Could I be a Retail Wretch?

When I first got into this hobby almost 50 yrs ago now, what I really wanted deep down was not to be advised by a manufacturer or dealer or publication on what was "the best" for a given topic. I really didn’t want or could afford the best at the time. What I wanted was to eventually uncover all the secrets I could **for myself**...never mind what someone else thought was great. Heck, I had ears, I knew most things in audio might just come down to taste...what makes someone else’s tastes better than mine?? I just wanted come to **understand** audio as best I could, not fall into the trap so much of what others, who didn’t necessarily know what I wanted, might, or might not, think I wanted. I sorta wanted to cut out the middle man, as it were. But, I felt **entitled** to that line of approach IF I maintained a true willingness to try to uncover that knowledge for myself...to do the work, talk to people who might have more knowledge than me and see what they say, buy some things, experiment, learn to read between the lines with ads and reviews, to try to learn at all opportunities and to try think about what I was doing as a learning process...no matter how long it might take me. A lifelong journey and all that.

And I Certainly did my share of listening at place A and buying at place B, back in the day. But, the world has changed. Now not as many b&m stores are left. The internet has changed the landscape and many of us and many a retailer has had to adapt and change along with the times.

If there were still b&m stores everywhere, then everyone would likely still be shopping that way...and choosing for themselves how they might like to approach dealing with those establishments. But, it’s a bit different now...and more consumers are perhaps caught between the rock and the hard place of nowhere to audition.

You can say that I’m not loyal or moral about it or whatever and I’m fine with that I think, but the way I look at it, I only have so much money. I can’t support every establishment I’ve ever visited. I don’t do that with non-audio stores. If you have that kind of money to work with, then I honestly might salute you, but for me, with audio, I’m either spending that money on myself or I’m just giving it away. When I want to give my money away (and sometimes I do) I just look for a good charity and call it a day. I can’t save the world and everyone in it.

Just sayin’.

Regards,
John

No offense to you Michael, but :D

@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

@onhwy61,

I think that's a pretty good standard btw. I don't recall that I ever set foot in an audio salon and not tell the dealer upfront that I was there just to get a look at what they had and that I was not there to buy that day.

"No one can make a decision on their own..."

Absolutely! I agree 100%. Although I think that’s true no matter Where they want to buy.

We all start out in the hobby unsure of ourselves, but maybe folks just want to spend too much on it in spite of the uncertainty factor, in an attempt to avoid the perceived spending mistake of buying something of inferior quality....scared money??

Sometimes ya just gotta start small and learn.