Croppers will be definitely worth a visit then. If Dave Cropper has access to the club website could he not be encouraged to put items he has for sale/on offer on the club website? Would advertisement on the club website be to his advantage? I see this as a way forward for members of the club and also for Dave Croppers' business as well. Would it be possible to try and get Dave Cropper to interact with the club via the website and vice versa at all, after all it would be to both our advantage. How about discussing the advantages of the club show? Like him or loathe him, he is still an important cog to local modellers and quite frankly it would be a sad day if he were ever to close the shop.
My personal thoughts are that as a club we should interact more with Dave Cropper but he should be more approachable as it would be in his best interests, modelling is progressing all the time so we need a shop that is willing to embrace that progress, and if that shop is on our doorstep we should make the most of it.
Regards Bridlufc