What ever happened to Beatties?
Richard Myers
I was thimbing through som old MRs and found a full back page add for
Beatties. The issue is September 81 (55p BTW).
At that time Beatties advertised that they were "Europes leading model and
stores" and listed 19 stores.
What happended? Does anyone know the story ?
Just curious, nothing important
Bill Foote
Many years ago, Beatties belonged to "Colonel S.N. Beattie"
(long since departed this earth), and started in a shop in
Southgate, North London, selling second hand Meccano and
Trains - I remember him well for his vitriolic hatred of
Meccano Ltd ("get rid of that Hornby Dublo rubbish and buy
some nice new Trix here") - Meccano refuse him a dealership
because he would have been poaching the territory belonging
to their long established local dealer (Janes & Adams, Green
Lanes, Palmers Green)
He later bought up the Basset Lowke shops in London
(Holborn) and Manchester
When he retired, the business was bought up by Richard
Kohnstamm Ltd (registered office in Hemel Hempstead), who
expanded it into a chain of toy shops, gradually playing
down the "serious" modelling side - in the process of this,
they have absorbed several other small/medium model/toy
businesses, e.g. Trents (who belonged to, or at least had a
close connection with, Airfix Ltd)
Incidentally, when I was in Beatties in Holborn (no longer
in the old B-L premises) a few weeks ago, they had a
selection of Maerklin H0 bits and bobs (mainly spares, but
also some K-track) going cheap, so they do seem to be
mogving even further away from their roots (N.B. dont bother
going there in the hope of finding any cheap Maerklin bits -
there were none left after my visit!)
--
====================================================================
Bill Foote, +44 (0)118-931-8439
(Voice, DDI)
Applications & Advanced Computing,
Computer Services, +44 (0)118-975-3094
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====================================================================
Roland Perry
In article <OmdBSL$Z9GA.204@uppubnews03>, Richard Myers
<newto...@email.msn.com> writes
>What happended? Does anyone know the story ?
They still exist, and have quite a few stores. By modern standards they
seem less exciting (for boxed toys) than a Toys R Us, and I presume they
have lost a lot of market share to supermarkets creaming off seasonal
toy sales. They still do a lot of "Airfix" models, and mainly HO/OO RTR
trains. Support for N is more patchy.
--
"Time is an illusion. Launch times doubly so".
James Finister
My father was a Trix sales rep for sometime, indeed the Colonel was one of
his accounts. Nice bodies, but mechanically most Trix products were
amazingly poor. There were some model shops my father was embarrassed ever
to go back to because of the vast amounts of Trix he had managed to off load
on them.
Bill Foote wrote in message <35346432...@reading.ac.uk>...
Robert Pearce
On Wed, 15 Apr 1998 Roland Perry informed uk.rec.models.rail that :
They still have a small rack of Airfix stuff, but the vast majority of
the store is taken up with exactly the sort of "seasonal toys" that
Tescos sell.
--
Rob Pearce
Chief Engineer of the Sump, Laisse and Huneausware Railway
Peter Ellis
The message <35346432...@reading.ac.uk>
from Bill Foote <w.d.n...@reading.ac.uk> contains these words:
> When he retired, the business was bought up by Richard
> Kohnstamm Ltd (registered office in Hemel Hempstead), who
> expanded it into a chain of toy shops, gradually playing
> down the "serious" modelling side - in the process of this,
> they have absorbed several other small/medium model/toy
> businesses, e.g. Trents (who belonged to, or at least had a
> close connection with, Airfix Ltd)
I have an idea that Kohnstam have in turn sold out to Tamiya and that
the importing, wholesaling and retailing is all now Japanese owned.
Cheers
Peter.
Paddy Coleman
I am not sure how they survive. Even their ordinary toys (non-railway) are
overpriced when compared to Woollies, Argos and the supermarkets.
Peter Ellis wrote in message <199804160...@zetnet.co.uk>...
Stuart Pearce
Paddy Coleman wrote in message <6h6u3d$f...@hyperion.mfltd.co.uk>...
>I am not sure how they survive. Even their ordinary toys (non-railway) are
>overpriced when compared to Woollies, Argos and the supermarkets.
One thing that Beatties do (or at least did - I know they never advertised
it)
was price-matching. So, however high the marked prices, all you had to do
was produce a copy of RM or something and they would sell at the best
price you could find in there.
I'm not sure if they still do this - does anyone know?
Stuart
Mike Parkes
"Stuart Pearce" <stuart...@virgin.net> wrote:
>One thing that Beatties do (or at least did - I know they never advertised
>it)
>was price-matching. So, however high the marked prices, all you had to do
>was produce a copy of RM or something and they would sell at the best
>price you could find in there.
>
>I'm not sure if they still do this - does anyone know?
You had be a member of the "Beatties Club" to obtain the price match -
I used it to a great extent. Have no idea whether it is still carried
out, they don;t have much railway stuff to "price match" nowadays
anyway.
Mike Parkes
-----------------------------------------
***********Model Railways UK************
http://www.mphgate.demon.co.uk/menu.html
-----------------------------------------
John East
In article <6h8buk$q3f$1...@nclient3-gui.server.virgin.net>, Stuart Pearce
<stuart...@virgin.net> writes
>
>
>One thing that Beatties do (or at least did - I know they never advertised
>it)
>was price-matching. So, however high the marked prices, all you had to do
>was produce a copy of RM or something and they would sell at the best
>price you could find in there.
>
>I'm not sure if they still do this - does anyone know?
Certainly they did in the eighties - but you had to be a member of the
Beatties club. It just seemed to die - one day I realised that I hadnt
heard anything for a long time. They also started to publish a kind of
catalogue with stick-in pictures but that seemed to go the same way.
In those days the Nottingham branch was fairly well stocked but the
staff were hopeless!
I think the last items I bought from them in that way were the 4-4-0's
Stowe, Midland Compound, D49.
--
John East
"Instead of loving your enemies, treat your friends a little better!"
E. W. Howe (1853-1937)
ADRIAN DAVID SHAW
One less now - Northampton branch seems to have just closed down; at least it
wasn't there anymore last Friday. Well, there's too many toy shops already,
and not enough model shops, so what do they expect?
Ahh, I remember the days, when I was just getting into model railways - late
'70's I guess, just staring at the models in Beatties in Southampton and
deciding that some day I would be able to buy myself that GBP60-odd Big Boy
they had on display. Never did though - I'm now into continental modelling!
Adrian
--
Dr. Adrian Shaw ais@
Sefydliad Y Gwyddorau Biolegol, Prifysgol Cymru, aber.
Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, Cymru ac.
http://pcjagg.dbs.aber.ac.uk/mynegai.html uk
Paddy Coleman
Swindon branch also closed a few months ago.
Paddy
Swindon, UK.
ADRIAN DAVID SHAW wrote in message <6hi10u$p0d$1...@osfa.aber.ac.uk>...
Bill Foote
The Reading branch definitiely seems to be running down
anything that could be termed Model Railways, as distinct
from Toy Trains
Until recently, they had one shelf of Peco and similar
modellers' products which also had a notice saying that
Flexi-Track was stocked, but these have now vanished
On enquiring yesterday for 00/H0 flexi-track, I was shown
one box containing a few yard/metre lengths of H0/00 and N,
and was offered Hornby (Tinned Steel) 00 - when I asked for
Peco, I was then offered Peco Tinned Steel, and when I said
I wanted Nicel Silver the reaction was "we wont have that" -
I then had a poke and found one length of Peco 00/H0 NS that
had lost its label
The level of interest shown by the staff suggested that once
the oddments left had gone there would be no more (or else
Beatties are recruiting their staff from Dixons computer
counters!)
Roland Perry
In article <353D9B52...@reading.ac.uk>, Bill Foote
<w.d.n...@reading.ac.uk> writes
>The level of interest shown by the staff suggested that once
>the oddments left had gone there would be no more
I must go back and have a look at the Kingston (on Thames) branch. They
have a whole wall for N and HO model trains, but I have seen a distinct
de-stocking since Xmas, and if the shelves are still half empty I will
begin to smell a rat...
Roland Perry
In article <Xrr$jGEYue...@netcom.net.uk>, Roland Perry
<rol...@perry.co.uk> writes
>I must go back and have a look at the Kingston (on Thames) branch. They
>have a whole wall for N and HO model trains,
Did that yesterday. The upper floor has been remodelled, and the space
for model trains is now about half what it was. They seem to have lost
most of the "fiddly bits" that modeller (as opposed to a child RTR-er)
might buy. [1].
In particular, there was very little N gauge track, especially turnouts.
(Nor empty space to put them). Just about the whole stock was a pair of
scissors crossings and a double switched crossover, both rather
expensive and esoteric items, which makes me think they are just the
unsold dregs. If they had been marked down at all, I might have just
bought them :-)
Their former cabinet of a dozen or so Farish engines and carriages has
been kept.
[1] The same trnd in their Holborn branch.
Richard J. Standing
On Thu, 11 Jun 1998, Roland Perry wrote:
> Did that yesterday. The upper floor has been remodelled, and the space
> for model trains is now about half what it was. They seem to have lost
> most of the "fiddly bits" that modeller (as opposed to a child RTR-er)
> might buy. [1].
>
> In particular, there was very little N gauge track, especially turnouts.
> (Nor empty space to put them). Just about the whole stock was a pair of
> scissors crossings and a double switched crossover, both rather
> expensive and esoteric items, which makes me think they are just the
> unsold dregs. If they had been marked down at all, I might have just
> bought them :-)
>
> Their former cabinet of a dozen or so Farish engines and carriages has
> been kept.
>
> [1] The same trnd in their Holborn branch.
> --
That seems to be the same with every Beatties. Beatties in Reading
used to have 2 shelves of model railways, but it's now down to one! You're
lucky if you can even get brick paper there sometimes! Locos etc seem
quite expensive, but I gave up buying new years ago! Occasionally they
have special deals on rolling stock - last term they had some bogie
coaches in for under 10 pounds, but they were "obscure" prototypes. It's
certainly not the store it was - I can ( just ) remember the days when it
had a full back-page advert in RM, and I have back issues where they have
3-4 page adverts ( admittedly the pages were smaller then! ).