The Decline of Hannants of Colindale

[Nick]

Popped into Hannants for some Xtracrylic paints for a Spitfire BofB scheme and a tin of RAF Roundel Blue for another idea of mine.
Shocked me to see how little stock they have now compared with 4 years ago.

Is that the first time you have been to the shop since it moved?

I've been to the shop both before and after they moved, but not for about 18 months. The stock they have now is far less than they had when they first moved into the new site by the Museum. The old site is due for demolishing this year but not for a Tesco as originally thought, this is now on the Beaufort Park estate. I can actually see Hannants moving into one of the shop sites here as it would suit them far better than the warehouse they have now.
Remember the side room full of tank kits (aka The Bunker?)? That's now full of second hand books. The tanks and ground stuff now occupy the few shelves outside that once were full of Hasegawa air kits. Of those, there are now a handful.
There were about 200 Revell kits of all types last time, now there are about 75. My local Entertainer toyshop has more than they do.

[NARSES2]

I stopped going up there about a year ago Nick, just not worth the effort especially now there's a 15min walk each way from the Tube. If they moved back to the parade by the station it might tempt me back, but even then I'm not sure.

[rickshaw]

Could this be the impact of the Web on retail stores?

[Gondor]

The price of most Japanese kits could also be contributing to their decline

Gondor

[Nick]

The guy at the counter, I think he was the manager, said the last couple of years had been slow business because of the recession. Modelmaking is a luxury and putting food on the table comes first.

I agree that online sales and especially Ebay sales are hitting the shops badly. Here's a thought.... If orders from Hannants in Lowestoft are arriving quicker nowadays, does that mean they have better delivery systems in place or are they getting less orders to send out?

[entlim]

well, to be honest, if they stopped using their workplace as a means of a social centre(ie nattering away and making customers wait) , then maybe they'd have more foot traffic, and in turn, sales

[thedarkmaster]

The guy at the counter, I think he was the manager, said the last couple of years had been slow business because of the recession. Modelmaking is a luxury and putting food on the table comes first.

.


Not something we are seeing at Modelzone, We are a significant % up on last year which was up on the one before etc etc.
The old " It's a luxury" storyline doesn't ring true with the evidence........It's how you make a shop that counts, it's customer care that counts, it's knowledge of product ( I now know more about model trains than i ever hoped to ) that counts, but most of all it's being available for the custone that is important and if these guys can't be bothered then the cusomers will go somewhere else. True fact.

[Martin H]

well, to be honest, if they stopped using their workplace as a means of a social centre(ie nattering away and making customers wait) , then maybe they'd have more foot traffic, and in turn, sales

That has always been a problem at both the old and current locations.

They are now franchise of Hannants, not part of the Hannants company any more. They have to pay to use the name.

Plus I heard part of the franchise deal means they can only aquire their stock from Hannants it self. which means they cant shop around for cheaper wholesalers. That is only a rumor I've heard, so I have no idea if it is true.

[Army of One]

I have been to the old and the new shops..... I have to say that I was not impressed with the service in the new shop. I asked for some specific kits to be told they are not made anymore (possibly true) and haven't been available for years (mmmm....) so I went and had a look....found the ones I wanted,but couldn't be bothered to hand my hard earned cash over....ordered them from the Aviation Hobby shop instead....from the very helpful/friendly/chatty lady who answers the phone....always helps re an enq so I'm more likely to hand my cash over...I have always thought H have been over rated...no disrespect to anyone there.....but if you can't be arsed to help a customer then how do you expect them to hand there money over....the MZ's I frequent have friendly staff who may not always know exactly the correct answer re a specific enquiry but will always try and find out....to the point of being kept in a shop as the computer said one was in stock and the chap was going to find it....and he did...!!!! Awesome service and a pleasure to hand my money over..

[entlim]

so I went and had a look....found the ones I wanted,but couldn't be bothered to hand my hard earned cash over....ordered them from the Aviation Hobby shop instead....from the very helpful/friendly/chatty lady who answers the phone....
[/quote]

Jan or her daughter Claire are always on the ball, as is Tony

[Army of One]

I'm sure Jan is her name.....so helpful.....always apologetic if not in stock.....1st choice for mail order for me!!!

[tigercat]

Having been to both recently you can see the difference

TAHS is crammed to the gunnels with stock  while New Hannants is an echoey barn of  a place

[NARSES2]

I think the decline in the shop is more down to the fact that being a franchise they have to buy the stock and therefore can't hold as much, whereas previously being part of a larger company they were almost an extra warehouse. I was in the old store many a time when they were shipping stock back to the main warehouse as it had run out.

As for the social club atmosphere. Nothing wrong with that as long as you attend to customers first. The old store was far worse for that and some of the staff were almost surly because you interupted their conversation and model building. Jay Lafferty being a notable exception 

The distance from the tube doesn't help either. I and a few others I know could do it in a lunchbreak from Central London, now it's not on plus it's on the wrong side of the RAF Museum and if you don't know it's there !!!. I met some US enthusiasts in the pub Nick has mentioned (may have been with him) and when they saw my Hannants bag they exclaimed "where did you get that ?". No idea the new store was there.

As for a general decline in sales. I agree with Darkmaster in that I don't think modelling has suffered to badly in the recession. In fact it may have benefited. See my musings in the SIG Newsletter editorials. It's a particular hobbyhorse of mine.

As far as Hannants improvement in response times is concerned, if it's down to a decline in sales then they are down 90% or so. It's probably due to their new IT system and other procedural changes brought about by this. Plus they probably realise that in difficult times they have to respond more quickly. I know it goes slightly against my paragraph above but you should never underestimate the power of "doom and gloom" newspaper content to chivvy up the "tardy" in business. Anyhow I'm not really bothered why or how they've done it, because it now works for me 

[kitbasher]

I initially thought the sparseness of the shop was relative - larger premises (it seemed) + same stock = feeling of less stock.  But over time stock has appeared actually rather thin.  My LMS is TAHS, and Holborn Modelzone is just round the corner from work so I'm spoilt.  ED Models (sadly no longer with us) was an LMS of sorts as it was just round the corner from the in-laws.  F&S Models is not far from my mum's - nice little general model shop that inmany ways is a relic of the past, but deserves a good future.
I remember when Manchester Modelzone was Bootle Street Model Shop and actually selling stuff (train sets, RC models, etc) on 2 floors AND here was a big branch of Beatties Models (now MZ) in central Manchester too.  Halcyon days!

[NARSES2]

I've only been to the Aviation Hobby Shop once and to be honest was a little disapointed. To be fair it was ages ago when Hannants at Hendon was in it's prime and chock full of exotic resin and limited run kits, but I thought of it more as an aviation bookshop with models. My recollection is that I only bought some Lifecolor paints there. The lady serving was exceptionally helpfull though. May have to go down again, but ot's a train/tube/train trip each way for me so takes about 2 hours each way.

Chris