You’re An Independent Dealer, Which Companies And What Products Would You Represent?


Hey All!
 I live in an average sized city where there are two brick and mortar audio stores. One is modest in both budget and square footage but has great customer service, offers quality products from entry level to high end and works with customers on price. The other one is a mega store with a huge inventory from entry level to very high end, has great customer service but won’t budge on price and wants to be the biggest store on the east coast. Personally, I like rooting for the underdog. So today, I stopped in and chatted with the salesperson at the small store, who I’ve come to know over these many years. He was telling me that the bigger store was carrying the same brands and products that they’ve been carrying but that they were buying inventory in mass quantity. And, that the only way for the small store to separate themselves from the mega store would be to represent companies and products that the mega store can’t or won’t showcase. However, which companies and which products, this is the question. The first thing of course that popped into my mind was to regurgitate everything favorable that I had read about on these forums and from the reviews on 6 Moons, What HiFi, Stereophile, etc….But I stopped myself and I’m glad I did and I said, ‘well there’s certainly a lot to choose from.’ And this is where you come in. So, if you were the owner of a smaller (think size of an average three bedroom house), independent brick a mortar audio store, what companies and products would you ideally choose to feature in your showroom? As I mentioned previously, anything (pragmatic) from entry level to high end. Let’s say for clarification that the $50,000.00 McIntosh subwoofer would be thought of as too extravagant. Eventually, my hope is to direct my dealer friend to this post as a means of inspiration.

Thanks!

 

goofyfoot

Showing 2 responses by vonhelmholtz

@waytoomuchstuff

Lots of sage advice and insight. Thanks for sharing.

Juan:

That is a very interesting and eye opening post.

I’m aware of your interest in bringing younger music lovers into the two channel audiophile world and your long standing passion for this hobby. When I look at trends in the motion picture industry over the last fifty years, we have gone from well told, slowly developing stories to fast pace chaotic scripts. My older teen daughters listen to music when in the car, or as a soundtrack to a video. They resist sitting and listening. They tell me that this isn’t the way people listen to music anymore, because they listen while on the go. I believe that is why most of my local audio shops have positioned themselves as home theater experts that also carry two channel equipment. Some have posted in these forums that multi-channel provides a more immersive experience. So, it seems to me that the real challenge is getting young people to sit and listen to a good system. I’ve been able to do this with one of my daughters and she was pretty impressed with the difference between my system and her AirPods. I was shocked when she asked if she could listen to music with her friends. Streaming is a pretty simple task on my system since it just takes flipping one switch. So, how do audio shops get those under 65yo to come into their shops and sit down and listen? In our area, I think the answer is to be home theater specialist.