Am I wrong to say "support those who support you", not to people but to traders?

[BradG]

Recently I've been getting the attitude from some long term traders and supporters of our modeling event that the smaller events "aren't worth my time". I ruffled a few feathers with one when I mentioned the fact our members spend a good amount of coin with them each year and I always say to our members; support those traders who support us. Support for our event for anyone wanting to trade is less than the retail cost of a Hasegawa 1/48 scale fighter, keep in mind!

 

This 'me me me' attitude seems to be growing my it also effects our sporting club where players want to get paid to play yet when asked to volunteer some time to help the juniors (we're talking a couple of days per year for each player and people like me are there almost every week), many just refuse to help out. Again, I tell blokes to stump up, drink less on a Saturday night and make an effort in the junior program Sunday mornings. Actually I edited out the profanity there as it is a cricket club so you know, we swear a lot.

 

So I've copped a bit of flak (that happens pretty regularly) for basically telling someone "support our members because we line your pocket with our hard earned throughout the year". Am I just being a heartless, blunt, hard, SOB, or do I have a point that co-operation and support is a two way street?

[repeater]

Agreed. Give and take.

[Wumm]

No Brad,

 

This is a perfectly acceptable point of view that you've put forward. As margins get tighter across all industries, not just the Hobby market, retailers and businesses are made to see that service is very often the defining point where decisions are made between purchase options.

 

We've just had the QMHE show here in Brisbane... There's a Trader that comes most years (No names, but he's from Adelaide, so it's a very long round trip), some years he doesn't get here, but he always manages to sponsor a couple of show categories even if he can't make it. This is the sort of thing that gets noticed by a lot of Modellers, and often online purchases are made that reflect this fact, certainly in my case at least.

 

It's in everyone's interest for the health of the Hobby.

 

Steve