Could I be a Retail Wretch?

I think some may have misconstrued my internet comparison shopping. I search a specific product, typically by manufacturer and model number. More often than not , the search reveals a brick and mortar merchant with an E-commerce presence. There are two sites that invariably appear in my searches. Both are authorized dealers. One is only a few miles down the road from the McIntosh factory and the other is in Virginia. Both discount new merchandise, both have free delivery, one charges tax. Ironically the one in VA outsources some of his Mcintosh service to the one in NY. Both are readily available for a phone call or quick email response. Their quality of service has been exemplary. They both seem to have an inventory of “open boxes” where they can offer a lower than MSRP price. My last purchase was my MX-122. My local dealer was firm at $7000 plus tax and a delivery fee. He was expecting it to arrive the following week. I did my search, and wound up getting it in 2 days from the shop in NY for $5875 with shipping. While I appreciate the beautiful environment my local shop has built, I don’t feel obligated, in any way, to pay for the oriental rugs, wishing well fountain and leather recliners. At the end of the day those things stay in his store and I leave with only the item at MSRP. For the 15 to 20 minutes I’m in the store, I’d be just as content sitting on a metal folding chair. So, while I’ll still shop the local guy for sundries, I’ll continue comparison shopping the bigger ticket items.

To answer your question, you are wasting their time.  What you think you should pay for any given item has nothing to do what the store needs to cover expenses and generate a profit.  

On the other side of the coin, how would you react if your employer informed you they just received a qualified job application for your position and that applicant is willing to do your job for way less money.  So now your employer wants to know if you’re amicable to a pay cut.  Nice huh?

Salespeople have to earn your business...if they don't really give a crap about your audio needs and don't listen to you, then who cares about them? I walk into some local places and from maybe mentioning interest in a turntable get immediately hijacked into a sales rant involving how great something is from their point of view. And that thing is nearly always list price or more. I've seen items I actually am interested in displayed for months, and when I ask how it sounds (in this case a turntable) relative to others they sell I get, "uh...haven't heard it yet"...next visit months later same thing...my experience as an owner of a business dealing in sales of high expense things like convoluted lending or investment products was successful since I knew much more about the stuff than competitors and thus could work with the consumer to get things right, and my fees and pricing were generally less, so even if I didn't get a specific deal here and there the referral biz was so good I prospered. Duh...I also worked hard promoting my businesses, where audio "salons" are a joke regarding promotions. A nearby high end guitar shop recently had a packed house for a guitar maker's talk along with  a brilliant musician doing a little show...last time Goodwin's featured live music? No clue as they have no mailing list.

Bill, thank you. You are certainly right about two way street. I keep hearing good things about High Water Sound. Good dealers should be supported even if they charge more. After all they have the right to and they need to keep their salespeople. Unfortunately this is not my path because I can't and won't be able to afford new that esoteric stuff I am interested in.
But New York has its own economy, there are many people, including audiophiles, who can afford $30k amps easily. I wish those dealers well.

@rhljazz,

You know what I do then? I walk out and go get a job somewhere else. Nobody owes anyone the **right to stay in business**. That’s a privilege, nothing more.

Shaking my head here at the profound lack of understanding what a capitalist society is.

To all:

Ethics are often a group thing and can be beneficial that way, but they can also act to curb or limit individualism or personal freedoms. They are usually arrived at or settled on by existing social pressures of the times. But, trying to get out in front of such a movement and dictate ahead of the curve of those forces what the the expected behavior might be usually results in a tepid response. Some restaurants have enforced tipping. But, even though that practice has actually been around for more than decade now, it hasn’t exactly taken the country by storm. Even so, I still tend to file all that under ’business decision’.

One theme that I see pop up here that I myself (respectfully) disagree with is the notion that we are we are here to serve the dealers/manufacturers. While I see nothing wrong with doing so voluntarily, I have a bit of a problem with our support being described as some sort of right that should be conferred by consumers onto the dealers. I think the source of this is the very thinking that I have been railing against for decades now.

When I first got serious about system build for the first time, decades ago now, I had to come to grips with facing the facts as I saw them (and as have so many who went before me and those who will come after). I had to wrestle for some time as to just how much money it might take (realistically as possible) for me to truly get what I want out of the hobby by the time I’m done. Do I "give in" to the slippery slope or do I hold out and resist and redouble all my efforts to ignore virtually all of what the industry is telling or beckoning me to accept. That was a rather large chapter of my journey and as much as I could I began by choosing the latter, only succumbing partially to the ’realities’ of needing to drop some coin toward the very end of my efforts, which I’m finally well satisfied with.
But, it taught me how to go ’behind the lines’ (in this sort of ’war’ I might call it) and deal with companies and dealers who could’ve told me from the beginning what I might expect from having the goals of gaining very nice sound but at (for me) an attainable budget...but, they chose not to. Oh, they pretended to tell me that, time and again, they made the pretense of doing so, but, only to fall back on choosing not to when it counted. A few of them actually did further my cause in that regard, and I remain loyal and grateful to them to this day.

But, evidently, this is not quite the rather universal sort of experience that I had supposed was among us, or maybe some folks here have yet to go through all that. Some seem to feel as if that slippery slope was just simply the price of admission and that they just accepted it, without the questioning I gave it, and just punched their ticket and went under the tent minus all the angst. And all that wrangling with manufacturers about whether or not they were leading me down a garden path? I’m thinking that’s where this ’we’re here to serve the dealer/manufacturer’ thinking may come from. We find ourselves manipulated almost at every turn in this hobby by those who want us know certain things about their wares or the nature of design and perhaps not know some plain truths. The hype and the marketing are always there (no big surprise to me at this point, really), shaping how we think and possibly our attitudes toward the industry and hobby as a result. It’s just that I will Never apologize to anyone for my having to maintain for myself an honest, realistic and astute perspective as I can of what all I’m willingly choosing to participate in....the good, the bad and the ugly. That’s my frame of reference.

Regards,
John