[autoavia]

Dave does make a lot of relevant points but to me one of the biggest reasons why there are less sales is because, over the years, Scalextric dealers have simply disappeared from a majority of town centres. If you want the public to buy they need to be able to see the product and the surest way to fire their imagination is to dangle the product under the nose of the prospective buyer without them needing to go search for it.

 The loss of dealers also means that there is nowhere to go for help and advice if a car stops working and I know of several children who were bought Scalex sets which were consigned to the loft after a short time because a car stopped working. Often the problems are things like damaged braids or a cracked pinion - all very easy to repair but, in modern times, most people just don't have the basic skills to find and resolve these problems without help from a knowledgeable dealer and Dad never has time to drive miles to find help usually expecting that he is going to have to spend a fortune on repairs when he gets there which is not usually the case. A large part of the reason for the breakdowns is that children just aren't taught how to look after things anymore which is why the poor abused slot car has given up the ghost.   
 
 When I owned my own model shop in the late 80's I looked at stocking Scalextric but it just wasn't viable.
The deal was that I had to take a certain number of each set and once I had committed to buy the sets I could buy other items BUT Argos, who were a few hundred yards up the road were selling the base Mighty Metro Set for around £35 and Hornby wanted me to pay £35 plus vat for the same set so my option would be to sell them for less than cost or still be stuck with them when it came to committing to buy new sets the following year.

At that time Hornby also had a policy of unloading excess warehouse stock cheaply through one dealer in Southend (now long gone) who then sold all the stuff on at huge discounts effectively killing off most of the other Scalex and Hornby railway dealers in the area. It wouldn't have been so bad if other dealers were offered the same stock but my understanding was always that it was an exclusive deal for the one retailer.    


 It is probably fair to say that most set sales happen around Christmas and for many years Hornby had management who thought that it was ok to produce what Dave described as "dumbed down" sets for catalogue companies and supermarkets who then undercut the Scalex dealers on price. It was only on Christmas Day that the buyer found that the cars had no lights, no interiors etc and that was why the set was cheap and what made it worse was that in some cases the set had been sold in a box with a picture that depicted cars with working lights which meant the customer felt even more let down. I worked for a Scalex dealer in the late 90's and it wasn't unusual to have customers with these dumbed down sets turn up after Xmas complaining that the lights didn't work having been told by the Hornby helpline to bring the set in to us for repair. We got the job of explaining why the lights didn't work while the catalogue, mail order companies and supermarkets just sat back and took their profit without a care in the world while the Scalex dealers dealt with the problems. 

 Dave also mentions putting scenery in pictures in the catalogue which seems a good idea BUT the picture in the catalogue has to reflect the set contents to comply with the Trade Descriptions Act although it would be a good idea to have pictures of scenic tracks on the accessories page to upsell pit buildings etc.   
I also wonder how many people actually buy the catalogue other than diehard enthusiasts/collectors. Maybe it would be better to have a cheaper catalogue which could be included with each set to fire the imagination when the box is first opened.  

 The idea of scenery is fine if you have the space but most modern houses tend to have small rooms which means no space for a permanent layout and often very little room to set up a set on the floor. Even the garage seems to get filled with junk as most modern houses have garages which are too small for modern cars. Unfortunately there is nothing Hornby can do about this.

I know I have specifically mentioned Hornby in my rant but this is because Hornby dominate the UK market. I am sure other makers of "toy" slot cars in other countries have similar problems for similar reasons.

Having retired I would be only too happy to look at setting up a small business offering slot car repairs and a range of cars but I couldn't afford the investment or the space to buy and store sets. From Hornby's point of view they are unlikely to be interested partly because they want to promote set sales and also because they may feel it would be unfair to the toy shops who sell their sets although the nearest shop is between 10 and 15 miles away and has no repair service.

I think Hornby are still trying to recover from the effects of poor decisions made by previous managements over many years together with the effects that changes in retail have had on the hobby trade generally. One of the biggest changes in retail for the hobby industry is that the traditional model shop where you could get specialist advice has been killed off by excessive rents and business rates which make it all but impossible to make a profit and that specialist advice helped massively in selling the product. Hornby do seem to have a better understanding of the slot car market now and have invested heavily in new tooling etc in recent times so they deserve to succeed.  

Incidentally, for those who don't know me, I have been there, read the book, seen the play and the film and after 7 years hard work came out the other end £70,000 poorer. Please don't think I am bitter about this. I had a great time and met many people that I could only have hoped to meet in my dreams but it would have been an awful lot nicer if I still had a business and was still able to do my bit to promote slot car racing and all the other aspects of the hobby industry.