RichClark

My local WC has turned into a "Lets make Pens" store.. when it opened a few years ago it was well stocked and had the cadre of 'cheap retired help'. One was the past president of the local woodworkers guild and he was a nice fellow that made beautiful flip tables (one was on display). I bought a SC Granite TS there and they bent over backwards to ship it to the store and get it into my Garage. Fast forward to now. The store is understocked, the good guy is not around the ones you meet are "turners (no offense)" and they have 5 mini lathes out front now for "turning" classes. I think part of this is the economy. The stores are tightening their belts and I remember my retail days as you had to buy a minimum order of XZY at a cost of $$$ to carry the product. You could then order pieces as you sold them. 10 months ago I wanted a Joiner plane and bought a 7.5 LN from them. There was no "testing" none there has a clue what a plane is used for... Maybe we whip up an article on using a plane to clean up a pen? I got my Birthday card and went in and there was nothing I wanted in the store that I wanted to buy. So I went online and ordered a set of chisels from LN for my Birthday/Xmas present...

You have good stores and bad ones but the good ones we enjoy and not yell to LN about. The bad ones I am sure they hear of. I think they received allot of feed back on the bad along with the stores pushing their junk WR planes.

And they had enough with them.. I am going to go out of my way and see if the WC store in St. Pete is better then the one in Sarasota... I do like the wood they stock... expensive as it is...

Rich