'In Home Dealers' are the future?

I think for a dealer to make it in these times, they are also going to have to be proficient at internet sales, and will need access to a large number of manufacturer lines. There are a few such dealers here on Audiogon, who can also have the equipment drop shipped directly from the manufacturer to help limit their overhead and storage requirements. The dealers like that I have worked with provided pretty deep discounts for a buyer like me who knew what he wanted, paid in full and didn't require a lot of hand-holding.

So what we are likely to see in future is pure mail order. To get the lines I carry I gave assurances that I would not sell on the internet. At least some of the companies want to preserve a dealer network. I pay 60% + shipping. If I give a 40% discount and home trial I am losing money up front and donating my time and effort. If 40% off becomes the standard there will be no local dealers of any type.

While I like and as many know champion dealers who have commercial stores I do also enjoy and see the benefit of home based dealers, its not about fair or unfair its about a shift in audio that many times cant justify the full blown commercial application. Being in stores is great but its also great to be in many home based dealers with real world rooms and accoustics that many times can offer a better idea of what it may or may not sound like (ofcourse nothing is like in your own room) but furniture, room size, ceiling heght and all that make in a closer representation if what you get in a home. For those reasons I sorta like the idea but what I dont like is any dueschbag with some extra cash can become a dealer now and some lack serious talent, technical and social skills so perhaps in a way it dumbs everything down, but in this day and age what isnt? I do assume the market will likely weed out the losers in time but its a pretty new trend so its gonna take time to play out.

Our economy has been in trouble for a long time but we chose to ignore the fact until it was inescapable. The same goes for the entire high end audio farce. We have been paying the price and believing the reviewers while blissfully overlooking the fact that there was a scam afoot and we were sustaining it. Now we are finding that we can no longer afford the luxury of wanton spending and can no longer allow ourselves to be used in that way. B&M stores are only the first line to evaporate. Manufacturers will soon start dropping like flies and hobbyists will slow their activity as momentum wanes. The magazines have long been meaningless and are on the brink of outright obsolescence.
Then there's the fact that we, as a demographic are aging and dying away, either literally or piece by piece. You can't have much of a system in the nursing home. And you may not be able to hear it anyway.
For me, and I suspect, many others, high end audio is largely nostalgic at this point. It's still kinda fun but my enthusiasm has waned substantially. I suppose at least some of the trading that takes place anymore is in search of an audio Viagra.

The dream is over ...... but the dreamers persist.

How does one become a "local dealer?" I wanted to at one time, but it is not something I could do now...so if I could get 50k together I could start my own home based dealership?