Slot Car Corner Canada is Closing Down

[cgingras]

Here’s the short version of the story (see «THE LONG STORY» below for the longer and more detailed explanation):

After 10 years, Slot Car Corner Canada will cease its activities once all the inventory is gone. No new stock will be added. It has been fun while it lasted and I’ve made some great friends by selling quality slot car products across this great country but also all around the world.

I’m shutting it down now because I need more time to enjoy the hobby, and other hobbies also. Also, doing business in Canada/Québec for a hobby that is mainly based in Europe and the US has never been easy but it’s getting more difficult each year. Brokerage fees, currency conversion fees, higher shipping costs and people doing everything to avoid paying taxes means that Slot Car Corner Canada can’t compete on equal terms with other slot car dealers.

A growing inventory also means more room to store the products and I have reached the limit of what I can do in my house, even surpassed it. Those are the main reasons that explain why this is the end of the road for Slot Car Corner Canada.



And don’t be surprised if you get a call or an email one of these days because I’m in your area. I still have that dream of travelling across the country to do some slot car racing with some of you on the great tracks that you built in the last decade. Have fun!



HOW THE LIQUIDATION WILL WORK

Watch Slot Car Corner Canada’s website often in the next few weeks (www.slotcarcorner.ca). Pricing on all items will be subject to change (or not) at any moment, as I’m looking to get all the inventory out the door by minimizing my losses. But don’t procrastinate because once a particular product is gone, it won’t be back. If you want it, get it before someone else grabs it.That's as simple as this.

Please note the following:

* The price you pay when you buy is final. There will be no other discount added once you have confirmed your order. It's possible the pricing might change the next day. This is the very nature of a liquidation sale. Buy when you're comfortable with the price and you want to make sure nobody else will buy it before you do.

* I won’t set aside products for you to buy later and I won’t tell anyone when and if the pricing will change (as I don’t know myself). You want it? You order it and you pay for it. This will probably be a pretty chaotic period so I want to keep things as simple as possible.

* The SCCC Points Reward Programis still available for you to spend your previous SCCC Points. But SCCC Points can’t be earned anymore and they can’t be exchanged for money.

* The liquidation sale means that there will be A LOT more orders coming in so please understand that processing all those orders will take longer than usual. I will process all orders in the order they came in and do as quickly as possible, as I’ve always done.

* It’s possible that some items will be shipped in bulk, without the usual packaging. This will make everything faster, It’s also possible that I’ll run out of some packaging products, or jelly beans!

* While I make every effort to make sure the online inventory is right, discrepancies can and will occur. If a product is not available in the quantity you want, I'll refund the missing items and ship what's available.

* For international customers, please note that Small Packet Air is a cheaper shipping method that does not include tracking or insurance. All orders shipped via Small Packet Air are at the customer’s risk. There will be no refund, no credit and no replacement order if something goes wrong or if the order is lost in transit.



THE LONG STORY

10 years ago, I started Slot Car Corner Canada as the Canadian branch of Slot Car Corner, a slot car racing shop in the US created by my good friend Steve Sawtelle. From a few pairs of tires and a few packs of set screws and axle spacers, Slot Car Corner Canada has grown a lot since 2009. With now almost 2,000 different products in stock, from great brands like Slot.it, Sideways, Policar, ScaleAuto, etc. and over $100,000 in sales each year, I'm proud of what I was able to bring to the slot car hobby in Canada. Offering Canadian slot car racers a way to get products «locally» for their hobby, along with great customer service, was my goal from the start. And I think that I reached that goal for the most part, having fun and making a lot of friends along the way.

But after 10 years of doing this, after having a lot of fun and making some great friends, I've come to the conclusion over the last few months that it was time to close shop, for many reasons explained below.

More time for racing and other hobbies

Running Slot Car Corner Canada, while (mostly) fun, is time-consuming. Shipping orders, answering to customer requests, managing inventory, maintaining the website, managing all the financial aspects of owning a business, ordering products, dealing with customs/couriers, filling in all the paperwork, dealing with defective products, etc.; all of this takes time, every day. So much time, in fact, that I find that I don't have time to enjoy slot car racing as much as I would like to. I race with friends regularly but I no longer have time to tune cars and work on new projects. I have hundreds of cars that I want/need to work on and I want more time to enjoy the hobby that I love so much.

I also have other hobbies that I want to get deeper into. Photography, in particular, has become something I want to get better at. I've joined a group of photographers (amateur and professional) here in Québec City and our goal is to make sure all sporting and cultural events in the city are covered by some press and photo coverage. This is an important project for me and I need time to make a valid contribution.

Cost of doing business in Canada/Québec

With the huge increase in online shopping in recent years, we are now used to shop anywhere in the world, wait a few days (or weeks) and get our products delivered to our door. In many cases, when the products are bought outside Canada, there are no GST/PST/HST to pay. But for all products bought in Canada, those taxes have to be paid. That means that for Canadian businesses to survive and compete, they must lower their pricing and reduce their profit margin. Add to that the fact that there are currency conversion fees, customs broker fees and shipping fees that have to be paid by Canadian businesses buying their products mostly from US and international distributors, and you have a perfect recipe for a very low profit margin.

Governments need to understand that as long as products coming from outside Canada are not taxed the same way as products from within Canada, citizens will buy international. For individuals, this is a great deal... in the short term. But when Canadian money leaves the country, it does not come back and it does not contribute to our economy. When Canadian businesses close down because their profit margins are too low, it weakens our economy even more. In the long run, this is a road that leads directly to an economic disaster. Unfortunately, no government wants to be the one who will announce that all products coming across the border will now be taxed. They're too busy thinking about the next election, when they should be busy making sure our economy will be doing great 10 years from now. Netflix and Mélanie Joly, anyone?!

Storage space needed for products

As you all probably know by now, Slot Car Corner Canada is a part-time business that is ran from the basement of my home in Québec City. My wife and my daughters have been very supportive of this adventure since the beginning. But with the addition of many product lines in the last few years, the inventory has started to spread beyond my slot car room and into the exercice room, the garage and the office. Not good. Low profit margins mean that I can't rent a storage facility to store products. And seriously downsizing is not an option if I want to keep offering a variety of quality products.

Digital, Scratch Building, 1/24-Scale

In recent years, the hobby has started changing. Digital racing has mostly become the norm for new enthusiasts who are starting the hobby on plastic tracks. Scratch building is embraced by more and more experienced racers who want to go beyond the plastic chassis cars. And 1/24-scale has become increasingly popular with the release of many new models by Carrera, ScaleAuto, BRM, etc. As those parts of the hobby are not really of interest to me and I want to sell what I use and use what I sell. I find that I can't offer the level of service I would like to offer for the customers interested in Digital racing, scratch building and 1/24-scale. I don't want to become the old guy who's living in the past and is not in line with its customers' interests. I'll be the old guy who's living in the past in his own basement (!).


Those are the reasons I'm closing shop and won't be starting another decade of Slot Car Corner Canada. I had a lot of fun, I knew and met some wonderful people, many of whom have become friends for life and this is worth way more than the few thousands of dollars I was able to earn doing this. As for the future, I sincerely wish that someone somewhere sometime will be able to offer Canadian slot racers a way to «get their fix» on a regular basis. In the meantime, my very good friends Steve and Bob at Slot Car Corner (http://www.slotcarcorner.com) will be there for all your slot car needs.

Finally, I don't want to finish this without thanking Steve and Dickie, who put all their trust in me 10 years ago to start Slot Car Corner Canada, allowing me to use their name and their experience. Without their help, this fun ride would have never happened. Bob has since taken over for Dickie and he was also very helpful (Bob does the absolute best packaging job in the business, period!).

Thank you for being there all this time, trusting me with your slot car racing needs. This has been a pleasure to serve you during all those years. Keep having fun!

[cgingras]

US customers are welcome (all other countries too). Please note that all prices are in Canadian dollars on the website.

[4424ever]

Got your email earlier Christian been shopping since. Thank you very much for the excellent service in the past and all I can say is I’m SAD :(

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Christian, my friend, I'm very happy that you are closing because it intrudes on your life, not because the business is going broke! I can score bargains without guilt of being a vulture!

Seriously, having the guts to make business decisions based on the welfare of one's family and one's own health and well being is rare, and I'm proud of you, old friend. I'll be watching for the bargains, buddy.

[Beast Lee]

It's a big loss to the Canadian Slot Car community, but thanks for all you've done for this great hobby Christian... :text-bravo:

All the best...
Ron...

[Audi1]

Sorry to hear the news about your closing, Christian, but glad to hear that you have other things going that you're looking forward to having the time to enjoy. You've been both a personal and a professional success in the hobby and SCCC will certainly be missed.

Allan

[Rleog]

I’m just one of many who, through slot cars, has been fortunate to get to know Christian, mainly via the Area 51 24 hour races in Connecticut. Interacting with Christian and the a Canadian crew was always a pleasure.

Best of luck in your new persuits, Christian. I’m sure that more time spent with travel and photography will be high on your list.

Thanks for all that you’ve done for this hobby.

Bob G

[SlotCarCorner]

Like many others, we are saddened to hear this news. During the past 10 years we've collaborated with Christian on numerous products - without Christian's assistance and input, many of these products would never have come to light. Christian is, and always will be, a true ambassador of this great hobby. While Slot Car Corner Canada may be closing their doors, one of the things we will cherish the most is our friendship. We wish Christian the very best as he pursues other interests and opportunities and look forward to racing with him in the future.

:text-thankyouyellow:

[cgingras]

** YOUR PATIENCE IS REQUIRED

I'm currently completely buried in orders. I had close to 50 orders coming in the last 24 hours. That's way (way way!) more than I can process (with my full-time job keeping me busy also). I managed to prepare 20 orders tonight and I hope to do another 15 or 20 tomorrow night. But since they keep coming in, I'm not seeing the end of the tunnel yet.

I'm happy to see that the Liquidation Sale is going so well but I will need you to be patient while I process all those orders in the order they were received.

You know that I usually shipped orders mere hours after they were placed. But I'm sad to say it will probably take many days for the current orders to ship. Thank you for your patience.