I am surprised that our local WC stays in business, but it apparently
does well. You can be in rural south Texas in about 30 minutes from
San Antonio and on the weekends the store is full of folks from as far
away as a couple of hundred miles. They come up for other business
and this is the man's toy store and there isn't anything like it
farther south.

And the owner of the local franchise has made the store work. He has
a commercial sales guy that sells to school districts, cabinet shops,
etc. He also has a very active teaching schedule for different
aspects of woodworking including turning, carving and box making.

And in a really smart move, he supports a couple of different clubs
that meet there on site, so he has woodworking guys in there all the
time. Most of those guys are retired and have a nice slice of
retirement they can put towards buying the latest and greatest tools,
and they don't mind spending it.

I am friends with a guy that still works there, but personally haven't
been in a WC store in years. To me, they have had a noticeable lack
of variety of tools, and only sell certain brands of certain things.
When I was in there a few years back, I was astonished to see some of
the very same hand tools sold at Harbor Freight, but at double the
price. If I am going to buy something or questionable quality or
utility, I will buy from HF because it will be much cheaper to start
with, but their return policy is ridiculously easy.

To me, WC has gone from being a woodworker's tool store to a hobby
woodworker's boutique.

My buddy that works there told me that there have been several store
closings across the nation, and more to come. I am glad to hear from
him that the local store is doing just fine.

Robert