This is BIG NEWS for RC.

[Terry Keeley]

I call it "Global Walmartization" and saw it up close and personal in the airline business. People (in general) want the lowest price, period.

Another saying I love besides my sig line is: "The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.“

 

[Hydro Junkie]

Kind of follows the mentality of people now days:

I WANT IT ALL, I WANT IT NOW AND I'M NOT GOING TO PAY FULL PRICE FOR ANY OF IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I see this all the time at work. The kids coming in expect everything the company veterans are getting just for walking in the door while the veterans expect the kids to do everything since they had to when they were the new guys. It's kind of sad to watch when it comes to the "tug-o-war between the two groups. In the meantime, quality takes a hit as does the amount of knowledge in the workforce.

 

[Grimracer]

I think its also worth stating.. RC boat (all of RC) is a leisure activity.

Our smart phones for the money are about the hardest leisure activity to compete against. They are relatively inexpensive (less then a boat) and its easy to justify the monthly expense cuz.. I need a phone.

I can communicate, take pictures and videos, I can play games and instantly start and solve arguments on what way the toilet roll should hang.

Its easy, mobile, does not require fuel or closed toe shoes..

Who here spends more than 30 min a day on your personal device… I do! I use it for work, family, screwing off.. Face Book, Iwaters, Runryder, AND MORE!

AND NONE OF THEM ARE MADE IN THE US!

Reading Rods comments and adding the above.. it’s a REAL challenge.

Grim

 

[Hydro Junkie]

I, for one, refuse to get a smart phone for that reason, as well as several others. It's the same thing with Twitter, FB, all the online gaming, etc, no accounts or desire. After I learned how addictive all of this is in a psychology class a while back and how few places there are to treat the addiction, I said NO to smart phones. Instead, I have one of these on an account without internet access and very limited texting.

• 

The way I see it, if you can't put down your phone for a day without having to pick it up to check/answer texts, update Twitter/FB accounts or play an online game, you need to seek professional addiction treatment. Better yet, take a 14 night cruise that gets far enough from the US coast so that you can't pick up a cell tower. You would then have a choice:

Leave your phone home and deal with the symptoms of withdrawal while you're away

Bite the bullet and pay the fees. The cost of using your smart phone shipboard or roaming fees for outside the country might have you change your mind about having brought one along

 

[Grimracer]

I can use my phone VERY effectively. Say what you want.. BUT.. just like 6 laps.. how you manage the time is what wins and looses. Its NOT THE PHONE.

All I am saying is this.. the leasuer market in OUR price range (RC is a good one).. Bass boat with a campers plus side by side IS NOT..

IS the challenge the RC market faces,, IF your Cell phone was 25 grand we would NOT be having this conversation.

Add in the regulations and.. you have a challenged market.

Hobbico is 100 MILLION.. that's M I L L I O N in debt. it comes down to regulation, PISS POOR management, A BOD with there fingers in there ears for that to happen. NO MORE AND NO LESS. How the HE Double Tooth picks does that EVEN happen.. if you worked there.. you would know as I do...... they had to go cheap to try to play the game.. they sucked at it.. Regulation forced it and we all pay the price.

Grim

 

[Joenagy]

Grim

I like your coments on our phones

 

[Samuel Hagan JR]

I'm lost on phones causing a company to go bankrupt. Especially when you order product from that company with your phone. Makes perfect sense to me.

 

[Mike Cathey]

In the court filing Hobbico stated it had 10 to 50 million in assets and 100 to 500 million in liabilities....

I suspect Bruce knew exactly what he was doing......

With the Hobbico filed asset to debt ratio I also suspect it will be tough to sell.....

This has been going on for a long long time...This did not happen over night......

It is pretty obvious the management of Hobbico was really in over their heads....or.....

maybe they really knew what they were doing....who knows ???

I would be willing to bet the upper management of Hobbico is not worried about where their next meal is coming from.....

Don't be naïve.... HK is not the problem....The astronomical cost of doing business in the USA is the problem.......

When your business is controlled by government regulations,lawyers,unions and insurance companies

and financial protections from the cradle to the grave,costs are going to go through the roof...

I am not saying that is all bad but rules,rules and more rules costs money.... HK is not causing this result.....

Uh huh and don't forget taxes. When I had my trucking/truck repair business going I would think I was going to have a good month even after the expenses you mention but then add road taxes on diesel (we have the highest road tax on fuel in the country), excise, B&O (business and occupation), and sales revenue tax just gutted the profits. After 15 years I sold it and that put 12 drivers, 5 mechanics, 1 shop utility man and a secretary/book keeper out of a job or paying their own taxes. The math just doesn't add up. The bubblehead politicians at all levels of government in the State of Washington are as about as anti business as it gets unless you are Boeing or Microsoft who have most of these deadbeat professional politicians in their pocket.

 

[raptor347]

As to the smart phones, it's a tool. Don't blame an inanimate object for poor decisions and bad behavior on the part of opperators. Right up there with blaming spoons for being fat.

Hobbico's debt? Tough to get that deep without some really poor or calculated decisions on the part of management. The market is changing and lots of regs really suck, but $100M!

 

[Hydro Junkie]

I'm lost on phones causing a company to go bankrupt. Especially when you order product from that company with your phone. Makes perfect sense to me.

Phones came into the conversation from this post:

Our smart phones for the money are about the hardest leisure activity to compete against. They are relatively inexpensive (less then a boat) and its easy to justify the monthly expense cuz.. I need a phone.

I can communicate, take pictures and videos, I can play games and instantly start and solve arguments on what way the toilet roll should hang.

Its easy, mobile, does not require fuel or closed toe shoes..

Who here spends more than 30 min a day on your personal device… I do! I use it for work, family, screwing off.. Face Book, Iwaters, Runryder, AND MORE!

Smart phones have become a crutch, not a tool, that a majority feel they have to have.

I watched someone walk into a wall a while back because they were texting.

Someone was run over by a 787 main landing gear, losing both legs, because they were too busy with their smart phone to watch what was going on around them.

Car accidents happen every day because people are texting and driving

All that said, I use my phone for work and, when needed, to CALL the wife. Once in a blue moon, I order from Tower, Speedmaster, R/C Boat or Micromark. I don't need a smart phone for any of that so why have one? My cellphone bill is under $75 per month for two phones. Can anyone else say that? Those that are on their phones every chance they get won't ever do anything else and that, along with first person shooter video games, is where society is headed

As far as being $100 million in debt, there's only one place to look and that's the upper levels of management that made that happen. Notice, I didn't say LET, but MADE. It's kind of like the AMA which is bleeding to death, in it's case through bad upper level management, Hobbico is in a similar situation. Granted, we don't know what the execs knew or didn't, what they saw coming, or didn't. It's also possible the company grew too large to be able to adapt quickly enough to prevent declaring bankruptcy.

 

[Mark Poole ModVP]

Consider this, OMC...Outboard Marine Corporation (Johnson and Evinrude) was about 700 million in debt when it went belly up. But we are talking about a HOBBY company here. How does a hobby company get 100 mil in debt?? I agree, the place to look is upper management.

 

[Ray Sametz]

 

[Grimracer]

I'm lost on phones causing a company to go bankrupt. Especially when you order product from that company with your phone. Makes perfect sense to me.

The phone is just the "current" media that has interrupted our leisure time. Its not the ONLY thing that has a grasp on our free time but its a big one.

For the money.. for the value.. for the easy path to that stimuli. A smart phone has all other forms of stimuli beat hands down. So much so people can not stop or more yet endanger others..

I have a work crew of budding engineers working for me. The GOOD ones use the phone as a tool to better themselves.. the shitty ones use it to watch cat videos and chat with god knows who....lol EVEN AT WORK they can not stop using a device. I sit back and watch. And when the time comes.. I fill in the blanks for them...

Grim

 

[Eric Canto]

It is interesting to me that when a "big company" is doing well everyone says that "upper management" are crooks for making the money they do. But, when that same company is in trouble "upper management" must be to blame.