"High end" store snobbery


Our county lies in a fairly remote part of the country.Our major city of 100,000 has one "high end" shop so to speak.

I visited them yesterday.The store has limited selection of decent  stuff-a few McIntosh amps.Marantz.Paradigm ,Focal,Sonus faber etc.No Wilsons or Bel Canto category.

I asked then if they take trade ins-I want to upgrade my one year old Yamaha RX4 AVR,worth $500 retail.

They said they only take high end components for trade i.e.McIntosh etc.

After that conversation, the 3 store employees pretty will ignored my presence and I continued browsing their meagre inventory.

 

Lo and behold!

In a corner I spotted about 30 items-old Pioneer,Yamaha amps and even an equalizer from the 1970s.Prices ranged from $75 to $500.

 

I asked :"what are these"

response from employee:"oh, those are items we are familiar with as they were swapped out for upgraded gear by our customers."

 

Thanks for tolerating my rant...

 

Gabe

 

 

gabor2525

Showing 1 response by oddiofyl

I hate audio snobbery...   If I walk into a dealer and I think they are sizing me up or don't think I'm a serious buyer I leave.   Fast.

I value my local dealers, there's only a few left so I try to buy locally.    I was looking at turntables and although I didn't buy a turntable at Natural Sound in Framingham I definitely appreciated the time Mark spent with me.   He demo'd the Rega P3 and it sounded great.   I almost bought it but decided on a Sota

With no Sota dealers near me I did what I rarely do and that's buy online.   That said I thought it was important to visit Natural Sound and buy a cartridge there.    No pressure or snobby attitude there.