Tandy Pricing Structure Change

[NVLeatherWorx]

So, with Tandy having restructured their pricing this week and now having gone much lower than they have been in a very long time, I was wondering what anyone else has been thinking about this and what the reasoning could be.  I personally think that they were seeing a drop in their market share and came to the conclusion that their pricing was a bit high when compared to others who supply their crafter market.  However, I don't think that they have looked at the quality aspect of what they supply versus what the majority of us purchase and that they are only going to continue lose more share from this price drop.  I was looking at their leather and found that they have dropped their pricing by a huge percentage in hopes of moving more product but their leather is not of a great quality for the serious leather worker nor for any business operator who puts quality ahead of low costs.  I quit using Tandy leather decades ago when they decided to start exporting their skins to be tanned and then importing them back into the U.S. for retail sale; quality went to crap and it hasn't improved a bit since.

On the flip side, they may be getting ready to return to the business tactic of providing quality and value again as they once did many years ago, that would be nice.  It would also be nice if you could walk into a Tandy store every now and then and be able to speak with a staffer who actually knows how to work with leather instead of just spitting out the textbook babble that they are all taught when going through training, I miss those days.

Chime in if you want and I know that there are some here in this community who actually work for Tandy so, if you can, shed some light on what is happening.  It is a sure bet that Tandy is responsible for the vast majority of us who have taken up this trade, whether as a hobby or as a business, and it would not be a bad thing to see the company return to its roots.

[Tugadude]

I found this helpful...

 

[TomG]

They are eliminating the Gold and Elite memberships, I was told and lowering prices to elite or less across the board.  Businesses will still get that extra discount.

I believe that it goes into effect tonight.

 

[LeatherLegion]

      This new pricing structure has been in effect in Canada since the beginning of April. Some of the items ,including hand tools are priced even  lower than Ebay or Amazon.Affordability combined  with the great store experience, makes Tandy the one stop shop , that beginners or advanced leather workers will appreciate even  more. 

[Matt S]

Looking at the UK site (which will be a whole nother kettle o fish soon) the prices look much better. Shame about the severely reduced offerings but non-moving inventory is just a millstone around a company's neck. Hopefully they will continue with bringing out newer, more relevant offerings. I have a business account and everything's still working for me.

[JLSleather]

Tandy used to be a place to shop.  Didn't need to go there... just a call or a order form, adn I'd get decent stuff right off the truck at my door.  Then got where you needed to GO pick out the leather.  Then 'stuff' started being "discontinued"... then more stuff,... and more stuff.... seemed like every time I went there was something else they don't carry any more.   When they stopped selling Royal Meadow tooling leather there wasn't much point goin back.

Well, there was that little sales gal for a while ...

[williaty]

I've been sitting on this for 2 weeks because I wasn't sure if the person who told me would get in trouble if I brought it up here. It's been interesting to see what's happening with this. Tandy Corporate is trying to take business customers away from the stores. Business accounts are going to be.... strongly encouraged... to stop buying in store and start buying through the website. The stores have lost their authority to do ANY price changes or deals. If you normally get a bulk discount beyond wholesale through your local store, you can't do that anymore. Only corporate can make those kinds of deals now. It took some hemming and hawing to get confirmation that I could, as a business account, still buy in-store. Wholesale will now be a straight 15% off the retail price. On a bunch of the stuff I've checked so far, that means only a few pennies or dollars difference in price for me. However, a couple of the leather SKUs actually rose meaningfully for me (even though the retail price plummeted) because the former wholesale price was such a tiny fraction of the retail price.

Both of the managers I've been able to talk to about this seem to think this is part of a large corporate push to justify closing the retail stores. Take away the business customers and the stores will show less volume. If in-store sales are seriously declining, it MUST be time to shut them all, right? Less staff, less middle management, less overhead.. must mean PROFIT, right?

[bikermutt07]

I heard from my local manager a little while back that this was coming. She said, starting in Canada first then Monday in the states, all gold and elite memberships were gone and retail pricing would be lower than elite pricing. Military would still receive another 10% off of that.

The part mentioned above about closing retail stores sounds like something corporate would pull.

My local manager claimed that the new CEO had been shopping Weaver and Springfield (as well as others) and wanted to become more competitive.

The pricing sounds like it would be good for beginners, but they were already blindly overpaying. And, seasoned shoppers weren't spending money there due to pricing and quality. 

So, I would think fixing one would help, but unless they fix both, they will continue to decline.

Just my thoughts.

Edited April 27, 2019 by bikermutt07

[Sam I Am]

Hmmm... gotta check this put for myself. I know that they closed one store south of me, and opened a brand new one north of me, near where I work. And wouldn't ya know it - I JUST renewed my Gold Membership...

[bikermutt07]

12 hours ago, Sam I Am said:

Hmmm... gotta check this put for myself. I know that they closed one store south of me, and opened a brand new one north of me, near where I work. And wouldn't ya know it - I JUST renewed my Gold Membership...

My gal was cool enough to say, hey, we're about to do away with memberships, (yours is expired) so I'm giving you gold pricing for now.

Cool team at my local store.