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"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
curiousjim's avatar
curiousjim
4,173 posts
 

@gabor2525 

We have 1 and 1/2 high end stores here. The full high end store is a bit snobby, but has always showed me anything they had. The 1/2 shop sells more HT systems and has mostly high Mid Fi, but are as friendly and proud of everything they sell. It’s funny, because Twenty five years ago I bought a couple of pieces of Audio Research stuff from them.  I guess the HT systems draw more people in.  

Sigh.

celtic66
1,611 posts
 

You live in a college town.  Easy to sell that piece in that market and move on.  Don’t haul it around.

Portland dealers mentioned, Stereotypes Audio and Echo Audio will both provide a much richer retail experience.  Plus…NO SALES TAX!  Stick it to Darth Insley!

Plus, you can eat and drink at Lucky Labrador.  Winner winner chicken dinner.

jc4659
524 posts
 

+1 @celtic66 

bimmerman2's avatar
bimmerman2
80 posts
 

I've made multiple purchases at both Reference Media and Hawthorne stereo, never had any issues. Truly not surprised that a lower end AVR was not considered as trade material. Don't take it personally. Craigslist and Ebay are full of them. 

oddiofyl's avatar
oddiofyl
3,462 posts
 

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.  

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