Behold the future of high end audio retail

swb502

Mr Big Blue,

It’s the same thing when they do the Presidential candidate debates and ask why John Kerry doesn’t voluntary pay more taxes, even though he wants to raises taxes on his own bracket. Its because if he just gave money to the government buy himself he’s just poorer and the people who aren’t would fill that gap. If Heinz goes out of business because it wants to tax itself Hunts will take its place. Its just the nature of the market. But if everyone plays by the same rules, it should work since the everyone.

Technokid,

First I would like to say stupid Quebec should break away from Canada so I can like Canada even more then I do now. (which is second only to the US and it’s a very close second). Its a beautiful country, with great fishing pretty much everywhere. Its healthcare is horrible and permanently messed up my father and the nice family we use to rent a cottage from. Toronto has a charm to it. Thou the Leafs are horrible and will never be better then the Sabers ever ;].

I think people can remember when it was 1.50 to 1 exchange in the late 90s maybe? Boy it was great to visit Canada then! Point being is at the time the futures markets were trading incredibly low, so the base of Canada economic system, the raw materials was slammed and everything else shuttered. Now resources are all trading high and have been for some time, so the core of Canada economy is strong and it keep peeking over the dollar. That’s really important because it directly only accounts for something like 5% of the GDP in Canada, but you add in construction attracted or more importantly the services required from those people working bring the whole economy along. The US did this with manufacturing for a long time, and the Canadians were right on board to provide the materials needed.

rubin

munk wrote: »

to also get back to topic; I live so far out in the boonies that I must shop internet. There's a 10 mile dirt road just to get to our little town of 70 people, and any walmart is well over a hundred miles from here. Look up "Little Rocky Mountains" in Montana.

I worry the bad roads will shake any electronics loose, but so far it's been OK.



Spearit Sound double boxed the NAD 545 CD changer they sent.

Seems like a nice quiet/peaceful place to live.
Lodge pole? Zortman? Hays? Dodson?Looks like about 250 miles south east of Medicine Hat .

TECHNOKID

I remember when microwaves and vcr's cost 1k or more not everyone could afford both or even one they were luxury items, somehow we managed, perhaps just perhaps we could do without all the cheap crap for a little bit start producing things again and buying them to stimulate the economy?

Of course the goverment would have to tighten the import flow down a lot for it to even begin to work.

I like yor post here because this is a big part of the problem, that is what lead us to the type of economy we are in now. This is a big part of NA becoming providers of services versus producers. This sevice provider business was forcastes a long time ago and was supposed to of a great future fo NAs as a whole. However it is a lot more complex than simply saying let's go back to manufacturing and problem is solved.

1. Way back then in my younger days, even before I was part of the work force, just about everything was made of quality; even the cheaper goods of that era was of greater quality of the so called quality goods of today. Over the manufacturing, many more jobs existed in the maintenance of the goods since people had paid big $$$ for them and it was worth fixing and keeping.

2. Reality check, goods got much cheaper in quality since we wouldn't up in an era of "throw away technology". Many places like mine (repair shops of all sort) simply closed business because people would prefer to buy the brand new cheap goods with 1 year warranty versus getting their older quality product fixed with some like 30 - 90 days warranty. I can recall, providing client an estimate for fixing is VCR, client accepts the repair and by the time his gear is fixed (2 days later) he tells me he found a good deal at COSTCO for 100$ and then I'm stuck with the VCR trying to sell it as used :eek: You wouldn't believe how many VCRs were sitting on the shelves after only a short time. The same with microwave, unless it the expensive convection type, you couldn't fix them any longer (unless the easy fixes such as micro switches). Magnetrons were cheap as hell and made to last just slightly longer than the warranty and were nastily expensive replacement part which rendered the few years old microwave beyong ecomically repairable. As far as TVs, only large expensive models would be repaired as for th smaller such as 20" would be priced in such a way tht as VCR people would prefer to buy new ones. Manufacturing was moving away from quality good which was providing the repair shop and manufacturing (replacement parts) work in repairing the goods. You go back to that and then you get lots of workers back on the job market. However, the problem is a lot more complex...

3. A huge consideration for manufacturers is labor is costly and robotic manufacturing is much more economical. Manufacturers also consider of greater business value to create goods which will not last long (throw away technology) and will be replaced regurlarly and at the same time eliminating the middle man (repair shop) and thus pocket the profit without anybody else profiting from the repair. Here is the biggest part of the problematic...

4. Technology evolves so rapidly today that it makes it nearly impossible to back in time. Manufacturers know the consumer want s the latest performing gadget and throw away technology makes even more sense than ever...

5. The only way around that is a drastic change of business model which would encourage repair and upgrade. Can you imagine, consumer goods that can be upgraded versus thrown away at the benefit of cheap but highly performant new goods. The problem, there is no way manufacturing would go toward such business model since there is no incentive to fullfill their greed. It is going back to middle men and employees taking share of the profit.

6. All along, this was perfectly planned and is exactly where the big industry wanted to go; cheap manufacturing from third world and developping countries at cheap cost while making huge profits on the back of consumers. However, I guess they didn't forcast that they couldn't control any longer the wise rapidly developping countries (such as China) and that they would eventually loose their business to them :eek:

So, if NA would want to go back and take control of the manufacturing IMHO the only way to do so is to go back in time, provide good quality of goods that will last 25 - 30 years but built them with the upgradable ability in order to follow the new trend of technology (of course such can only be applied to certain goods). In order for such to work, efty warranties and upgrade service plans would need to be offered but even then, I am not sure consumers would go back to such. IMHO though it would be the greatest thing to do. As pointed earlier in this thread for consumers to buy American again, quality versus price must be provided. America needs to find an offer that will compete with cheap China or Korea or... manufacturing. Some that may appeal to the masses and can not be stolen or copied by those countries.

TECHNOKID

First I would like to say stupid Quebec should break away from Canada so I can like Canada even more then I do now

We can never say never but as long as there are people like me living in Quebec, there is NO way would separate from Canada. While I am a "Qu

scottyboy76

munk wrote: »

to also get back to topic; i live so far out in the boonies that i must shop internet. There's a 10 mile dirt road just to get to our little town of 70 people, and any walmart is well over a hundred miles from here. Look up "little rocky mountains" in montana.

I worry the bad roads will shake any electronics loose, but so far it's been ok.



Spearit sound double boxed the nad 545 cd changer they sent.

sounds like my kinda place.

Goth child

Now I know why the USA is in another recession,most of you dont understand the concept of capitalism!

LuSh

Many years ago people dreamed. They worked hard and thought big. They worked a s*****job but did it. Vanity wasn't an issue. Dreams were big and bold. Space travel, living on a different planet, teleportation were far fetched ideas that seemed attainable after 50 to 100 years. Now people dream of the iPhone 7 and wonder aloud what features won't it have. I met kids in college, they're not in competition anymore. Their waiting for mom and dad to die.

madmax

I make sure everything I buy is sold on the grey market and is counterfeit but I first waste a dealers time by letting him demo the real thing to me, and something about china. That is all I got out of this thread. Did I miss anything?