Salespeople have to earn your business...if they don't really give a crap about your audio needs and don't listen to you, then who cares about them? I walk into some local places and from maybe mentioning interest in a turntable get immediately hijacked into a sales rant involving how great something is from their point of view. And that thing is nearly always list price or more. I've seen items I actually am interested in displayed for months, and when I ask how it sounds (in this case a turntable) relative to others they sell I get, "uh...haven't heard it yet"...next visit months later same thing...my experience as an owner of a business dealing in sales of high expense things like convoluted lending or investment products was successful since I knew much more about the stuff than competitors and thus could work with the consumer to get things right, and my fees and pricing were generally less, so even if I didn't get a specific deal here and there the referral biz was so good I prospered. Duh...I also worked hard promoting my businesses, where audio "salons" are a joke regarding promotions. A nearby high end guitar shop recently had a packed house for a guitar maker's talk along with a brilliant musician doing a little show...last time Goodwin's featured live music? No clue as they have no mailing list.
Could I be a Retail Wretch?
I started a discussion here this morning to get some feedback on whether an external DAC would make an appreciable improvement over an internal processor’s DAC. During the discussion, I said that I typically visit a local audio dealer, to experience the equipment and then, comparison shop to find the best deal. The particular dealer I was referring to, emails me weekly, sends postcards monthly and catalogs quarterly. It’s always with an invitation to “see and hear the difference”. So I visit, and occasionally buy some small ticket items. But, when it comes to spending thousands on nationally available equipment, I don’t feel any obligation to limit my shopping to that one location.
When I shared my buying habits with the forum, I received responses that said using any brick and mortar stores to demo and then buying elsewhere “cuzz” it’s cheaper is just plain wrong…
I was surprised at that statement. I’m a value oriented person. I enjoy quality items. But I search for them at the best price - is that wrong? If there’s no competitive pricing or added value, why should I feel obligated?