the joy of visiting hifi shops

Posted by: backfromoz on 24 June 2011

Dear All

I visited Norwich city yesterday, and as is my wont i popped into 3 dealers there. I believe the fourth one recently shut up shop.

Shop 1: i have been a customer there and one of the salesmen is an acqauintance.

Any way what was it possible to listen to? Essentially nothing, all the equipment was carefully and stylistically arranged so as to look attractive but none of it was plugged in ready to roll. So no music . if i wanted to i could have booked a dem, but all i wanted was to look at the equipment and listen to something . Why have dem rooms if nothing is up and running, they become store rooms only. So after a 10 minute walk round i said my goodbyes and left.

Shop 2:

A shambles, with shelves heaving under the weight of the equipment. nothing running so nothing to listen to. Dem rooms closed as no need to listen as they sell on price only.

So a visit of 5 mins

Shop 3:

Again a shambles with loads of gear on floor and on shelves. A marvelous selection of damaged speaker drive units on one shelf. Shelves full of equipment. Only one of the 3 dem rooms had anything running, and the set up was poor and the sound quality dismal. So another 5 min walk round.

What is going on here?

This should be fun!

Now as a HiFi and music enthusiast, also with disposable income to spend on something that takes my interest, i was left disappointed and a bit frustrated.

So what should these retailers be doing to fill me with wonder and enthusiasm so that i would be moved to spend my ill gotten gains?

If you have a dem room then carefully set up a good system and play some decent music and encourage visitors to sit down and listen. Explain what the equipment is and who the artist is. This hopefully will engage the potential customer. After all they have travelled to your shop,and entered your shop. This suggests an interest by the potential customer.

I have read the reviews on the new QUAD Elite system. So the dealer had it set up on a rack with ESL 2905 speakers up against a wall. A bit like a mini system except this is a many thousand pound system. None of it was connected and would have been impossible to listen to due to the way it was placed in the shop. This is new equipment with media interest and was apparently reduced to collecting dust in the shop.

The new QUAD stuff is attractive and apparently sounds very good for the money, but i have no idea as all i was able to conclude was that it looked quite attractive.

I have been in HiFi retail and engaging the customer was important as it could lead to a sale. This was achieved by playing good music on a well set up system in a relaxed manner.

Ho Hum

David

Posted on: 27 June 2011 by Christopher_M

Thank you Tom K, still much appreciated.

Chris

Posted on: 28 June 2011 by Derry

Originally Posted by backfromoz:

Derry,

you walk into your local friendly NAIM dealer and you hear a decent piece of music that you are familiar with...

So a tyre kicker is still a potential...

My i am getting boring on this, but it is so important.

David

I am not in the market for any naim kit, it is far too expensive these days, so I would never waste a dealer's time (any dealers time come to that) kicking tyres.

In the past if I was in the market for hi-fi I made an appointment because I knew I might buy something. I never did and never would just pop in.

Posted on: 28 June 2011 by Don Atkinson

I'm not really sure how people are meant to "get into hifi" if there are no "walk-in" shops with a reasonable range of kit.

Cheers

Don

Posted on: 29 June 2011 by Salmon Dave

Originally Posted by Tony Lockhart:

To be fair to HMV, I think they're in such big trouble that stock levels are bound to suffer. The Cambridge store is a skeleton of what it was a year ago.

Bring back Andy's and Garon Records on the market!

Posted on: 01 July 2011 by Harry

I think my dealer has pretty much got their clientele pegged. There are three areas where foot traffic can be catered for although two of them are demo rooms and may therefore be is use. Naim Rega and Linn stuff is powered up in these areas at all times (plus a moving assortment of other boxes). The vast majority of their stock is a static display. If I'm going in I ring first if I'm interested in listen to something. Most of the time I'm passing so my primary objective is to have a cup of tea and perhaps use the comfort facilities.They've usually got something playing music somewhere and occasionally it will be "we've got xyz in, come and have a listen". Or have you seen this app, or this dock/cube, or some other tasty little gadget. In terms of what we own they know and they have a good idea of what we will be seriously shopping for next year, five years time etc... It's similar to a car dealer. The full experience comes from relationship building on both sides.I have never wandered into such a shop in anticipation of possibly buying something and for the majority of customers in my position they have tilted their presentation accordingly.

Like most provincial cities, there are pockets of affluence in residence. A household name Hollywood actor wandered in a couple of years ago, pointed to a pair of very expensive B&W speakers and said "I'll take them". They weren't connected to any equipment, just on display. The sale didn't occur there and then. He was invited back the day after and spent most of the day in a demo room. Finally walking out with an order placed for the speakers in question and a full 500 system. You have to give them credit for knowing how to run their business, even if their paradigm doesn't instantly cater for 100% of all potential customers who walk in.