You can expect 0% discount from an authorized McIntosh dealer on any piece of new McIntosh equipment. Why? The way audio is sold today is much different than in the past. In the old days the percentage of profit on audio was much higher than it is today, we could discount 35% to 50% on almost any equipment and still make a profit. Japan was manufacturing huge amounts of cheap equipment and we were selling it as fast as they could produce it. Audio stores littered the landscape from east to west, and we predominately carried all the same brands, the competition to sell was keen, hence the deep discounts.
Well today is different, audio stores are scarce and how they sell is different also. Most high-end manufactures only allow there equipment to be sold in brick and mortar.(there are some exceptions) To become a dealer for these manufactures a store must commit to buy an agreed upon amount of product (they like it if you buy one to show and one to go on most of the product line) and also to sign a contract. In that contract one of the terms you must agree to, is not to sell the equipment at a discount or to contract someone else to sell it elsewhere (internet usually) at a discount or to sell the equipment outside of your restricted territory. Any violations in the terms of the contract will result in the store losing it's dealership for that manufacture, all new inventory must be returned to the manufacture (return shipping must be paid for by the store) only demo products can be sold and are covered by manufactures warranty. Any new products that are sold after the store has lost its dealership will not be covered by a manufacture warranty.
These contracts are just one of the ways manufactures protect their dealers, they also constantly monitor the internet to catch people who are selling at a discount or out of there territory.
For dealers there are a few tricks that we can use to reduce prices, one of them works like this. You buy a system from me, I can not give you a discount on the equipment but I can sell you at dealer cost all the power cords, interconnects, speaker cable, stand, acoustic panels and etc. We do not exclude tax on any sale for cash, tax evasion is a federal felony, we are not about to go to prison so you can save a few dollars. If you are hurting that bad we will loan you the money.
