[Duncan]

The B&M store situation is seemingly even more dire in the UK from my limited experience...

Now, it is very important for me to say this is 'in my experience', and may be localised to my area, however - in London, it seems that pretty much all Hi-Fi shops have shut down (TCR is now nothing more than a coffee shop emporium), and the couple of Hi-Fi shops that are still open have staff that have a certain air of arrogance that doesn't really lead you to want to spend money with them...

Gone are the days of my local dealer having the time and patience to sit you down in the demo room with a drink of your choosing, and run you through his catalogue of products to try and system match for you... I can say with relative certainty that I have spent far more with that dealer than I have online (as someone eluded to a couple of pages back, I was happy to pay more, for his service, than what I could have spent online) - unfortunately - he sold his business on, and - the rest is history.

[As an aside / edit. another thing that irks me, the few B&M stores that are left do not seem to research / be interested in the products they sell - if I took no interest in what my company offers the people we do work for, I would be on a written warning / sacked for sure!!]

 

[mikek200]

"It's very simple: if they want better press, they should treat people better. They could start by apologizing."
 
+1 on this.
I remember ,a few years ago,when I got interested in building a headphone rig,I went into a audio shop  {on 30st. & Park ave.S.},with the intention to buy.
The treatment and attitude of 3 salespeople was down right rude
I asked if I could listen to a particular model and was told ...no.."only if you purchase them"
I said ok,looked around a bit more,then left ,never to return again..
Unless you walk in the your check book in your hand,and are wearing an Armani suit,will you ever get halfway decent service.
 
Luckily,someone suggested Head-fi,and I linked up with a few people{Paradoxper}.,and few others ,who walked me through,what I should know,where to buy from,and who to pm,for good advise
And I might add,90% of my gear was bought used,from the buy/sell forum on this website
 
I will never go into a brick & mortar store again to buy any kind of audio equipment     ,.
 
Mike                                                                  

 

[Steve Eddy]

While the mechanism for purchasing may well be a similar model to the days of yore, what has really changed is the method of driving the traffic from the brick and mortar stores. The entire blogosphere was non existant back then and you really had to do a lot of leg (and phone) work to seek out deals via mail order back in the day.

But the underlying problem remains the same.

se

 

[Steve Eddy]

"It's very simple: if they want better press, they should treat people better. They could start by apologizing."

+1 on this.
I remember ,a few years ago,when I got interested in building a headphone rig,I went into a audio shop  {on 30st. & Park ave.S.},with the intention to buy.
The treatment and attitude of 3 salespeople was down right rude
I asked if I could listen to a particular model and was told ...no.."only if you purchase them"
I said ok,looked around a bit more,then left ,never to return again..
Unless you walk in the your check book in your hand,and are wearing an Armani suit,will you ever get halfway decent service.

Luckily,someone suggested Head-fi,and I linked up with a few people{Paradoxper}.,and few others ,who walked me through,what I should know,where to buy from,and who to pm,for good advise
And I might add,90% of my gear was bought used,from the buy/sell forum on this website

I will never go into a brick & mortar store again to buy any kind of audio equipment.                                    

That's an altogether too common story. The B&Ms do a lot of whining, but often they're their own worst enemy.

se

 

[Hutnicks]

But the underlying problem remains the same.

se

I'm not so sure of that. I believe that the free and easy accessibility to information has made a much more severe impact on the industry as a whole. There is no economic model that reconciles the desire to try before you buy with the lowest possible price. Giants of retail such as Home Depot and Future Shop etc are still struggling with this issue. Going to poor service and part time staff to save costs so you can "price match" any competitor is proving to be a very undesirable model for the consumer. I really don't see how a physical audio shop can expect to exist in this day and age let alone in the next decade or so.
 
 I don't really care one way or the other who is in the right or wrong on the original topic. My interest here is in the evolution of how audio is going to be sold to the consumer in the future. The way things are moving, it does not look like dealers will be around for very long. That will leave us with nothing but virtual comparisons on the web to make decisions with. That becomes an entirely new model in that a glut of virtual information has initiated a cycle of events where the end result is the ONLY information available is virtual. That changes the actual consumer  and creates a whole new animal in the economic model.
 
 To paraphrase, When the only source becomes word of mouth (or print on web), who's mouth exactly do you believe?
 
As it sits and to the OT. We have frustrated shops and frustrated consumers. Out of the two of those there will be only one survivor.

 

[rsgladwin85]

  Stereo Exchange was  born pre-internet. They chosen to compete with their brick and mortar location, unlike most of their competition.

 
Good argument.  Given they were born pre-internet, you'd think that by now they'd know how to successfully operate as such.  What did they have to gain by asking him to leave?  Anyone who buys on the internet, will find other reviews of any gear he was going to view.  In essence the only thing they succeeded in doing was giving the OP, and anyone who has now had their eyes opened a reason to not bother with them.  Had they practiced good customer service, they might have accomplished two things here:
 
A - Had him purchase something as most of us know, it's so hard to say no when you've got the item you love in hand.

B - Gotten some much needed praise for a dying industry (brick-n-mortar hi-fi), by giving him what we can't get from online stores.
 
I live nowhere near the store, nor do I care to travel there.  However, I am one that much prefers the in person face to face experience over online buying when it's available.  When you have the opportunity to make a life long customer, and get a positive blurb in an online review that will more than likely reach at least a handful of readers that live nearby, but choose to be negative and unhelpful.....  You're only hurting yourself.

 

[customcoco]

Originally Posted by Hutnicks /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
My interest here is in the evolution of how audio is going to be sold to the consumer in the future. The way things are moving, it does not look like dealers will be around for very long.

With headphones at least, we could envisage a generalized rental system. Which might, in fact, be a better option for the customer than B&M stores.
 
That's when it gets to standard 2ch audio that it gets complicated...

 

[marcoarment]

  With headphones at least, we could envisage a generalized rental system. Which might, in fact, be a better option for the customer than B&M stores.

 
Honestly, I can't say enough good things about my experience renting the HE-6 and EF-6 from The Cable Company.
 
The phone salesman was extremely knowledgable, and we geeked out for a few minutes about headphones and amps. (I imagine this is what B&M stores like Stereo Exchange can offer in person.)
 
Renting this $3000 setup for two weeks only cost $186 including round-trip shipping (and the EF-6 is heavy). Of that, $145 was a credit toward my next order from them... which was buying my own HE-6 as soon as my rental ended. So the cost of the rental was effectively only $41. I can't possibly recommend this enough, and I'll definitely be renting and buying from them in the future.

 

[customcoco]

   
Honestly, I can't say enough good things about my experience renting the HE-6 and EF-6 from The Cable Company.
 
The phone salesman was extremely knowledgable, and we geeked out for a few minutes about headphones and amps. (I imagine this is what B&M stores like Stereo Exchange can offer in person.)
 
Renting this $3000 setup for two weeks only cost $186 including round-trip shipping (and the EF-6 is heavy). Of that, $145 was a credit toward my next order from them... which was buying my own HE-6 as soon as my rental ended. So the cost of the rental was effectively only $41. I can't possibly recommend this enough, and I'll definitely be renting and buying from them in the future.

Not being in the US, I sadly can't relate to what seems to be an extraordinary buying experience.
 
In fact, when such options are available, B&M's are absolutely irrelevant.

 

[mikek200]

That's an altogether too common story. The B&Ms do a lot of whining, but often they're their own worst enemy.

se

Yes,
And it's a shame,New York City,being the 2nd,or 3rd largest cities in the world,and we don't have one audio store,anywhere.
You have to drive to NJ,LI, or Westchester to find one.

Mike

 

[madbull]

Whenever I am in New York again, I will make sure to go in this store, try every headphone available and leave giving this woman manager a fake calling card with some made up headphone review site adress.

 

[Currawong]

 

Someone needs to send this thread link to the store so the OP gets an apology and some free headphones.

 
Honestly, I really don't want any of that. I don't want people harassing the store owners, I don't want an apology (I don't think they did anything wrong, just made a debatable business decision), and I definitely don't want free merchandise.

 
But they are doing something stupid. 14 years ago or so, when I first started in big-store retail, we were taught that a happy customer tells, on average, 4.5 people about their experience. An unhappy customer, on the other hand, tells 9, so the odds are stacked against you. Now with Yelp and the internet being the size it is, this is magnified out of all proportion. So stores with staff that are arrogant are shooting themselves in the foot.
 
I remember a friend, who runs a small film studio who wanted to upgrade all his computers and place a big order with a suitable local Apple retailer. So he goes into a store and asks to buy an iPod. Being a small sale (with effectively no profit) the staff treat him like crap. They didn't realise that their attitude lost them a 6-figure sale!
 
If the online world is such a threat to their business, then they can't afford to treat customers in anything other than an excellent manner. The guy who comes in to try a pair of headphones might just be someone who wants to come back later and buy a far more serious system. 

 

[zhenya]

I think it's great that they were willing to build a headphone demo area but it sounds like they really missed the message on how this market buys. Especially if their prices are essentially the same as the online retailers, what on earth are they scared of? Who in their right mind is going to step foot in your store, have the device in hand, know that he has a place to come to if he has issues, or needs to return it, and NOT buy it from you?

The ONLY thing that could have possibly happened from Marco's online comments was drive someone into their store who might buy something.

 

[Steve Eddy]

But they are doing something stupid. 14 years ago or so, when I first started in big-store retail, we were taught that a happy customer tells, on average, 4.5 people about their experience. An unhappy customer, on the other hand, tells 9, so the odds are stacked against you. Now with Yelp and the internet being the size it is, this is magnified out of all proportion. So stores with staff that are arrogant are shooting themselves in the foot.

I remember a friend, who runs a small film studio who wanted to upgrade all his computers and place a big order with a suitable local Apple retailer. So he goes into a store and asks to buy an iPod. Being a small sale (with effectively no profit) the staff treat him like crap. They didn't realise that their attitude lost them a 6-figure sale!

If the online world is such a threat to their business, then they can't afford to treat customers in anything other than an excellent manner. The guy who comes in to try a pair of headphones might just be someone who wants to come back later and buy a far more serious system. 

Obviously they feel that those who enter the store with their wallets open shouting "Shut up and take my money!" are the only ones worthy of crossing their threshold.

You're absolutely right. Dissatisfied customers will tell more people about their bad experience than satisfied customers will tell people about their good experience. Probably because those who had the good experience are busy enjoying their purchase.

se

 

[Claritas]

I think it's great that they were willing to build a headphone demo area but it sounds like they really missed the message on how this market buys. Especially if their prices are essentially the same as the online retailers, what on earth are they scared of? Who in their right mind is going to step foot in your store, have the device in hand, know that he has a place to come to if he has issues, or needs to return it, and NOT buy it from you?

Makes me wonder if they realize that some people own more than one pair of headphones. Maybe they think if you already own any, you wouldn't buy more from them and they don't want to waste the time.

Still doesn't explain or excuse their behavior and accusations. And those yelp reviews? Obviously, they have more than a PR problem. If they want to keep on keeping on, good luck with that.