Why do we shut down the website so often?
This is a small family business and it’s only me (Dave Taylor) processing the orders. Picking and packing is very time consuming and if we left the website on continuously we could never keep up. Apart from processing orders we also prepare for/attend exhibitions and club meetings, chase all over the UK for Meccano collections, then spend hours sorting them. Ordering and checking off parts from suppliers is very time consuming, as is updating the printed price list and website, plus all the dozens of other tasks involved with a business.

OK so it’s a thriving little business, why don’t you employ staff?
Very good question; We operate from home and there’s not really enough room, so we would have to find premises, with all the extra costs and extra work that would entail. To cover the cost of staff and premises we would need to considerably increase our turnover, which would mean having to register (and pay) VAT. So unless we increased the size of the business exponentially we would make the same profit for much more investment and much more risk. At 61 I’m not planning to retire yet, but I’m not looking to run the Meccano equivalent of TESCO either!

If you are getting more orders than you can cope with should you increase prices?
That would be an option and in any case increased cost of supplies and other overheads will make this necessary from time to time. However, I’m a Meccano enthusiast myself and I want to do my bit to keep our wonderful hobby alive and I don’t want to rip anybody off.
So I’m afraid we are stuck with regulating sales by switching off the checkout so we can catch up, and dare I say it, have an occasional break.

So please be patient with us. We are doing our best!