Funny/sad Story About Tandy Leather...

[Art]

Tandy Leather was First and around for quite a while. Tandy Leather made all the money that was literally burned up by the other ventures. Tandy Leather flew into this downward spiral as Radio Shack and the others lost money hand over fist. Other leather stores started up, often with Tandy Leather employees and executives. Finally, a much depleted Tandy Leather divested of the others, but was in really bad financial shape and spiraled down till the late 90s when they closed many stores and tried to go with Internet sales. Too little Too late and they were sold to TLF for cents on the dollar, basically nothing. TLF merged the Tandy Leather stores into their operation and continues as what we know today, incorporating the Tandy name.

Art

[Norton Custom Leather]

The only part I will defend is that the employees don't know how to demo. The staff at the Memphis/Bartlett store do actually know how to craft leather.

I will stick with you on getting my supplies from other sources. That would include SLC & Ohio travel bag.

[Studio-N]

who said Tandy leather executives . are very smart . they owned colortile and radio shack or am I mistaken

actual tandy did. This incarnation is the leather factory which bought the tandy name so they can try to fool people that they have been around 100 years.

[NVLeatherWorx]

I know there are still some places where there may be one, or if you are really lucky two, employees that may know something about working with the products that they sell but that is now a very uncommon thing as it is not part of their business model anymore. I have been told very clearly by the store manager in my area and some corporate level staffers as well that they are there to sell product not work with it. This was very obvious to me one day when I did go into the store around here to see a friend of mine (who works there) and got into a conversation with one of their M.I.T.'s (Manager in Training) about a side of leather, more specifically, there was a side of Craftsman Oak that looked better than the same weight side that was marked as Oak-Leaf yet the Oak-Leaf is supposedly their next higher grade. When I commented on it she told me to my face that all of their leather is really just the same quality and that the only difference between the two was in the pricing that was applied. I found that very interesting that a person who was being trained to be a Manager of a store was saying that and when I asked her where she got her information on their product lines from her training materials and discussions. With this now out there, it is painfully obvious that the Tandy name has long since been tarnished and unless the corporate minds pull their heads out of their fifth point of contact their company has a very bleak future. The Leather Factory itself was not doing well as it was but Tandy was in that bad of a situation that they couldn't fight it off and ultimately had to give in. And it is also very true indeed that the rest of the Tandy branded ventures sucked the life right out of it and caused the debacle that we now know as Tandy Leather Factory.

[Studio-N]

The only part I will defend is that the employees don't know how to demo. The staff at the Memphis/Bartlett store do actually know how to craft leather.

I will stick with you on getting my supplies from other sources. That would include SLC & Ohio travel bag.

Under little Thompson, Tandy made the decision that the employees did NOT have to know leather working to sell. If you can sell widgets you can sell leather - that was the new philosophy for the new millennium. Now that JT is gone, they would do well to put a real business manager as CEO and not another of their inbred relatives to improve things.

[pogue44]

The original and some of the subsequent posts on this topic bothered me on this thread for a lot of reasons. I debated with myself whether to take the time to respond or not. I lost. Myself won. Here we go...

My son (11 years old) and I are pretty new to leather working. He was down in the dumps for a few weeks last year and I decided we needed to do something creative together. I was in the market for a leather satchel and he wanted to earn some money to buy legos. I decided to make my own satchel and he decided he wanted to make and sell leather key chains to his class mates for the holiday season to try to earn some money.

Neither of us had any experience with leather working so we of course went to our local Tandy story in Louisville, Kentucky. We bought the $35 membership and became eligible for their classes. We bought a few tools and a few D rings on our first visit and went to the local hobby lobby and bought some $10 junk leather to practice on. We watched a bunch of youtube videos.

My son made four prototype leather key chains out of different materials and took them to school and within a couple days he had over 25 orders for $5 key chains to make. We made his orders together, he cheered up fast when he found out he could make some serious $didge$ to buy the legos he wanted.

A couple of points regarding Tandy;

1. The people at the Louisville store in my opinion are complete and total class act employees. I mean they have just been really great to get started with. These people are dedicated, they know what they are talking about and while I don't know them very well personally they seem professionally like genuine, honest, and good people. I would wager the majority of employees around the country fit a similar profile.

2. Yes Tandy is corporate but they stock the stuff you need at a bricks and mortar store in YOUR neighborhood. If not for Tandy we would have never been able to get started like we did. I am thankful to this day that if I need a buckle(s) or some tools ASAP that I know I can drive 50 miles and pick them up the same day that I need them.

3. I don't buy stuff from Tandy that is overpriced. But their sale stuff has been indispensable for us to get started. Most all of my tools have been acquired through Tandy sales. We visit the store once a month now and I usually buy $50-$60 worth and after a year now I have most all the basics. I also have got some cheap stuff from China acquired on the internet that is cheaper then at Tandy which I would also recommend a rank beginner to do. I have also since bought some Osborne and Vergez Blanchard stuff that I now use as a replacement for the Tandy and Chinese stuff. When I upgrade I give the kid the Tandy and Chinese tools so he has some of his very own tools to use, be responsible to care for, loose or otherwise snot up like a kid is prone to do. And when I die guess who is going to get the good tools also? Right. Exactly.

4. This past summer the boy and I took a trip across the country and we stopped in Ft. Worth to see the Al Stohlman museum at Tandy HQ. It was one of the most interesting things we did and it helped both me and the kid to elevate our game based on the quality of what Al produced. Once you see something like that there is no going back. Now in our spare time we have several leather projects going on at one time and pretty much a full blown mini workshop. We now buy stuff from all over depending on the project and we experiment with different quality levels (shout out to Thoroughbred Leather, W&C and Hermann Oak). We have taken a road trip to a local tack and halter shop and they let the kid operate their industrial sewing machine and also helped me learn a few tricks of the trade. We have also road tripped to take a chap making lesson from someone we met through this forum.

So yeah Tandy can be a bunch of bad things (sometimes overpriced, slow to innovate (Al Stohlman been dead how long now and they have no new books??), sometimes inept employees, etc..) but my point is if it wasn't for our local shop we would never be where we are at. And I'm loyal to them for providing us an opportunity to grow both as leather craftsmen and as a family. If you have been in the leather business for decades you probably have a bad experience with Tandy at some point but hey I also bring the kid to eat at the local Dairy Queen sometimes. We have eaten there many, many, many times but only been sick once or twice...lmao....you get the point we would love to eat organic non gmo anti biotic free non glutin low mercury rabbit food every single day but sometimes the DQ is it. Lmao x 2.

My son and I have talked about setting our next goal to sell some things on Etsy and through other outlets. I think it will take us another year to get to the quality level where we can do this. And quite honestly the more I learn the more I know that we will be sourcing things at places other than Tandy. But, will we will still return often for the items on sale and advice and to sometimes use their tools and knowledge during a class? For sure we will.

IMHO the world with Tandy at this time is a better place then a world without Tandy. Until this changes I appreciate them and what they do, even if I to don't always appreciate the corporate model.

And to the gentleman who started this thread...here's my advice even though you didn't ask for it. If you find out you were undercharged for whatever reason as soon as you find out just pay the people what you should have owed them in the first place. If you take the responsibility to do this then you will always find yourself in a situation where everybody wins and nobody losses.

That's a lesson I hope I have the opportunity to teach my kid someday.

That is my .02 cents. Regrets if it was long winded. I'm out.

[Hawkeronetwo]

I am not expert on leather and just play around with the craft for fun in my spare time but I have found the tandy store in Little Rock to be very friendly and very helpful . Some of the staff may not know it all but seems one of them has been able to answer any question I may have any time I have been shopping there.

[Norton Custom Leather]

Loyalty is a nice thing. Take the time to shop around.

Don't hinge the whole leather world on tandy. Yes Al has passed, & there are no new books. What does that say about tandy? tandy is a good place to start if you have the assistance from store employees that know they are doing, which you expressed you do. The Memphis tandy employees are great people who understand leather also.

As I mentioned don't limit yourself or your son to tandy. I deal with companies in Europe & the USA. I deal with exotic leathers that SLC gets for me that tandy can't touch.

You will both get better in the craft so expand & try new things.

[TinkerTailor]

The original and some of the subsequent posts on this topic bothered me on this thread for a lot of reasons. I debated with myself whether to take the time to respond or not. I lost. Myself won. Here we go...

My son (11 years old) and I are pretty new to leather working. He was down in the dumps for a few weeks last year and I decided we needed to do something creative together. I was in the market for a leather satchel and he wanted to earn some money to buy legos. I decided to make my own satchel and he decided he wanted to make and sell leather key chains to his class mates for the holiday season to try to earn some money.

Neither of us had any experience with leather working so we of course went to our local Tandy story in Louisville, Kentucky. We bought the $35 membership and became eligible for their classes. We bought a few tools and a few D rings on our first visit and went to the local hobby lobby and bought some $10 junk leather to practice on. We watched a bunch of youtube videos.

My son made four prototype leather key chains out of different materials and took them to school and within a couple days he had over 25 orders for $5 key chains to make. We made his orders together, he cheered up fast when he found out he could make some serious $didge$ to buy the legos he wanted.

A couple of points regarding Tandy;

1. The people at the Louisville store in my opinion are complete and total class act employees. I mean they have just been really great to get started with. These people are dedicated, they know what they are talking about and while I don't know them very well personally they seem professionally like genuine, honest, and good people. I would wager the majority of employees around the country fit a similar profile.

2. Yes Tandy is corporate but they stock the stuff you need at a bricks and mortar store in YOUR neighborhood. If not for Tandy we would have never been able to get started like we did. I am thankful to this day that if I need a buckle(s) or some tools ASAP that I know I can drive 50 miles and pick them up the same day that I need them.

3. I don't buy stuff from Tandy that is overpriced. But their sale stuff has been indispensable for us to get started. Most all of my tools have been acquired through Tandy sales. We visit the store once a month now and I usually buy $50-$60 worth and after a year now I have most all the basics. I also have got some cheap stuff from China acquired on the internet that is cheaper then at Tandy which I would also recommend a rank beginner to do. I have also since bought some Osborne and Vergez Blanchard stuff that I now use as a replacement for the Tandy and Chinese stuff. When I upgrade I give the kid the Tandy and Chinese tools so he has some of his very own tools to use, be responsible to care for, loose or otherwise snot up like a kid is prone to do. And when I die guess who is going to get the good tools also? Right. Exactly.

4. This past summer the boy and I took a trip across the country and we stopped in Ft. Worth to see the Al Stohlman museum at Tandy HQ. It was one of the most interesting things we did and it helped both me and the kid to elevate our game based on the quality of what Al produced. Once you see something like that there is no going back. Now in our spare time we have several leather projects going on at one time and pretty much a full blown mini workshop. We now buy stuff from all over depending on the project and we experiment with different quality levels (shout out to Thoroughbred Leather, W&C and Hermann Oak). We have taken a road trip to a local tack and halter shop and they let the kid operate their industrial sewing machine and also helped me learn a few tricks of the trade. We have also road tripped to take a chap making lesson from someone we met through this forum.

So yeah Tandy can be a bunch of bad things (sometimes overpriced, slow to innovate (Al Stohlman been dead how long now and they have no new books??), sometimes inept employees, etc..) but my point is if it wasn't for our local shop we would never be where we are at. And I'm loyal to them for providing us an opportunity to grow both as leather craftsmen and as a family. If you have been in the leather business for decades you probably have a bad experience with Tandy at some point but hey I also bring the kid to eat at the local Dairy Queen sometimes. We have eaten there many, many, many times but only been sick once or twice...lmao....you get the point we would love to eat organic non gmo anti biotic free non glutin low mercury rabbit food every single day but sometimes the DQ is it. Lmao x 2.

My son and I have talked about setting our next goal to sell some things on Etsy and through other outlets. I think it will take us another year to get to the quality level where we can do this. And quite honestly the more I learn the more I know that we will be sourcing things at places other than Tandy. But, will we will still return often for the items on sale and advice and to sometimes use their tools and knowledge during a class? For sure we will.

IMHO the world with Tandy at this time is a better place then a world without Tandy. Until this changes I appreciate them and what they do, even if I to don't always appreciate the corporate model.

And to the gentleman who started this thread...here's my advice even though you didn't ask for it. If you find out you were undercharged for whatever reason as soon as you find out just pay the people what you should have owed them in the first place. If you take the responsibility to do this then you will always find yourself in a situation where everybody wins and nobody losses.

That's a lesson I hope I have the opportunity to teach my kid someday.

That is my .02 cents. Regrets if it was long winded. I'm out.

It is true that there are still genuinely knowledgeable people in Tandy stores around the country. I will tell you i have met them in 3 stores. I have met 10 people who I doubt could even make one of tandys kits for every good one. As the good ones leave or retire, they are replaced by salesmen.

We are talking about a downward slide. Tandy used to be 10 times better. Greed has decreased quality and increased prices. Corporate policies now heavily favour salespeople over craftspeople. They have some pretty strange personality tests as part of their hiring practices. There are copys floating around online.

Our discussion is about this downward slide. It is a slide that is going to ruin the only brick and mortar resource left for good. That is the concern.

I am sure that every person who expressed an opinion here actually want tandy to be good again, and help way more people than they currently do.

Innovating, bringing in new products, recognizing that leather is not just about western tooling. Carry consistent product of quality. It would help everyone.

There is a whole other world of leatherworkers.

Retirees should not be their entire market target

[Dougster]

And to the gentleman who started this thread...here's my advice even though you didn't ask for it. If you find out you were undercharged for whatever reason as soon as you find out just pay the people what you should have owed them in the first place. If you take the responsibility to do this then you will always find yourself in a situation where everybody wins and nobody losses.

Please refer to message #19 above: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=67396&p=439440

Follow up: Tandy corporate must have forwarded my message to the local store, as I received a hand-written note in the mail from the manager along with a gift of a piece of leather I had been eyeing in the store. That was an unexpected surprise.