Model Railroading > Caboose Hobbies is Renewed again with Chris from Athearn

This just came across my Facebook feed from Caboose's official page.  This is copied exactly, so don't shoot the messenger regarding the political garbage:

CABOOSE BECOMES AN EMPLOYEE-OWNED PUBLIC BENEFIT CORPORATION, and CHRIS PALOMAREZ JOINS CABOOSE AS GENERAL MANAGER.LAKEWOOD, COLORADO JULY 2, 2020 – Now, more than ever, we as a society are called to true community, one that works for all of its participants. We at Caboose therefore stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters of color, firm in the conviction that Black Lives Matter, in calling for an end, once and for all, of systemic racism on the part of our public institutions and individual citizens.Cultivating community has always been central to our purpose at Caboose, where we have been sharing our passion for trains since 1938. We are therefore proud to announce, effective June 1, 2020 that Caboose is now a 100% employee-owned public benefit corporation. Public benefit corporations are chartered around a larger, overarching purpose to balance stakeholder interests and make a difference in the world. The public benefit purposes, as stated in our corporate charter are “to serve the worldwide community of train enthusiasts in the enjoyment of our shared passion for trains; to empower our employees through majority employee ownership; and to do so in a manner that creates a material positive impact on society and the environment, taken as a whole.”To that end, we are pleased to announce that Chris Palomarez, former brand manager at Athearn Trains, has joined the Caboose team as its general manager, also effective June 1, 2020.“Ever since we purchased the iconic train store Caboose Hobbies in 2016, it has been our purpose to be a beneficial presence in our local and worldwide communities, and to make a profound positive difference through employee ownership,” said Caboose PBC President and CEO Kevin Ruble. “Immediately after we closed our store location in mid-March in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we set the intention of re-launching even greater than before, with fresh inventory, a new enterprise resource program (“ERP”), and new e-commerce presence to provide our valued customers the world-class experience they so clearly deserve. We are pleased to have Chris join our team at this momentous point in Caboose’s rich 82-year history, and look forward to his playing a critical role in this re-launch and future success.”



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/02/20 18:04 by santafe3751.

Good news! (I hope)
Whenever I'd stop by, I'd always drop 50 or 60 bucks from "impulse buying." (Something I know model railroaders rarely do...) 
Last time I was there, there was hardly enough inventory to break a window with.
Looking forward to good things happening at Caboose!

Back in the late 90s and early 2000s, I bet I spent a small fortune with them thru mail ordering! This was back in the good ole days when I had an Ho scale layout running thru two different rooms of our house! Sadly in all those years I never did get to visit the actual store.

The title says Caboose Hobbies but in truth, this is a new store opened a few years ago, new owner, etc. Not the same. But it appears many fantisize this is Caboose Hobbies. It's not.

Anyway, maybe Chris P will be the Lee Iacoca of Caboose and rescue them, like Chrysler. It reminds me of the NY lottery slogan, "Hey, you never know!"

Posted from Android

Does this mean that they might have some stock on the shelves now?

Theoretically that's the plan. At last time I checked the go-fund-me had only around $750 of the 50k goal. Not sure where the money is going to come from. Remember the old saying about making a small fortune by starting with a large one. Chris P is either crazy or a genius. Only time will tell.

Posted from Android

I heard TAPS playing a long time ago. Nothing said here has changed for me.

        Either way, that statement had to come from a professional speech type writer. 

Chris P. leaves Athearn Inc., to run a hobby shop near Denver, CO. All I can say is best of luck dude. I sincerely hope you achieve the success you're gunning for.


~ Mr. MRL

All that comes to mind when I read this is the moment Capt. Smith tell's Mr. Murdock to take the Titanic to sea.

Posted from Android

I think he needs a good web designer.
Vendors are very good to very bad about orgainization of their on-line merchandise.  
The most useless of all are the ones with no "in stock" sorting function.  I have wasted too much time reading lists of equipment that is not in stock.
 

I don't want to rain on someone's parade, but for anyone hoping to attract customers to a failing business, with a very questionable reputation, (No, Virginia, this is NOT the legendary Caboose Hobbies) to put out a statement like they did, is just plain SUICIDE!  For every one person who might fall for this B.S., in my opinion, they will totally and completely TURN OFF another HUNDRED!  All they needed to do, was to announce a reopening, with new management and positive model railroad themed and sound business & customer service oriented comments.  Honestly, this sounds like something that was composed after a long night of using way too much of multiple controlled substances.

I would normally wish anyone opening a MR store great success, but this statement has utterly turned me off and they will never see a dime of my money.  

Hope you are all doing well,

Allen Drucker

Streamliner Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't want to rain on someone's parade, but for
> anyone hoping to attract customers to a failing
> business, with a very questionable reputation,
> (No, Virginia, this is NOT the legendary Caboose
> Hobbies) to put out a statement like they did, is
> just plain SUICIDE!  For every one person who
> might fall for this B.S., in my opinion, they will
> totally and completely TURN OFF another HUNDRED!
>  All they needed to do, was to announce a
> reopening, with new management and positive model
> railroad themed and sound business & customer
> service oriented comments.  Honestly, this sounds
> like something that was composed after a long
> night of using way too much of multiple controlled
> substances.
>
> I would normally wish anyone opening a MR store
> great success, but this statement has utterly
> turned me off and they will never see a dime of my
> money.  
>
> Hope you are all doing well,
>
> Allen Drucker

Thanks for saying this. I found the announcement pretty extreme.

TJY

Might be a bit like Gimli going into Mordor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO0x7vL2T90


 

>Thanks for saying this. I found the announcement pretty extreme. TJY

Hey, it's liberal Colorado, what did you expect, lol!

When I walk into a train shop the last thing I want to hear is the owner or salesperson spouting off about the politics of the day. Whatever side is being spouted. I'm buying stuff to help me model a railroad. I'm not modeling politics. As for caboose or any other shop, I want to see things for sale that I can use. And someone who can answer railroad modeling questions. I really don't need or want the rest of the baggage. I love hobby shopping online because most sites that want to make money have turned off politics. And if they haven't, there are plenty of other choices.

Streamliner Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't want to rain on someone's parade, but for
> anyone hoping to attract customers to a failing
> business, with a very questionable reputation,
> (No, Virginia, this is NOT the legendary Caboose
> Hobbies) to put out a statement like they did, is
> just plain SUICIDE!  For every one person who
> might fall for this B.S., in my opinion, they will
> totally and completely TURN OFF another HUNDRED!
>  All they needed to do, was to announce a
> reopening, with new management and positive model
> railroad themed and sound business & customer
> service oriented comments.  Honestly, this sounds
> like something that was composed after a long
> night of using way too much of multiple controlled
> substances.
>
> I would normally wish anyone opening a MR store
> great success, but this statement has utterly
> turned me off and they will never see a dime of my
> money.  
>
> Hope you are all doing well,
>
> Allen Drucker

Agreed, Could not have said it better myself. I also found the announcement pretty extreme......

I only skimmed the statement at first and was wondering what people were talking about.  Now I see what it's all about.  We get bombarded now from all angles in the present day and people are getting weary of it. 

Just what is "a new enterprise resource program (“ERP”)" that's mentioned in their post?  I have no idea what that means and have never heard of it.  KJN

Palomarez gets to escape the clutches of Horizon and have the opportunity to be more of his own boss.

Perhaps he can quit the BS the new Caboose has an 82 year history. Truthfully they don't even have an 82 month history.