Tandy Leather Factory.. Has Anyone Noticed That They're Faking Their Loyalty Anymore?

[RavenAus]

I would dearly love to have a Tandy near us. There's only one in the whole of Australia and that's in NSW. Here in Brisbane we have a great place for leather - East Coast Leather, very good prices and they know their stuff, but they ONLY do leather. No hardware, not even a buckle, and no tools. Mac Lace do hardware and tools but have a limited range, so sometimes I have to order from Tandy despite the shipping costs which are high in Aus. If Tandy were closer I'd be a regular visitor.

[Jeffrey46]

What Tandy gets wrong, heck what most retail in the US gets wrong, is to forget that the most valuable thing that they have as a company are its own employees. As others have noted here, it was often the people managing and working at the stores that would engender loyalty from the customer.

To survive as a retail concern, Tandy needs to draw in new customers to the hobby - a difficult thing to do in the age of cell phones, Call of Duty and cable TV. Without new customers, they are only going to last so long. The only way to grow the retail business is to give the men and women who have a passion for leatherwork and who work for you the tools to succeed.

I am not sure that they are doing this any longer. My local store has some great people, but I no longer see signs for classes, etc. Tandy needs to empower people to go out and create business, even if this means paying them more to attract people with the right stuff.

Without some kind of turnaround, eventually I can see them pulling out of retail and going mail order only again.

Sound familiar?

[Studio-N]

What Tandy gets wrong, heck what most retail in the US gets wrong, is to forget that the most valuable thing that they have as a company are its own employees.

Oh they give a LOT of lip service about their employees being their best asset and yet the have replaced almost every manager in their system with new younger models with little or no actual leather

experience. Their new philosophy is that you don't have to know the product to sell the product. sell it. just sell it. Their goal is still to reach $100 million in sales so they can get the stock up, and they plan to make it on our backs. hell, the ceo and vp didn't even have the dignity to come out of their office during their corporate Christmas party to say hi to the troops they work with everyday much less giving a crap about the ones out in the field. But don't worry, he'll give the speech about about their employees being their best asset at the next quarterly stock meeting.

I am not sure that they are doing this any longer. My local store has some great people, but I no longer see signs for classes, etc.

same reason, they only hire sales help, not leather experienced sales help. Not a requirement. So if they act like a used cars salesman - they probably were.

[WScott]

There are so many really good online retailers for tools and supplies with better quality than Tandy.

I think Tandy is good for a start out in leather, allowing you to get going with relatively a low tool investment cost, but after that you begin to want better stuff.

As for ordering leather, it is hard to order it sight unseen; so much better when you get your hands on it before you buy. Neither online or Tandy handle that well.

[kwelna]

I recently sent a letter off to Tandy as to my dissatisfaction of the "Bennefits" of being a club member. I received a friendly response from them and i am waiting to see if they change some of their offerings\practices. (The loss of the free tool each month etc.) I also understand that they are in a tight spot. First they are a specialty shop shop so they have a limited audience. While we grouse about their prices and leather quality, they need to keep some of thier prices and costs low so the cost of entry into this hobby is low enough that a noob can afford to try it out and see if they like it. They also have to keep inventory levels high enough to both make the store attractive and to assure that all products are available when you walk in. This is a tremendouse cost to have inventory just stiing there waiting to be purchased. To make up for that loss, they have to charge more. I frequent the Tandy store in Roseville, MN the staff is great, the customer service provided by the staff is awesome and Tom the Mgr is fantastic. So I do cut them some slack on their prices. I go there and spend my money because of these people not the Tandy brand.........Upon second thought, that is not totaly true. I am never afraid to purchase Tandy tooling\products because of the their warrenty. It it breaks or does not perform as expected I can return it for an exchange or get my money back. I have done this on a few occasion and was able to return the item with out hassle. So I guess I mostly (80%) go for the people and customer service. I agree that for the price I would like to see a little bit highter quaity in both the leather and some of the tooling, but I also understand with the internet and having to compete with online sellers with reduced overhead it may not always be possible. As to the complaints about the water based dyes, finished etc. With all the tree huggers and over reactions to petrolium based and "chemical" based products I do believe that tandy is just adjusting to the changing politics of the market place. I have a feeling that they are trying to get ahead of the curve. Has anyone tried contacting coprorate about perceived failing of the water based products and offer possible suggestions to rectify issues or work arounds? I do beleive that in less than 5-10 years it will be impossible to find many of the spriit and oil based products (Remember Zip Strip wood stripper you know the stuff that acrtually worked?) The same thing is coming for our hobby\business' and hopfuly by then these eco friendly products will be better and function in an expected manner.

I too spend money with Springfield, RJF and Sherridan (All fo whom have stellar customer service and leather). But I will continue to spend some of my money with Tandy so long as the staff and customer service are superb and Tandy stands behind the products they are selling.

[Cedri]

I've been in and out leatherworking but three years ago I noticed the stamping tools where about $6 ea, ( and the free tool monthly) this week I paid $8 ea with the gold account, way to much inflation to my way of thinking in that short period of time. I also noticed the sides I purchased three years ago where $80.00 / $100.00, same sides today at a $230.00. Makes me wonder how the small craft businesses here actually can earn a living with the cost of materials rising so significantly.

[St8LineGunsmith]

Well first off go to Springfield leather and submit your gold club membership to get your stamps for 5 dollars a piece and their start rite stamps sets are very good quality so get what you can of those.

unfortunately as leather prices go up leather workers have to raise prices of their work as well.

[Studio-N]

snip...... Makes me wonder how the small craft businesses here actually can earn a living with the cost of materials rising so significantly.

You need to shop around. TLF does not care about businesses small or otherwise. The margin is just too small.

They only pay $1.25 or so for the stamps from China so at full blown retail $10 they are making an 87% margin compared to

a 37% margin at business cost. which do you think they want? Thier goal is/was to make $100 million in sales. They didn't make

it last year and so they went to a flat price scheme to make it this year mostly off the retail customer. I say scheme because now thier 12 sq foot shoulders they send cost the same as the 18 sq foot ones they advertise at thier flat price. They of course are still mostly buying hides at a square foot price from South America and Mexico.

Best way to save is to go in with some friends and buy 10 sides or whatever from some of the other vendors be it Herman, Wicket, Springfield or some

of the others when they have good leather at a good price. And you always pay for size you got versus what you should have gotten.

Cheers!

[RavenAus]

I do wish people would remember where they started. Without Tandy there would not be a leather hobby in many countries. It's where the majority of leathercrafters start. You may have moved on from them but for a lot of people, especially those outside the US, they are not only the best option if they want to work with leather, they are sometimes the only option.

[St8LineGunsmith]

that is it in a nut shell, shop around.

fortunately for me I found some of the nicest veg tan leather at really good prices called sho tan leather from american saddlery

but they also sell on line and take phone orders too.

might want to give them a shout