I am openning a shop. What equipment should I sell

Hi Jim,

I always liked your (and other dealer's) approach to sell out of your home: Save the expensive rent and some of the risk having to recover from the first slow months of business. There's a reason I came to you to listen to the Abbys. More relaxed atmosphere, no buying pressure, BYOA (Bring Your Own Amp), etc.

As for a real store front: I would look for a neighborhood where people should be interested in getting into Hifi. Know your customer base. Denver seems great for Hifi these days, but is seems quite competitive. I always thought it would help to not sell the standard equipment. Something that catches a customer's eye when he walks in, i.e. more style than just showing off black boxes with silver faceplates and blue lights: The Abbys should work well there. So far I have not met anyone who is not impressed with them.

Good luck with a store front business if you decide to go that way.

Rene

But seriously would you be more apt to buy brands
that advertise a lot in the TAS and Stereophile?

Advertizing was never really important (just can't stand ads in general). But I
used to orient myself using Stereophile and TAS reviews. These days I prefer
user comments and more independent reviewers, that had experience with
similar equipment as I have. As Tvad mentiones, a large fraction of
consumers will go for Stereophile and TAS recommendations, the other half
will go for looks, design, brand names or just price. And the rest will buy
factory direct...

Have you ever purchased a product without reading a
good review somewhere?

Somehow reviews have become less important. But I never bought something
without good user comments or hearing it for a longer time in my own place.

Hi Jim,

A quick question: What reasons to you see for moving from a home based
business to a storefront retail store? Expansion? Privacy? More access to
selling different brands?

I know selling out of your home is not ideal and very common. However, with
the current explosion of the Internet and the shift of the High End market to
Internet sales (Underwood Hifi, Music Direct etc.) and factory direct
(Welborne, Fi, Tyler, even Sophia Electric and Cain sell direct), it will become
increasingly difficult to keep running a storefront business. Interestingly
some of the Internet retailers (e.g. Acoustic Sounds) started out as home
businesses. Just a thought...

If you go ahead for a store front business, I would follow Trelja's advise:

As to which brands you carry, I would rely on your own
intuition - sonically, economically, and relationshipwise. It seems obvious,
but selling a brand you don't believe in will not allow you to put your full
energy into the endeavor.

Hopefully you will not get stuck in selling brand you don't like, as Howard
(Boa2) cautions.

Good luck,

Rene