Grandma's Country Corners in Albany NY is the latest dealer to discontinue the Harbour Lights line. A few years back there were about 8 to 10 stores in this area where you could find Harbour Lights. Now there are two. (This is a familiar senerio. Remember when they automated lighthouses???) I am afraid that soon there will be none left here.

Is this happening elsewhere?

Unfortunately Mike,

The answer to your question is YES. It appears that dealers all over the country have been dropping like flies. It's really sad, especially since Harbour Lights appears to make little or no effort to keep the deserters. This was told to me by a dealer who left the fold.

bobo

I'm not sure what this means? In my opinion the only mistake Harbour Lights ever made was to increase the edition size to 10,000 so that they could take on more dealers, not more collectors. This would be the same mistake made twice if Harbour Lights was to get rid of the limited edition line and only provide open editions. That way there would be an unlimited supply of worthless giftware available to any dealer that wanted it.

imho

There already IS an unlimited supply of worthless giftware filling dealer's shelves...

Well one of the two dealers in our immediate area called Inglesnook is a chain of about 5 or 6 stores(?) and just so happens to be (possibly) going out of business so we'll lose them even if they weren't going to stop (which they probably would've eventually). Steve

It's not good news that a dealer is 'dropping Harbour Lights.' But if that's the news you get from a dealer, it could be one of several scenarios:

1. The store business is simply drying up. It's not Harbour Lights' fault. It's the economy and it could be that the business didn't look after its business or its customers. Maybe the local economy is especially tough.

2. It could be that Harbour Lights is not shipping this store any more product because they haven't paid their bill to the company. Under these tight times, Harbour Lights wouldn't be a good manager if it continued to ship products to a store that hadn't paid for the last bunch. The store is not likely to say to you "We're not carrying Harbour Lights anymore because we haven't paid our bill to them."

3. It could be that the owners are just tired of trying to make ends meet over the past 4-5 years of hard times for the collectibles business and are getting ready to close it up, but don't want to announce that just yet.

4. It could be that collectors are moving on or away. It could be that America is losing its facination with lighthouses.

5. It could be that ebay is undercutting prices from dealers. And that could be the fault of a few dealers who are offering new items for less than retail.

6. Perhaps the store is not located in an area with high lighthouse interest and they are trying to focus on what may be a part of their business 'closer to home.'

7. Maybe the store was 'branching out'; they were a furniture store or a flower shop and decided to add a few collectibles. Now they are refocusing on the original products and 'dropping' the collectibles.

8. It could be that Harbour Lights products are no longer the best (but I don't think so.)

So, because a store has decided to 'drop' Harbour Lights may or may not mean that the owners consider the product line no good. It may be a lot different than that.

Keep an open mind and consider the source.

Mike, are all 8 to 10 stores still in business? I mean still in the collectibles business?

It seems to be the trend. When I travel to the BIG ISLAND (the mainland), I always look in the HL site for dealers in the area. If they do have HL's in stock they are few in number and even fewer of the new lights are present. I've been here 9 years with no dealers available in the state. Thanks for my California connection , The Forum and eBay.

There are too many bargain hunters out there. People would rather take their chances with eBay and even at our New Marketplace than pay the retail price and support a local dealer.

I wonder how many autoships exist today as compared to five years ago. Autoships were pure "gravy" for dealers. It was a sure thing, a guaranteed sale with each new release.

I guess we all share part of the blame by buying and selling on eBay or amongst ourselves. Each sale we make is one less a dealer does.

The people with fire in their hearts for the Harbour Lights products has diminished through the years. Harbour Lights must find the key to establishing a larger customer base to truly keep the customer fires burning.

:rolleyes: Bob :rolleyes:

John - I believe that all of your reasons contribute to what is going on in the market, but the one contributing the most is #5. This is an area which Harbour Lights should address.

Of the stores in this area, I believe that four went out of business and four dropped the line.