Zero One is closing their shop.

[TheFull9]

They've been one of the most consistent recipients of negative reviews that I've personally seen over the years, as far as retailers go.  Not small issues either, sometimes pretty egregious stuff.

 

Personally I only tend to regularly check a small number of shops, but from what I see online there's been a LOT of retailers pop up within the last decade; a few closings too ofc, but quite a lot of new ones.  I certainly don't have stats to hand by any stretch, but if I had to put a bet one way or the other, I feel like I'd say more sellers have opened than closed post-turn of the millennium.  By quite a few potentially (if I were to be bold).

 

As for TM, not sure what other folks see, but my observation is that it seems to be the one brand of RIF that's always just consistently selling and selling out at shops.  I'm not sure if there are any other brands (within the UK) that have businesses dedicated to them the way we have the likes of E6 (doing both sales, specific parts and tech work) but again, TM just seems to have the most of that type of thing 'orbiting' it by a long stretch; far as I can tell.  People always want more NGRS and MWS guns/mags and the various pistols/mags.  Which is a very good thing imho.

[Tackle]

Its TM innit, while they've not always been "THE" thing that buyers want, they've always been a sure thing for retailers, it just makes sense in the long run.

[Tactical Pith Helmet]

Always been pricey-ish, but never had an issue with them.  Bought my first rif from there and a fuck ton of their BBs (pre-discovery of Kilo 9s; and then post Brexit, post Kilo 9s...).  

 

Shows how experiences of a retailer differ if nothing else.

[MistakenMexican]

10 hours ago, Tactical Pith Helmet said:

Always been pricey-ish, but never had an issue with them.  Bought my first rif from there and a fuck ton of their BBs (pre-discovery of Kilo 9s; and then post Brexit, post Kilo 9s...).  

 

Shows how experiences of a retailer differ if nothing else.

I think online retailing and small site shops are the way it’s going.

 

Lots of upgrades are specifically spec’d for TM. So selling Vorsk (for example) makes for a headache in terms of after sales. Theres a few shops around to who sell Vorsk and then TM spec upgrades… but don’t want anything to do with the problems that arise when they’ve sold both to one of their customers 😔

 

You’ve also got retailers such as Empire who get stuff in far cheaper than Zero one or FS can get. That might be because they have lower running costs due to having no physical shop.

 

My local shop in Cardiff closed down and merged with their CQB site. It makes a lot of sense as most of their sales are on game days.