Learn that term, it is the future of sales and manufacturing, in this hobby and in many other businesses. The Athearn family wanted out, Horizon came in, and fixed all these problems with one simple choice - SINGLE POINT DISTRIBUTION.
#HORIZON HOBBIES TRAINS FULL#
Walthers felt they should not spend catalog space and money promoting a product easliy sold at big discounts by "basement" dealers when they are trying to sell it as a wholesale supplier to small shops.or at full retail to their mail order/walk in retail customers, especially since they had their own freight cars to sell. They willingly sold to anyone with a sales tax licence and a check book who could meet the minimum order requirements. This went on for years, the two big boys in a sort of cold war the customers did not know about.Īthearn had some distribution polices back then that did not help the situation. But since they are also a manufacturer/distributor they simply choose to promote their own products, or other products they can purchase as a wholesaler.īut there is a history here, which makes the two companies not really interested in doing business with each other.īack in the day, before Horizon owned Athearn, when Athearn was without question the largest supplier of HO plastic freight car kits, and Walthers was likely the largest distributor, all was well between them - until - Walthers bought Trains Miniature and went into the plastic freight car business themselves.įrom that day on, long before the internet, Athearn products received less and less "page space" and quality of "promotion" in the Walthers catalog while Walthers own line of freight cars got fancy color layouts in the front of the catalog.Īs someone who managed a hobby shop train department at the time, I can tell you all our regional distributors had more Athearn in stock then Walthers did. Yes Walthers could buy Athearn from Horizon for their retail store just like any other retail operation does. Second, Horizon "chooses" to be the sole distributor for all their products. Generally each manufacturer "group" (FORD/LINCOLN), (DODGE/CHYSLER/RAM/JEEP), will have its own buildings/shop/etc, even at the "mega dealership". Sometimes car manufacurers do allow "combined" dealerships with other manufacturers, but that requires special conditions. BUT, FORD would pull your dealership in a minute if you used your FORD building and infrastructure to sell a CHEVY from your other dealership next door. First, the car business is not the best comparison since one person can own multiple dealerships.
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