Being Kicked By Tandy ?

[raysouth]

WOW !!! The topic of Tandy booting out the guilds, non kit displays, and no longer permitting non-kit items to be made in their stores, seems to be happening throughout the country.

Just called the B'ham store in Alabama and nothing seems to have changed there and guild still meeting last saturday of the month.

May catch up to them soon, if this is indeed the direction that Tandy is heading.

I am not in an area that is close enough to a Tandy store so not able to participate in the guild activities. I do not think that guilds having to meet elsewhere will have much bearing on Tandy business but not a friendly way to do business.

The kit aspect is not something that I would expect to make the business grow. The advancement beyond the kit stage is something that they should consider as nearly everyone moves beyong the kit stage as they progress. My opinion.

Classes going to be conducted and if so, pertaining to kits only? No more tips or advanced methods allowed? Not good, if that is their plan.

Will these changes be good for the independent shops? No idea, but their should be some niche they could fill. I believe that shops such as Springfield leather could handle any changes Tandy may make. Time will tell.

Hope this issue does not cause the craft to lose some future crafters. Just have to find them and direct them to this great site.

Would be great to hear what other Tandy stores have on tap for moves such as we are reading about on the net.

God Bless.

Ray

[Havamal]

Interesting move on their part if they want to go out of business... The local Tandy here has not heard anything about this... and their "classes" consist of "bring in what ever you want to work on or have questions about", they don't do "structured kit classes" because they found that there is no interest for that in this area. As a result they end up with 10-20 people hanging out working on various projects and getting a lot of input from everybody, plus their sales of tools, supplies, etc... during this time, is exponentially higher on those days! Seems to me the rest of Tandy should be using this as a model to expand interest rather than limit their potential.

[TXAG]

Makes me want to start a leather guild in my area even more now...

I guess Springfield and others will be getting more of my $$$ in the future. I sometimes stopped by the Houston Tandy store when I was in the area to pick up items I needed soon, but I guess I will forgo that now.

[Chief31794]

This is very interesting, that means that if someone did buy some of their leather and made a holster from it they wouldn't allow it. Seems a very strange move if it is happening. My local store doesn't seem to have any of this going on, but I only get in there every other month or so when in town. Chief

[King's X]

Our guild was booted from our Wednesday evening meetings. We were told that it was an insurance coverage issue since we met after regular business hours.

[Mjolnir131]

Sounds like a decision from a rather slow district manager.

[Johanna]

When I was a Tandy manager in the 90s I kept the coffee fresh and encouraged the guild members to hang out at the back table. Someone would come in and need lessons on a tool, and i could say, "Hey, Mike, will you show..." and the guild member was pleased to be asked, the customer learned what he needed to know and sometimes new friendships were born. Meanwhile it freed me up to help other customers. We were not allowed to have any of the trade magazines in the stores. Rumor was that Tandy was afraid the customers would discover there were other suppliers. Now I see they advertise in the same magazines. Wonder if they allow them in the stores now?

[BondoBobCustomSaddles]

Been off line for quite a while, old computer had to be put down! Finally got a new one. About Tandy, this seems to be another one of those trends that they are following . I don't use them much any more, and haven't for quite some time, mostly because of the drop in service, product, quality and all the other things that have been mentioned here. Guess it is just a sign of the times. Sad, but; we will just have to adapt, as we always have. Thank god for all the others that make and sell supplies for our needs. Bob

[traiven3d]

If Tandy could do one thing to grow their business, I think they should focus on community development. On the small scale, helping leather workers develop can only increase sales. The more skilled a leather worker becomes the more likely they are to purchase tools that rise in cost as their work increases in complexity. Maybe some community outreach, or partnering with different sites or organizations.

Here in Canada we have a "One of a Kind" show twice a year where artisans can sell their goods. Perhaps the company could rent a booth and promote their local leather artisans, as well as selling kits, doing demo's and getting young people interested in taking up the craft. I think in the modern age of social media a company of this size needs to start connecting more to their customer and fostering growth for the industry as a whole.

I also get the sense that they spend more effort trying to sell people their branded stock, instead of selling the best tools you can buy. I thought they'd have a bit more range. I can understand that offering affordable tools is absolutely necessary (I've easily spent $800 on tools and leather to just get started), but certainly some top quality items might be a good option. I could see them offering more dye brands, more thread choices (more colours than just black, brown and white), and perhaps partnering with an industrial sewing machine company. It seems that most artisans eventually out-grow Tandy and order elsewhere.

Tandy's focus seems narrow, and targeted at one or two specific audiences, with a mostly Western outlook on leather goods. I personally am really interested in the work of men like Peter Nitz, who do "European" (not sure if that's the right name for it) leather goods. There's lots of talk on these forums from people who want to create this style of work and end up spending a lot money ordering tools from Europe, the money that Tandy could be making if they offered it up.

All that said, i'm glad Tandy is around. Without it, I wouldn't be on here writing this.

[Glendon]

I've said this before and I'll post it here. Tandy is going hobby store. Tandy seems to have two major revenue sources they focus on, the bigger institutions that buy in volume, and the weekend hobbiests that will buy the marked up retail kits. Those of us in the middle, the bigger hobbiests and the one man and a dog shops, I guess to them seem like too much work for the return.