I know how you feel. There's one 'high end' store in my city and a scattering of a few more 50-100 miles away. The one in my city has always been a cold place to visit---dark rooms, dusty most of the time and snobby (why, I don't know). I have visited them on several occasions hoping for a different experience and giving them the benefit of the doubt. But I always leave disappointed. So, I drove to the other places (one was about 55 miles and the other about 98 miles away) and couldn't have been happier with my experience. I dropped some good money and helped support some good stores. If only the one in my town would do the same.
"High end" store snobbery
Our county lies in a fairly remote part of the country.Our major city of 100,000 has one "high end" shop so to speak.
I visited them yesterday.The store has limited selection of decent stuff-a few McIntosh amps.Marantz.Paradigm ,Focal,Sonus faber etc.No Wilsons or Bel Canto category.
I asked then if they take trade ins-I want to upgrade my one year old Yamaha RX4 AVR,worth $500 retail.
They said they only take high end components for trade i.e.McIntosh etc.
After that conversation, the 3 store employees pretty will ignored my presence and I continued browsing their meagre inventory.
Lo and behold!
In a corner I spotted about 30 items-old Pioneer,Yamaha amps and even an equalizer from the 1970s.Prices ranged from $75 to $500.
I asked :"what are these"
response from employee:"oh, those are items we are familiar with as they were swapped out for upgraded gear by our customers."
Thanks for tolerating my rant...
Gabe