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Scored a Velodyne!
Made my weekly call today and the guy I've been dealing with said he had a floor display Velodyne SPL-8000 II for $500, so I ran down there and picked it up. Considering that I had a cheapie KLH sub, I'm very impressed and happy with what I've heard so far—Jurassic Park. Can't wait to tool around with it more later. And of course, I'm tremendously happy about picking up the sub for basically half the retail price.
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I love those kinds of deals. Never pay reg price.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by paul_pci
Made my weekly call today and the guy I've been dealing with said he had a floor display Velodyne SPL-8000 II for $500, so I ran down there and picked it up. Considering that I had a cheapie KLH sub, I'm very impressed and happy with what I've heard so far—Jurassic Park. Can't wait to tool around with it more later. And of course, I'm tremendously happy about picking up the sub for basically half the retail price.
Congrats. Happy thumping.
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Shoot yourself in the foot
In our town there were three small electronic specialty stores. Good Guys put them out of business by offering much better prices on competitive merchandise.
As soon as the competition was gone, all Good Guys prices jumped to full list and stayed there.
Now, other retailers offer discounts on electronics and Good Guys is being driven out of business by the same technique they used to kill the local small retailers.
The salespeople in these small stores were knowledgeable, whereas my experience with Good Guys was being quoted or misquoted sales brochures (if they could find them at all) no skills, no knowledge, no pay, awesome turnover.
I have no sympathy for business who live and die by the creed of greed - good riddance.
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Who's to say what greed is?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by shokhead
Who's to say what greed is?
Gordon Gecko.
:D
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hermanv
In our town there were three small electronic specialty stores. Good Guys put them out of business by offering much better prices on competitive merchandise.
As soon as the competition was gone, all Good Guys prices jumped to full list and stayed there.
Hmmm, I don't recall them ever doing any kind of predatory pricing when they entered the Southern California market in 1990. Good Guys did kill off a lot of competitors in SoCal, but those were predominantly regional chains that were already on life support because of Circuit City's entry a few years earlier. The independent stores adapted by simply shifting their product lines into brands and products that the chain stores weren't selling, or shifting into a high volume-low cost operation.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hermanv
Now, other retailers offer discounts on electronics and Good Guys is being driven out of business by the same technique they used to kill the local small retailers.
Actually, I think Good Guys simply got caught in the middle when comparable competitors like Magnolia and Tweeter expanded into the California market, while the rest of the market started moving over to portable electronics and discount stores. Good Guys moved their product line away from what Wal-Mart, Circuit City, and Target were offering a while ago, but that left them with only the mid-tier component market, which was already a stagnant segment when the new competition entered Good Guys' territory. Magnolia and Tweeter adapted to the market much faster than Good Guys did, by offering home installation and design services.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hermanv
The salespeople in these small stores were knowledgeable, whereas my experience with Good Guys was being quoted or misquoted sales brochures (if they could find them at all) no skills, no knowledge, no pay, awesome turnover.
This is an industrywide trend unfortunately. Circuit City started the downward trend when they laid off all of their commissioned sales reps four years ago, and replaced them with hourly employees. Good Guys had to follow suit, and it was even worse for them because historically, they trained their employees. Once they shifted over to hourly employees, it all went downhill from there.
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Discount sales
I know it's not an easy market. Most stores will be hard pressed to compete with the internet head on for that save every penny customer. This seems to me to be a loosing strategy.
I like internet savings, I expect no support (pleased when it happens, but I don't count on it). On the higher end gear or even expesive TV there's enough margin to sell hand holding, delivery, set up or other techniques designed to win that returning customer.
We used to have a small independent shop near here that offered reasonable discounts, quality brands and had knowledgeable sales people, I refered many customers there. Then they too switched to an hourly no benefit employee model; get in, make the sale, get out format. I stopped going and I stopped recomending them. the parking lot is usually empty when I drive by. What will they do with all the money they saved? Give it to the bankruptcy attorney I suspect.
These places measure the huge savings when they first switch to the new sales format, forgetting that the customer base was built up slowy with a different technique. Then the base dwindles, now what?
My town is kind of a small town as modern cities go, it is quite possible that a different tactic may be needed depending on the size of the customer base. i.e. I soon learn who is a good source, but the Los Angeles customer might never come back to the same store in his lifetime. The LA store has bigger volume, needs deeper discounts using the same pricing model in every franchise may not work.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hermanv
I know it's not an easy market. Most stores will be hard pressed to compete with the internet head on for that save every penny customer. This seems to me to be a loosing strategy.
I like internet savings, I expect no support (pleased when it happens, but I don't count on it). On the higher end gear or even expesive TV there's enough margin to sell hand holding, delivery, set up or other techniques designed to win that returning customer.
We used to have a small independent shop near here that offered reasonable discounts, quality brands and had knowledgeable sales people, I refered many customers there. Then they too switched to an hourly no benefit employee model; get in, make the sale, get out format. I stopped going and I stopped recomending them. the parking lot is usually empty when I drive by. What will they do with all the money they saved? Give it to the bankruptcy attorney I suspect.
These places measure the huge savings when they first switch to the new sales format, forgetting that the customer base was built up slowy with a different technique. Then the base dwindles, now what?
My town is kind of a small town as modern cities go, it is quite possible that a different tactic may be needed depending on the size of the customer base. i.e. I soon learn who is a good source, but the Los Angeles customer might never come back to the same store in his lifetime. The LA store has bigger volume, needs deeper discounts using the same pricing model in every franchise may not work.
The independent stores have been staying afloat by offering complete start-to-finish home theater installation services. The store owners I've talked to have indicated that they cannot stay in business by just peddling components. The price competition from chain stores and the internet's too fierce. The big margins for the stores in my area have come from installations, and that's kept them in business. The stores that stuck with two-channel audio components as their main lifeline, are almost all gone.
Magnolia and Tweeter have moved into the installation market, and that does put a lot of competitive pressure on the independent stores that have stayed in business through their installation services.
No matter how big or small a town is, there's only so much that households on average spend every year on electronics. If there aren't enough stores in a given town to meet demand, then people will travel to the next town to do their shopping. But, if the existing stores already meet the local demand, then any new stores will either have to attract new customers from outside the area or build their business by taking sales away from existing stores.
In Santa Rosa, I remembered going to a high end audio store downtown about 10 years ago. (For that trip, I drove up to Sebastapol to visit Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab, and see if I could pick up some of their half-speed mastered LPs) Miraculously, they had a turntable belt that I couldn't find anywhere in the Bay Area. No idea if that store is still there, sound familiar to you?
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Between BB,CC and GG,i always liked GG as far as selection goes and sale prices were ok. The help was no better or worst then the other places. Difference is BB and CC has CD's and DVD's and games and that brings in alot of business.
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More power then to the cocksuckers at Best Buy. I hate this store and the clueless people working there. I have sworn to never buy another pieced of equipment from them. I like the selection of cd's though, but there isnt much of a failure rate in them. Too bad needless to say, it would be nice to have a selection.
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Getting old and conservative (gasp)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Woochifer
In Santa Rosa, I remembered going to a high end audio store downtown about 10 years ago. (For that trip, I drove up to Sebastapol to visit Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab, and see if I could pick up some of their half-speed mastered LPs) Miraculously, they had a turntable belt that I couldn't find anywhere in the Bay Area. No idea if that store is still there, sound familiar to you?
As you probably know Modile Fidelity filed for banckruptcy, they were owed a lot by a distributor that never paid. I think they are born again, but I don't recall the new name. The building sat empty for a while and some new bussiness moved in. The reborn Mobile Fidelity is sowewhere in the area, but I'm unsure where.
There are still a small number of those old kind of shops, you know the ones I mean, a lot of clutter and at least one of everything, but only the old guy knows where to find it. We have a vacuum cleaner store like that, any small belt, I'd bet he has it. We also have a guy selling out of his house. The Tweak Shop I think it's called, great fun, buy equipment have a cup of coffee. These people can contribute, they can teach you things.
In high end, one wrong purchase averted will make up for a lot of savings you get from dealing with a know nothing mass marketer. You will never be invited to have dinner at home with a Good Guys or Best Buy salesman
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I suspect they have a train of poor decisions leading up to this. A year or so ago there was a "personal interest" story in the paper about a laid-off engineer working at GG doing commission sales. He was the top producer (and earner) at the store (maybe the region) so to cut costs they fired him. Think about it-- they fired the guy who was producung the most sales because they didn't want to pay the commissions he was earning! Darwin stikes again!
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Went to GG a couple of days ago. All speakers were 40% off.
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