Supporting Local Audio Stores are we?

My recent experience in selling off a bunch of equipment has taught me that people buy on price, price, and price. There isn't all that much more to it than that. No matter how low that price is or how much of an opportunity/bargain it is, the lion's share of people will will still try to wiggle as much of a discount out as possible.

Of course, I have racked up a ton of stories during this time that will hopefully help me make heads or tails of things going forward.

It must be incredibly difficult operating a high-end audio store these days. The folks that do certainly have both my empathy and admiration. That being said, it's incredibly easy to see why the less flexible ones are really skating on thin ice - a depressed market for high-end audio componentry combined with intractability is quite likely a recipe for the failure of one's business.

01-11-09: Trelja
My recent experience in selling off a bunch of equipment has taught me that people buy on price, price, and price.

I agree for the most part, and I admittedly buy primarily on price, which is why the bulk of my audio purchases are on used gear.

However, if a dealer offers what I consider to be exceptional service, like providing a trial period in my home with the opportunity to return the item (sometimes with a restocking fee), then I will consider purchasing from this dealer. I have done so twice in the past year with dealers who provided in-home trials. One required a restocking fee ($100...no big deal for the chance to hear something valued at $10k in my home). The other dealer did not.

Back in the day 1976 to 1983 had a high end shop. Carried NAD as entry level,Luxman as mid - level and Threshold as the high end. Turntables were Linn, Luxman, Micro Seiki. Cassette decks only Nakamichi. Speakers were Magnepan,DCM,Polk and Allison. In those days there were not many accessories such as cables and power cords.

Carried roughly $125K to $140K in inventory and had monthly sales avg of 60K. Always took trade-ins of like equipment to be applied to new gear. It did not take long to realize that the used sales were quite a viable part of the business. Used sales added very nicely to the bottom line.

Service was our forte. No matter what you purchased it was always delivered and set up for the customer and the customer was guided through its operating parameters of what to do, but more important what not to do.

The store itself was set up basically like someones living room, with couchs and chairs, tables, drapes, you get the idea. Always had refreshments and deli trays on hand for the customers. In other words a home type environment, where customers could kick back relax listen to music and the gear that was on display.

Never any pressure to buy,or to ignore the customer.

One of the important things to remember about this time, is that the manufacturers had protected territories for their dealers. Say I wanted to add Audio Research to the inventory. Audio Research would not sell to me as they already had a dealer within that marketing area. And most of the manufacturers had the same or similiar arrangements.

To anyone that has been in this hobby/business realizes that in two channel audio, this is an ever evolving hobby, with solid repeat sales. Home Theater on the other hand does not work in the same vein. It is for the most part one big sale and thats it. Out the door and gone.

Back then HT was not even a blimp on the radar as was the internet.

But business moves forward and to remain viable one has to embrace all the possibilities to enhance the bottom line.

Another key to our success was a striking employee. Her name was Candace. She started out as a customer and I ended up hiring her. She had that personality that men trusted and ,here is the good part was able to converse with wifes and girl friends why their husbands and boyfriends were in this hobby and why it was non-threatening to their relationship. One of the best hires I ever did.

Yes the business ebvironment has changed, but solid business models have a far greater chance of success, than to think of all the ways it can fail.

I buy on value, which is not quite the same thing as price. I don't mind paying a lot if the product is truly exceptional. I won't pay for hype. For me exceptional performance is how it sounds or how it functions, but some people value a noble brand name or a chassis design which belongs in an art museum. To each his own.

When there was a good store in town serious audiophiles hung out there, and, once in a while, bought something. It was a place to exchange ideas. Of course it went bankrupt. Now we hang out on Audiogon.

I live in the Los Angeles area and most of the dealers have gone the home theater route. The couple that survive either work out of a very small store or work out of their house. The heyday of high-end brick and mortar stores is over. Lucklily I grew up in the day where you could walk into a variety of stores and hear different gear. One of the dealers admitted to me that if it weren't for a couple of customers he would of closed 5 years ago. I guess these 2 customers buy new systems every year and keep him in business. Keep in mind he works out of his house so his expenses are much lower than someone with a store. Plus he has no workers. The other dealer fixes and upgrades gear so I believe that is why he is still around.