Wal-Mart Selling Harman Kardon?

[Defshep]

I saw a HK system at walmart.com. How long until they finally become the only place left to shop?

[superpanavision70mm]

I don't know, but it's sad that they are also the largest retailer right now for HD-DVD and Blu-ray.

[Tarheel_]

Target Superstores also carry an HK receiver and i think Mirage speakers....cool stuff. Glad their reaching the masses and giving BOSE a run.

[kexodusc]

Awesome, now I can buy an H/K receiver, use it for 2 years, say its broken, and return it to Walmart with no receipt for a full refund...and repeat....Sweet!!!

[bobsticks]

Well there goes quality control :hand:

[Woochifer]

I thought that the JBL all-in-one systems were already sold at Wal-Mart.

I would guess that Harman International's looking for new distribution channels, since all of their product lines have been dropped by Circuit City in favor of D&M Holdings' lineup (incl. Denon and Boston Acoustics), so it would make sense for them to bolster their presence at places like Wal-Mart and Target.

However, I would look for them to make a push more towards Magnolia/Best Buy or Tweeter. Magnolia in particular already carries the majority of D&M's lineup (McIntosh, Boston, Denon, and Marantz), and Tweeter also carries Denon. Harman International's consumer brands include h/k, JBL, Infinity, Lexicon, Revel, Mark Levinson, AKG, and Speakercraft -- quite a lineup that those retailer can add if they decide to swap out some of their product lines. Otherwise, the only other national presence that I know of for h/k is CompUSA. Home audio is very much an afterthought at those stores, though they are trying to reintroduce the Good Guys brand at some of their larger stores by featuring some of GG's old product lines including Energy, Monitor Audio, and Denon.

[2chAlex]

Well the CompUsa/GoodGuys here by me is closing their doors probably by end of Oct.,
the corp said that 11Comp stores were closing (how many of those were combos don't know). Now about HK, you'd think after quality issues and slipping in the eyes of the audio community. The last thing they would do is hook up with Wal-Mart(say it ain't so) HK needs to get the brand status back up. Wal-Mart has plenty of issues of its own and HK will not gain anything positive with this.

[s dog]

Wal-marts ok untill something goes wrong with what you purchased after there great 30 day warranty is past. Its all down hill from there

[superpanavision70mm]

I thought Wal-mart took back anything! I've seen old ladies return shoes they've worn for years there.