What's Up with Tandy Leather

[Tugadude]

2 hours ago, chrisash said:

Afraid you just have to look at the competition who work from one or two places

The Tandy model was great when wages were low and lots of home buyers, Now the whole market has changed with the internet with prices dropping from all around the world, you just cannot having store holding large quantities of slow moving stock sitting on shelves when you can run one major warehouse selling on the internet

You save wages, Rent, Rates and transport logistics and money tied up in stock

Fair bet that in three-five years time Tandy will have just a couple of stores in main cities and closed all the rest for e-commerce, and the same with most of your town shops who cannot compete with the internet warehouses  selling to the whole country with little staff and you paying the delivery costs

You might be right, but the same can be said of most any specialty shops.  Brick and mortar stores are in jeopardy everywhere.  What will be lost is the ability to run in and grab some glue, dye or a piece of hardware or two.

In my city we have a large craft store that has some shelf space devoted to leather working products.  Perhaps Tandy will close their stores and look to locate more of their products in existing stores like Michael's, etc.?

[LatigoAmigo]

2 hours ago, Tugadude said:

Perhaps Tandy will close their stores and look to locate more of their products in existing stores like Michael's, etc.?

That is exactly what has happened in my area. A store that sells leather clothing and bags (think motorcycle) also carries a limited supply of Tandy branded leather and supplies.

[Tugadude]

6 hours ago, LatigoAmigo said:

That is exactly what has happened in my area. A store that sells leather clothing and bags (think motorcycle) also carries a limited supply of Tandy branded leather and supplies.

If I were them, that's what I'd do.  Form strategic partnerships to help local people get stuff fast and not have to pay so much extra for freight/delivery.  The website can cater more to businesses and larger purchasers.

Thanks for the input.

[chrisash]

Its not that long ago in the UK that nearly every town had a couple or more outlets selling white goods (washing machines, Fridges, Cookers etc) now they have mostly disappeared to the big online shops

It was the same with well known  department stores, just a few left in city's and even Marks and Spencer have disappeared from the towns, where often they were the largest clothing retailer on the high street, and changed into top end food outlets on the out of town estates

Our town centres are now just full of Charity shops and even the betting shops are closing down

Retail Shops are suffering all around the UK and all seem to be dragged to move to online where they can make a profit

[Constabulary]

2 hours ago, chrisash said:

Retail Shops are suffering all around the UK and all seem to be dragged to move to online where they can make a profit

Not only in the UK. But aren't we all kinda guilty of that? And Corona will make it even worse. On the other hand you simply do (or did - mean before the www) not find certain things locally. No way for me to get my industrial Singer parts locally or even somewhere in Germany (sure, you can get some common parts but not really many) w/o making dozens of phone calls so my source is the www. Even for leather - I did not know a "full range supplier" for the leather hobby within a 50Km circuit. So before I drive longer distances and w/o knowing if I can get what I need I rather buy online from 2 or 3 different sources and often enough from the other side of the Channel (just recently copper rivets of a certain size).

But to be honest I just recently found a supplier "quite local" (100km one way) and I never heard of him before / never popped up on searches. But for the moment I'm good with supplies. I hope I can visit him in a couple of weeks - really looking forward to that as he seems to have a lot of stuff I could use now and then.

JFTC someone is interested:

https://www.kappey.de/en/

 

Edited August 13, 2020 by Constabulary

[Paultalks]

I send a letter to the CEO of Tandy 10 days ago without receiving even the simplest of a courtesy response. I have had better response from fortune 100 ad 200 CEOs. This is very disappointing, as the trace shows it was received. On another note, there is no rapant outbreak of hospitalized cases in FL like the media is trying to spin it. I have a lot of friends in the medical field here. Covid is not the issue and at least in this area is a false narrative. If you go in for a cough, they check COVID-19. I have personal friends that were not even tested, because they ran out of materials that were diagnosed COVID-19. The schools have been open in foreign countries for months with no deaths or serious cases of illness or death. The facilities receive $10K to $40K for every case they identify, based on nothing more than an opinion according to CDC Guidelines.

 

[OLESKIVER]

IF i CAN PUT MY TWO CENTS WORTH IN, EVERYBODY SEEMS TO BE FORGETTING THE OTHER THING TANDY USED TO OFFER { I SAY USED TO BECAUSE THE STORE CLOSE TO ME DIDN'T HAVE AMYBODY THERE WHO KNEW HOW TO DO LW} CLASSES IN LEATHERWORKING. THE VIDEOS ONLINE ARE GOOD BUT THERE'S NOTHING LIKE ONE ON ONE TO SHOW WHEN THE LEATHER IS ACTUALLY RIGHT FOR TOOLING, GETTING A GOOD TAPING ORDER{STAMPING} AND OTHER THINGS THAT ARE BETTER WITNESSED LIVE AS OPPOSED TO VIDEO. BUT THE INTERNET IS CHANGING THINGS. I THINK THE CEO OF TANDY DOESN'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT LEATHER CRAFT. WHY WOULD YOU CLOSE OUT 99% OF YOUR FIGURE CARVING TOOLS, WHICH MAKES THE AL STOHLMAN BOOKS, WHAT? KINDA OBSOLETE? EVEN THOUGH THEY DO HAVE OTHER USEFUL INFORMATION IN THEM. JUST SEEMS FUNNY TO ME. I HAVE BEEN GOING TO TANDYS SINCE THE 60'S. THEN THEY WERE CALLED TANY LEATHER AND AMERICAN HANDICRAFTS. WE'RE IN STRANGE TIMES MY FRIENDS.

[Tugadude]

I don't know that they've eliminated 99% of carving tools.  They did seem to go away from their Craftool Pro Stamps, likely due to lack of sales.  But I think they still have all of the "basic" tools they've always offered.  I just looked through page after page of them.

https://tandyleather.com/collections/tools/stamping-&-carving?page=7

[Tugadude]

Unlike most of its competitors Tandy is a publicly traded company.  If you've been paying attention you have noticed big changes in their website (for the better in my opinion) and in their everyday "honest" pricing.  

Janet Carr has been on board I think about 2 years now and there have been big changes during her tenure.  As far as experience with leather, she had several positions with Nine West in which she was responsible for the marketing of leather goods.  That doesn't mean she understands all of the intricacies of leatherwork, not by a longshot, but then as CEO she doesn't have to.  She has people on staff that do.  She is a businessperson and is beholden to the shareholders, that is what she needs to be focused on, like it or not.

Regarding classes, depending upon local covid restrictions, there wouldn't be an opportunity to even hold classes in most of the U.S. at this point.  They'll return when they are able I'm sure.

[Hildebrand]

@Paultalks in reading this thread maybe back off just a hair.  You have been beating on these people pretty hard.  Given they blocked you on social media I am not surprised you haven't gotten responses to your emails and letter.  Maybe take a step back, order online for a bit and see if things slowly return to normal.  Like it or hate it businesses have to operate under the state, county and city guidelines until this pandemic is over.

Todd