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New Home Depot concept coming to Audio?

Home Depot just opened a new store in town with a different name - it's called Expo and it's a mega-store for home remodelling and decorating. It has high-end appliances, oriental rugs, etc. My wife, who has been reading about kitchen upgrades for the past year and has tried in vain through different venues to see all the products she has read about can now see most of them in one stop locally. I don't know how the prices are, but if the concept catches on I would think the prices would come down somewhat based on competition and increased sales in this market segment.

I've always wondered if high-end audio manufacturers will ever see benefit in this approach and support it as well. I don't think you'll see a mega-store with only products that you see in boutiques, but the ability to go see a lot of different manufacturers' products in one place, many more than you see in any given high-end shop today, would be an interesting concept to consumers. I suppose the market for $3K ovens is bigger than the one for $3K amps but does it have to be?

I know a lot of high-end shops are falling on hard times, but there are some where business is just booming and it would seem to me that one of the big-time retailers could open a new chain that services the high-end audio / video market and designs stores with display capabilities that go well beyond what we have to choose from today and gain a critical mass of manufacturers. Any opinions? -Kirk

kthomas

Showing 1 response by artemus_5

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artemus_5
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It seems that you are trying to mass market a specialty item. I don't think the concept will work. Specialty items such as high end stereo requires passion. This is where mass marketing falls short. Their passion is to make a profit by selling a high volume. In order to sell at high volume you must have name recognition, something high end audio lacks. Surarbrie has alluded to the lack of knowledge of the staff at Tweeters. I can assure you that Home Depot suffers from the same cluelessness as the Tweeter staff. This seems to be a byproduct of the superstore mentality where the staff are not sales people who are knowledgeable about their product, but are responsible for the logistics of the operations, answering questions about where to find a certain product. Ask them anything about the product and they are lost.
Mass marketers may have the capitol to do it but they lack the passion for the product. Even if they did such a thing as you are proposing, I think it would soon become another Circuit City type operation. Mass marketing is about selling to the masses. High end audio is not something that appeals to the masses.
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