Wow and hey!, Best Buy has people waiting for you to come in and browse. They've got a great deal right now on a Crosley system. Amp, tuner, cd player, a turn table and even a cassette deck with speakers! It's $199.95 so jump on it!! But really, high-end audio is a tough damn business. Think, how many people do you know who have a stereo in thier home? Now, how many of them have an audiophile level system that cost somewhere between 10 and 50 thousand to assemble? The people your running down struggle to survive and I, for one, am thankful for the ones that manage to. Yes, a friendly, not too engaging approach to the "customer greet" could help some of them. But it's likely hard when someone feels the pressure of the books running in the red and not seeing how to change that long term. Remember, just because they close doesn't mean their financial bleeding stops. Committments have been signed. Paying the salaries of staff to just wait around for you to stop in when there is consistently little traffic is financially brutal. Audio shops will have formal relationships with high-end makers who set the sale prices of their products and define the territories in which they can sell. This means the "authorized dealer" who's products carry a real warranty are competing agains gray market re-sellers who can undercut them. So the local dealer pays rent and utilities and licenses and taxes and salaries and benefits to create space where people can listen to products before they go buy from someone online with much less overhead. Best Buy loses business along that line when someone comes in, checks out the new LG OLED screen and then price shops and buys it for $35 cheaper somewhere they find online. But Best Buy is in perfect condition to fight it out in that market space and as often as not they will undercut everyone else and take the sale from some other brick and mortar. High-end audio shops can't fight like that for a number of structural reasons. Maybe we cut them some slack. They and we are in a rarefied niche. Maybe you left a shop thinking, "I didn't like the way that person acted. What an idiot." I can guarantee you that you have had people over to your home who heard your system who said to you, "oooo.. I didn't know a stereo could sound so wonderful!", who then on the way home in the car said to one another, "Can you believe that stereo? It sounded nice, but I think he said altogether it cost something like $18,000!! What an idiot." (and before anyone goes off on that number, maybe you can go lower, but for many in here that didn't even buy your speakers, for some it didn't even buy all your cables). Point is, the audio dealers and we are a rarefied niche. We get to buy cool stuff, take it home and enjoy it. They are struggling to survive. So again, maybe cut them some slack. Of course there is that awesome Crosley system at Best Buy. They've got lots of people who've gone through greeter training to be sure to give you that big smile and anyway that Crosley system will even play your old cassettes !!!!
One big reason why brick and mortar high end audio dealers struggle.
I live in a major metropolitan area with several close by high end stores. I never go in any of them. A dealer just opened a new location 5 minutes from my house. Major dealer with Magico, Constellation, McIntosh and many other serious brands. I went by a couple weeks ago mid day on a Friday. Door locked, nobody there. I call today to make sure they are actually open for business. Guy answers the phone and says that they were out on an install when I can by and that they are short staffed. No problem, I understand. But from that point on the guy takes a subtle but clearly defensive and pissy tone. He states that they recommend setting up an appointment for customers to view their products. Sure, and I recommend never going there. Off my list. Back to buying online. Here's the issue. So many of these high end dealers are only after the wealthy guy that comes in, spends less than an hour there and orders a complete home theater or 2 channel system and writes a check for $50k or more on the spot. That's there customer base. I get that it can be annoying to allow a bunch of lookers to come in and waste their time and not buy anything, but isn't it good for business to have more customer traffic? If someone comes in, spends an hour there, listens to some amazing gear and then buys nothing, doesn't he tell his friends and family and coworkers about his great experience? Isn't this word of mouth valuable? These brick and mortar dealers almost universally are unwelcoming and unfriendly to people that want to come in and just look and listen and not buy. Sorry, but the vast majority of potential customers are not going to spend 20 minutes by private appointment to order their new $100k system. Why not encourage people to come and spend time with zero pressure to purchase. I have purchased dozens of high end speakers and electronics over the many years I have enjoyed this hobby. I might well buy from a dealer if they were actually nice, friendly, and encouraged hanging out and getting to know their gear. But they don't. I would never go to a high end store that required an appointment. Because this creates a huge pressure situation for you to purchase that day. I'm not ready to purchase on my first visit. And neither are thousands of other potential customers. If they can make a good living just catering to the wealthy one time buyers, then, ok, good for them. Doesn't seem like they can though since so many have gone under. Maybe it's time to try a different approach? Step one, no commission sales people. Step two, welcome people to listen and not buy anything. Encourage it. This will create positive word of mouth and significantly increase customer traffic and ultimately create more paying customers it would seem. I don't get it. Rant over. Please don't respond that you have an amazing dealer. I'm sure they exist but they are the exception. What I am describing is the typical customer experience.