On Jul 11, 4:19*pm, Tom Littleton wrote:
On 7/8/2011 7:10 PM, Scott Bellows wrote:
much pleasantry snipped

wow! Kauffmann's went bankrupt? What happened(other than the obvious,
"they ran out of money")?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *Tom

Yeah, I was shocked about Kaufmann's. In part, they mistakenly took
the usual poor MBA's advice to expand or die; they moved their Tigard,
OR store from a small side street where they'd been for years to a
larger, prettier, well-fenestrated showcase on the main drag, where
drivebys could see them; basically, switching from a fly-tying
operation with a showroom to an Orvis competitor. They did this
immediately before the economy tanked. I was driving by and saw that
they weren't open on a weekday, scratched my head, pulled in, and they
were closed tight; my first notice of it.

Sad thing is, they apparently left a lot of people in the lurch. They
had a great travel business, and were holding people's deposits for
trips that now will never materialize. They also advertised a
beginner's FFing class on Groupon, which I considered buying for my
daughter and myself to take, but I noticed that they had something
like 200 signups -- all of whom would be taken fishing at one of just
a couple local sites over July-August, as part of the class. That
seemed skunky to me: that water's gonna be pretty pounded by the end
of the summer with all those newbies flailing at it -- so I passed.
Now it looks like they were scrambling for any kind of case flow,
because they shut down shortly after taking those people's money.

Still have good memories of the help they gave me before, however --
time spent with me in the parking lot trying rods, a casting class,
lots of good advice for the price of a couple flies -- so I wish them
well. And the Kaufmann Stimulator is still my go-to Western fly when I
have no idea what I'm doing (ie, pretty much all the time).