another store gone

leftwinger57

We've heard this story before unfortunately. I was on RT.18 in East Brunswick and past the mall that Electronics Expo was in and is now gone. I do not know if this is a chain wide thing or just this store. The RT18 corridor is one
of the most depressing sights I have seen in a long time. Store after store all closed up and entire malls gone. When
I was in there last year some time they were pushing Def-Tecs almost exclusively and of course what ever their line
up of cables, t.v.s, and a lot of htib were.

decal

they were pushing Def-Tecs almost exclusively

Hard to stay in business if you're just counting on one brand.

xftman

Used to be 6th Ave in that area too. Can't compete with online these days. Wondering when will BB.

cnh

Must be Jersey? Right! I remember a 6th Ave. on Route 10, maybe? Could be wrong there, been over 11 years since I lived there for a year!

cnh

leftwinger57

Central Jersey,and about a 1/2 mile south of the E.E. was the 6th Ave store.Before I had my computer 6th Ave was where I bought
my h/t set up.

ErasmusBDragon

Jersey had some great stereo stores. I really miss HiFi haven of New Brunswick.

Mikey081057

There is still Woodbridge Stereo, and Stuarts Audio

treitz3

Busy or actually selling inventory, Sal?

Tom

treitz3

Good on them, regardless, Charlotte is a ghost town when it comes to audio stores. We have one HE, two private [appointment only] HE shops and other than that? It's BB. Makes me want to cry.

Tom

Monster Jam

2 cents - here it comes!!!

I buy a lot of stuff online. A lot of people do. Amazon, B&H Photo, JR Music, eBay and PolkDirect are my most frequented electronics spots online. No Tax. Sometimes, no shipping. And I don't have to get off my butt. Its really easy to comparison shop, and not just price - but specs too. My state is forcing Amazon to charge tax beginning 2013. Beginning 2013, I stop buying from Amazon. But other retailers are still evading the tax. I know - technically the burden is on me to pay my sales tax. But we all know no one does. How do you enforce it?

I bought my four LSi15s and LSiC from a store. I paid tax. I think I was willing to do so because I got some perceived amount of service for auditioning the speakers pressure free.

If you force ALL online retailers to charge sales tax upfront, you even the playing field out SIGNIFICANTLY. There will still be online commerce, but it won't be a blatant attempt to avoid sales tax. You'd see a resurgence of businesses like Best Buy, Fry's etc.

tonyb

Sal, a store can only sell what they carry so it makes sense for them to push their inventory. They obviously can't carry everything thats available on the internet. I buy from both mainly because I like the personal attention you can get at a B&M store and some issues resolved pronto without shipping back and forth. Plus you build relationships with people.

badchad

I'm not sure how brick and mortar stores will survive. The overhead of running a physical store is enormous, and that cost is passed on to the consumer. Best Buy seems to be coming to terms with this, as they're matching some online retailers, but that doesn't seem to be a sustainable model.

When I stop into a store, I'm looking for service. If someone can provide me knowledge and/or assistance, I'll pay the extra cost. Unfortunately, staffing your store with inexperienced high school kids never seems to result in the knowledge I'm looking for.

Mikey081057

The only thing a brick and mortar reseller can offer is instant gratification and the ability to touch and feel the product. The problem with them going away is that we are running out of places to try before buying. Usually the sales people there are morons anyway. A place like Stuarts is still in business because of their reputation and expertise. But they are snobbish, and if they don't sell it ... it ain't any good. But i can't stand going in to a Best Buy either... So I do my own research, and get advice from knowledgeable people and save a lot of money on my purchases. And don't pay any sales tax!!

Polkie2009

I'm getting fed up with BB also because the past 2 times I've gone in to shop and look for blu ray movies, some dickhead tv satellite salesman wants to interrogate the customers on what tv cable,dish,satellite company they are using. Sorry, I'm there to shop not be verbally accosted by the dish tv asshat.

leftwinger57

Also in Red Bank is Hi-DEF.All these other Jersey stores including Audio Nexus and Audio Connection are very hi end places. Stuarts, Hi-Def are McIntosh and B&W dealers and the others I mentioned are Vandersteen,Cary and a variety of other high end brands.

Geoff4rfc

It's ashamed about 6th ave, I bought my AVR from them, best price period

sucks2beme

I like brick and mortar stores when they are run correctly.
There are a couple in Dallas that are very good. You want the
good stuff? They got it. But if you're low budget and they know it,
most likely you aren't going to get a lot of attention.
My deal- trade ins. I have gotten almost everything I have
used. And I know a couple places that get pristine trades all the time.

leftwinger57

Mikey,Your not kidding about Stuarts being snobbish. Only if you bring a brief case of $ or a check book and have them wire your
entire house they want nothing to do w/ you.Sometimes they will have a trade in of a Klipsch pair but of course they would want
to sell you a rack of Macs and some Diamonds to go w/ them.As for my opinion of BB, they do have variety of product but
getting that help most people need is hard to come by. Since my relative no longer works there the discounts I was getting for a # of things has gone.

zingo

As a physical shop, you need to be able to offer more than the online stores. Since that may not be price, you better have great customer service, offer repairs, etc. My favorite local shop takes trades and offers used equipment which makes them very valuable IMO.

ErasmusBDragon

Customer service at BB could be better.
Chapter 11 is on the horizon.

RamZet

Long Island (NY) had some awesome AV stores and companies back in the day. We dont anymore. LI some how ened up with some of the highest taxes and power rates in the US.

Mikey081057

Does anyone remember Atlantis Sound? I bought my first set of Monitor 5jr's there many years ago. Ironically Atlantis disappeared just like the continent

drumminman

I remember Atlantis Sound - I bought some Superex headphones from their store in Chapel Hill. Long gone as are almost every other brick and mortar store in these parts. Still one or two open in Raleigh.

ErasmusBDragon

a long time ago, there was a great little store on 206 just south of the Somerville circle. Does anyone know what happened to Mr. Lee?
And there was another very good shop in Berkely Heights, that too must be gone.

leftwinger57

That just brought back a memory.I also had a pair of Superex headphones built in Yonkers. Mine were the transparent model which was really cool to see the inards of the phones. Again a place like Stuarts where going in they have no idea what a persons personal worth is ,but still have an air that their sh-t don't stink. .All the other places were happy to set up and audition what ever I wanted to hear which was a great selling point. One on one service ,answering any questions you can throw at them and they left you alone to
bask in your speaker/amp fantasy.

soundfreak1

No one left in the tampa bay area. All audio stores gone except b. Buys and they dont count.

tophatjohnny

Business's come and go. There will always be retail and online ways of buying. Sad maybe when your favorite store goes belly up, but trust another store will open in its place/ Life and it's ugly head!

mantis

You know my heart breaks every time a store goes under. I can't stand this. Screw online stores , you can't go there and get a demo , play with the gear , meet some very educated people and learn from there experiences and expertise!!

Really as a whole , we need to support our small and large Electronics stores. These are happy places for us. I don't buy anything online unless it's used and basically from you guys.
This all started way back when NOBODY BEATS THE WHIZ went under. I was so sad as I loved going in there. I had a few guys who I always talked to and bounced ideas off of. These where young dude around my age at the time who really loved audio as much as I did.

Then came Tweeter/ Bryn Marw Stereo and Video which is where I worked for many years. I actually planned on retiring from there. We where not perfect but as a company we always tried to work towards being better. If anyone wants to know what happened , just ask and I'll lay out the entire story. But we went out of business in 2008 and I felt very lost. Lucky for me I met the owner many years ago at the Audiolab and he hired me so I didn't really loose any time being out of the field.

Circuit City went under. Not my favorite place to be but it still was a pretty cool place to visit. I purchased a few things from them and enjoyed visiting polk speakers there. Back then Tweeter was carrying Boston Acoustics and got rid of polk for a number of years until I pushed so hard to bring them back. Finally my words made it to the top and many agreed with me so we brought polk back and gave Boston the boot. But This was another ad day for me when they went under.

Soundex went under as this was a place where I also worked. I didn't stay long as there was a few things I didn't like about working there and really liked better about Tweeter. I still had a good relationship with the 2 owners and everyone who worked there and parted ways with hand shakes. They carried some of the very best gear in the world and it was a big boy wonderland toy store. When they went out of business , came back , then fell apart , a piece of me died with them.

Harvey's was an awesome place , much like Tweeter in so many ways. They tried to hire me many times but I couldn't leave Tweeter again. At that time I just got back from Soundex (Soundex Stole me away from Tweeter for a year) and Harvey's tried to do the same thing. I thanked them for the offer and just stayed a friend in the business. I liked there guys and the stores. very nice. They went under and I felt sick inside.

Sixth ave Electronics moved into the neighborhood and tried to build on what Tweeter did. They knew there was a hole in the area and they tried to fill it. They tried to do custom and actually hired a bunch of Tweeter X employees. They came in and left just as fast. I don't know exactly what happened but they ran out of town. I don't think they stayed long enough to even see if they could make it or not. I guess they where looking for a turn key and jump into Tweeters left market and scoop up all the work. I guess it didn't happen for them. I gotta contact some of the guys I knew who worked there and find out what the deal was. I didn't feel to bad for them as I didn't get to know them. Our store was right down the street and I only spent a few minutes in there checking them out. They where like a lost soul from what I saw. But over all a sad thing anyway.

Now the Expo is gone? Shame I would stop in there when I worked up that way. They where right off 206n as we did some cool jobs up that way and I always had to stop in for a few minutes on my lunch break. They really tried to get it to go , they had some good ideas but it always felt like a used car lot with a bunch of fake smiles and very pushy sales tactics. Shame they are gone.

Go really guys , are you happy with shopping online? Do any of you miss the experience of learning , touching , demoing etc? Is the brick and mortar stores a lost art?
We are Still in business even with all this madness going on. We hold are own and Hopefully grow even better in 2013. I want to bring the Demo back. I want people to come to our store and leave with excitement as I once did all those years ago. I can't see how the younger generation is supposed to get hands on experience without stores to go play in.
In our area we have Overture , Hi Fi buys , Hi Fi House and World Wide Stereo and us Audiolab. So collectively we are still holding on the bricks and Mortar. Hopefully we all stay in business and inspire others to follow on our footsteps. I want to bring the Brick and Mortar experience back.

markmarc

Online shopping is a last resort for me. I grew up in a retail family as my father had his own pharmacy. B&M stores are a huge part of our economy both jobs and tax-wise. I'd rather spend a couple of extra bucks for quality service and have a functioning economy. The movie 'Idiocracy" comes screamingly to mind.

cstmar01

I'm still waiting to see online retailers offer Control 4 set up or other services that only a B&M store can do for you.

There are still several people out there that will NEED a high end dealer to do custom work, its just the market will probably be smaller and they will have to travel more to meet the needs of those customers. Downside is that it will drive prices higher because there will be more overhead. Most of the time these customer's don't care but it does affect the overall sales of locals that will come in because if they aren't looking for a set up or high end then whats the point in trying to get them to buy.

There are still people, several people, that need to see TV's and other items before purchase. Sorry but just reading a review doesn't mean that I'm going to like it. I need to hear it, and feel it, know what it sounds like, what it looks like before I buy. What sucks is that as time goes on there are going to be less and less stores that you can do this at.

Starting out in audio and with used gear is fun, but there is also a part of going to a dealer and working with them to buy stuff as well. Most of the dealers I go to I have bought new and used gear because most take trade ins and I don't have a problem supporting them even if I have to pay a little extra. Also as time goes on and I can take my gear into a dealer to listen I'm not going to then walk out the door and go buy somewhere else. I've had them already give me discounts for little stuff even without asking so it does make a difference when you support them.

CarlosD

GREAT thread here. Surprised I didn't see anyone mention the irony that in many other threads on this forum, where you see people asking which speakers they should buy, other people saying "Go to the store and listen, no one else can tell you what will sound best to you." But you can't do that anymore. BB carries the TSI300 in the store and they will special-order you the 400 or 500 but because they don't have them on the floor you can't compare and contrast. I think they had 4 floorstanding models to listen to - the 300s, and 2 Klipsch models, and something else. Versus not so long ago when you would have had the full line of whatever series was new for Polk and 4-5 other manufacturers. Circuit City was kind of schlocky but the audio room was very good for comparison shopping, ditto Nobody Beats the Wiz. Of course the audio specialists like Atlantic Stereo (where I got my LS speakers in about '92) had even more selection and knowledgeable people. Sad.

I liked the Idiocracy comment also -- we're in a race to the bottom. I feel guilty about going online but in some cases there's not even a choice.