The Death And Life Of Great Pen Stores

[Pen Nut]

  On 9/10/2013 at 9:26 PM, The Good Captain said:

I thought the original theme of this topic was about pen shops not just Montblanc 'boutiques' in other over-priced shops. as franchises. If only the Trafford Centre gave discount vouchers at the parking meters, then I suppose I might have considered shopping there. Thankfully, I no longer have to consider the Manchester prices. And I used to go to Old Trafford when football was real.

That's 'soccer' for those of you who shop in other areas. And note that this Brit still used proper English terms.

 

I do wish there was other multi brand pen outlets that I could talk about but sadly there is not 'ooop North' so if isnt wasnt for The Pen Shop we would have nowhere at all to go

 

You werent a Stretford Ender were you by any chance when you was/were (cant decide on proper English) following proper football??

[The Good Captain]

  On 9/11/2013 at 9:40 AM, Pen Nut said:

 

I do wish there was other multi brand pen outlets that I could talk about but sadly there is not 'ooop North' so if isnt wasnt for The Pen Shop we would have nowhere at all to go

 

You werent a Stretford Ender were you by any chance when you was/were (cant decide on proper English) following proper football??

You are right about The Pen Shop and I've had a bit of stuff from the branch on King street in the past. Sadly, I never went in the Stretford End. I was somewhere in the middle of one of the side stands during the 67-68 season and saw home legs against Real Madrid and Benfica - different competitions. More recently; family stand L and last visit in 1999 I think - FA Cup against Fulham.

[amk]

A few thoughts;

 

- Rent is a big item. A lot of the good internet sellers seem not to be located downtown, but in out-of-town locations whether business parks or home premises. Maybe the answer in future is for internet businesses to run a 'by appointment' system where customers can visit if they wish - I know a number of antiques and antiquarian book business that work on this basis. (Other specialised businesses that used to be on the high street have relocated to business parks - particularly ironmongers, hobby businesses, and so on.)

 

- I wonder what is the cost of inventory compared to the cost of rent? Many shops appear to have very limited inventory, to keep costs low, but that's a vicious circle - the less inventory they have, the less attractive they are to me as a customer, since I don't get the chance to try out new pens or different brands, and the less likely I am to visit or to buy... A lot of B&M stores don't look past the obvious brands (Parker, Waterman, Lamy, Cross) - if a B&M store has less well known brands like Kaweco, Delta, Laban, or Japanese pens, I'm far more likely to visit. (Kudos to Jarrolds in Norwich which carries many more brands than any other department store outside London. Just wish they did Diamine inks.) In the UK, no B&M as far as I know carries Bexley or Edison, and I haven't found Monteverde, either. That's a big missed opportunity.

 

- As far as FP advocacy and expanding the buying public goes, I think FPN and the Goulet videos are doing a much better job than any number of B&Ms. If I was running a B&M I'd be visiting schools and colleges with entry-level FPs for sale, and running 'try an italic nib' days!

[bleair]

Just to follow up..

I had gone into a Flax art store (here in San Francisco) a few weeks ago and it was not pleasant.

 

I returned a second time last week Thursday, and this time it was such a different experience.

 

The first person I asked was friendly but didn't know a great deal about fountain pens, but he went and got someone who was and she was great. She was happy to show me things. She answered my questions. She even volunteered information (gasp) and offered ideas and suggestions for what I might notice as I wrote with the different pens they inked up. Even cooler was how she was glad to show me examples of flex writing and some general concept related to all of that. She was patient and generally nice (such a crazy concept). I realized that I wasn't quite ready to spend money on an expensive pen just yet (I still don't know enough about what it is that I do / don't want), but I did buy several bottles of ink and pads and some other supplies. Perhaps on my first visit everyone working there had been having a really really bad day.

 

I like the idea of supporting my local shop and now I won't dread going to Flax again. I do hope I continue to get lucky with nice rather mean staff.

Edited September 12, 2013 by bleair

[Tom Aquinas]

I still pay the premium for a B&M store pen. It is not the lucky dip you get on ebay. Some of the US mail order stores are fantastic, I must concede and they do stand behind the product they sell.

[allebannep]

It all goes in circle, sales of all writing instruments in general have been declining for years already, big and small pen stores have been closing down dramatically worldwide, almost all pen manufacturers have entered a deep crisis and a few of them have even bankrupted. This is the normal cycle of any products. Luxury pens have entered the downside of the cycle since years ago.

Fountain pen users or luxury pens users have become a small niche and even if this niche is getting bigger it is still a niche that cannot absorb all the big offer of pens the manufacturers used to make and are still making.

The market has changed and the all system needs to be reset. Internet is a reality, and Internet is part of the solution, but it is only a tool, you still need a good strategy. I bought my last two pens from Loclen, a small and relatively new manufacturer that sells directly, no distribution costs at all, the result is that the pen is much, much less expensive. Do you need to try the pen? No problems, you try it and if you don’t like it you get even more money back than the amount you paid. They put me on a pedestal, they focused on me and the way to make me happy no matter what.

All this big pen players will have to adjust their strategy if they want to stay in business. There is no more reason to keep paying $1000 for a pen just for maintaining a distribution system that doesn’t exist anymore or that it will be disappearing soon, when you could just paying $200. This is the reality and this will be the future. The customer is the king.