A lot of out of stock across the UK

[CaptainSwoop]

Online Fishing tackle dealers are the same, all claim to stock everything in every line but apart from two or three big sites they never have any.

 

[Black Death]

Trust me 8500 on this forum sounds big but in the grand scheme of things that's minuscule. Take hobbies like fishing, gym, custom cars and bicycles, caravans and camping.... I can guarantee you my months wage that if you round up 100 random people there will be some from each of the above but I'd be surprised to see an airsofter. Even then go to whsmiths and look at the mag section.... You will see two mags for airsoft but 24 for cars, 16 for gym (inc womens). The best example of just how small airsoft is is against the computer games market! For every RIF we buy there are 1000 times more consoles sold even though they are around the same price

Now you might appreciate how small airsoft actually is. When you are involved in airsoft and everything around you is dominated by it it feel big but in reality it's tiny (but growing well). I'm not saying this is an excuse for retailers to do what they do but overall it's something the market at this size will suffer from

 

[CaptainSwoop]

It's held back by the requirements of the law. While there are hoops to jump through before you can buy a RIF it will always be held back.

 

[Black Death]

That's deffo a good point

 

[Airsoft_Mr B]

Trust me 8500 on this forum sounds big but in the grand scheme of things that's minuscule. Take hobbies like fishing, gym, custom cars and bicycles, caravans and camping.... I can guarantee you my months wage that if you round up 100 random people there will be some from each of the above but I'd be surprised to see an airsofter. Even then go to whsmiths and look at the mag section.... You will see two mags for airsoft but 24 for cars, 16 for gym (inc womens). The best example of just how small airsoft is is against the computer games market! For every RIF we buy there are 1000 times more consoles sold even though they are around the same price

Now you might appreciate how small airsoft actually is. When you are involved in airsoft and everything around you is dominated by it it feel big but in reality it's tiny (but growing well). I'm not saying this is an excuse for retailers to do what they do but overall it's something the market at this size will suffer from

Click to shrink...

Funny how there are genuinely about 30 magazines on really obscure, niche stuff (even though airsoft is niche too) like...model powerboat racing...or remote controlled railways etc. I find it hard to believe there is much of a market for that stuff, and yet all the airsoft magazines are literally hidden right at the back on the bottom shelf.

I know they have everything categorised and properly positioned but if they actually rotated some of their stock around (annoying as it can be when you're trying to find something) then people would pay more attention to new things rather than classical yacht owner or crochet monthly or whatever is always there yet that nobody buys. :/

 

[CaptainSwoop]

Model boats and model railways are huge hobbies.

 

[Airsoft_Mr B]

Model boats and model railways are huge hobbies.

Click to shrink...

Well, yeah I guess they are. Those were pretty bad examples...

Still though, I wish they wouldn't hide the airsoft magazines so well.

 

[CaptainSwoop]

I have never actually seen a printed Airsoft Magazine

 

[Black Death]

Anything remote model or controlled/powered is HUGE hobby wise. I work for a high end home security company and see some very nice homes. I've seen some older chaps use dedicated rooms as big as my lounge to house they're train sets and throw £40k at it doing so. And to think we thought WE squandered money on our hobbies lol

I've been involved in several hobbies over the years (inc cars, motorbikes, bodybuilding, comics, film, trainers) and although I haven't been involved in airsoft that long I can see it has massive potential to GROW but a lot of things need to change first. Yes as the scene grows it will attract more dkheads but there will be plenty of positives to

 

[CaptainSwoop]

We have one shared exhibition a year featuring Airsoft and someone arganises a weekend event.

Every weekend sees about a dozen Model Railway Exhibitions a week. some are huge.

I am a member of a small club in Cleveland. Our annual exhibition attracts about 5,000 people over the course of the weekend. Big shows like Harrogate or Birmingham at the NEC attract 10s of thousands.

Building kit models and Fishing have millions of participants

 

[Ian_Gere]

From what I've seen, genuine dickheads* don't last long in airsoft - they either sort themselves out or don't come back - something to do with what an AEG can do on full auto, regardless of the rules or the recommendations regarding overkill, probably.

*As opposed to the dickheadery of which we are all capable on an off day :lol: