used this service several times and have never been questioned why I wanted to return something.
I'm not in love with Tower by any means but they do serve a useful purpose in this day and age.