Tired of hearing about big box stores

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tragik

Copper - Posts: 169

Joined: September 28, 2005

Location: Alaska, United States

Posted: February 15, 2006 at 9:41 PM / IP Logged

The Problem with the Big boxes goes way beyond thier installers. As a shop owner, I see thier business practices as much more damaging to the industry. For example. I used to be a pioneer dealer. That was until Best Buy started selling the same pioneer products that I carried for just a few more dollars than I could get them for at cost. This was INSTALLED!! Then they raised the prices slightly which was good, but they started including a free set of speakers. The Independent retailer cannot compete with the big boxes on price for a couple of reasons, but the biggest is that alot of Big boxes, BB in particular, will take a loss on mobile electronics so that while you are waitng in the store for an installer to F@#% up your car, you are walking around and buying thier Big Screens and other high ticket items. The bottom line is this, in order for an indie shop to succed, you have to beat the big guys with good service and quality installs. You certainly cannot do it with price. Thats where a good sales staff comes in handy. Another thing we do to keep customers from going to big box stores is take pictures. Keep a camera in the shop and take a picture of every crappy install done at a BB, or CC, or whatever, and when a customer askes why they should go to you when BB is so much cheaper, whip out the photo albumn and show them.

Northstart.....or start it your damn self.

speedwayaudio1

Silver - Posts: 879

Joined: March 18, 2003

Location: United States

Posted: February 16, 2006 at 12:11 AM / IP Logged

forbidden wrote:

Here is another opinion, when you have to argue with a employee on a daily basis, is it an employee issue or a owner issue. This is simple, it is not a discussion, you do what your employer tells you. When you shift blame to others or are "sick" 5 days a month, this is not a employer issue at all. Some people look for easy street, my store is not about easy street. It is about doing the job properly the first time with a level of integrity far above the other shops.

In an act of sheer desperation they made an offer to this kid. How many installers do you people employ that do not own their own tools? FS is buying him tools to get him there as well, if he stays for a year (which I now know they do not expect him to), the tools are "his to keep" (right, after working for a big box, get it in writing). Now, not knowing how the benefits package work there, they also told him that he could have his girlfriends teeth fixed at no charge and in specific they would pay for the braces. Braces are cosmetic work, I don't know of one company in the industry that covers cosmetic work. What else, oh, we'll call you a manager (of a 1 person bay). So let's see how green the grass is on the other side or how gullible this person truly is, time will tell. At the end of the day this can be looked at two ways. As an employer if the work outweighs the BS, you pay him and keep him employed. For him if the new work outweighs the BS, it is a good deal for him. Personally, as a past employee of a big box, I know that the BS outweighs the work done. This is why most of the old dogs in the industry own their own shops.

I have just one more thing. If he was such a crappy employee, why do you seem so mad about him leaving your shop? Like I said before not trying to bust your boys. I'm just enjoying this topic. Rob I wish you good luck on the RCMP job. that's gotta be a cool job. no pun intended. And if you do stay in the bizz, with your passion your customers are very lucky.

Big Dave

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Fastlearner

Silver - Posts: 346

Joined: March 23, 2005

Location: United States

Posted: February 16, 2006 at 3:10 AM / IP Logged

Ok, to the guys who said that big box stores have car audio is so that the customers that are getting shhh installed will go in the store and look around and buy big screens is one of the funniest things I've read on this forum to date. Now the real reason that big box stores carry car audio is because of the margin on it. I know that the district in which my store is in made about a million in car audio products. You have to think, all that a big box store needs to do is sell one wire harness or mounting kit to pay for the labor of the employees an hour. When we sell like 6 or 8 an hour that's a lot of money pure profit. So next time you want to discuss why big box stores do something, why don't you do some research before you talk to the people who work there.

sk8ingsmurf

Copper - Posts: 198

Joined: March 18, 2004

Location: United States

Posted: February 16, 2006 at 12:49 PM / IP Logged

I do have to agree with fastlearner, I keep thinking it the whole time that you guys were discussing the loss of money on the car stereo departments. The BB employee discount was always interesting to use to see how much customers were getting ripped off. Now I know the discount wasnt always very accurate (it is pretty sad when a company even rips their employees off with their own discount), but for the most part it was one of the best perks of the job. Now I know that that is still horrible news for local competitors, being that the volume they buy products in allows them to purchase them for signifanctly less that you, but at least it doesnt feel as insulting as thinking that a large company like that considers those items that you work so hard to sell so unimportant as to take a loss on them to increase other sales.

.............This post has been edited by Velocity Motors

forbidden

Platinum - Posts: 5,352

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Joined: November 01, 2003

Location: Alberta, Canada

Posted: February 16, 2006 at 2:31 PM / IP Logged

First off, the general public has no right to know what any dealer pays for something. If you work for a stereo dealer of any type, you are not acting in the best interest of the employer. This means the confidentiality agreement that you signed when you first hired on has been broken and you can be held legally accountable for your actions. Keep this in mind the next time that you speak about the industry please.

Top Secret, I can tell you but then my wife will kill me.

tragik

Copper - Posts: 169

Joined: September 28, 2005

Location: Alaska, United States

Posted: February 16, 2006 at 5:41 PM / IP Logged

[QUOTE=Fastlearner]Ok, to the guys who said that big box stores have car audio is so that the customers that are getting shhh installed will go in the store and look around and buy big screens is one of the funniest things I've read on this forum to date.

You are misunderstanding me. BB doesn't have to turn a huge proffit on mobile electronics. According to the research I did as an employee of a big box a few years back was that the store I worked for only turned a 0.63 % proffit on Mobile gear, after insurance, labor, product cost, taxes and everything else was concerned. And of the total sales for the year, ony 8% percent was from Mobile. I said, and was correct in saying so, that the big boxes can afford to take a loss to get people in the door. I suggest you do some research and find out what percentage of sales mobile electronics accounted for in your store before you bash someone who has done the research, and owns a shop, and knows the hidden costs of running a mobile e shop that installers and sales people never see.BTW, the margins on Home theater are much bigger than those on mobile, and the installs, except in special situations or when doing cusom home installs, are generally less labor intensive and hold less liability just due to the plug and play nature of most home theatre products. I am personal friends with one of the managers of my local BB, he tells me that they have such good deals is so that they can get a 16 yr old kid into a system for cheap, and then try to keep them coming back to them for all of his electronics needs (mobile, home, computer etc..) for life. Research that.

Northstart.....or start it your damn self.

sk8ingsmurf

Copper - Posts: 198

Joined: March 18, 2004

Location: United States

Posted: February 16, 2006 at 10:17 PM / IP Logged

Rob, I hope I didnt anger you in any way by posting certain costs. I am aware that what I posted was a breach of the confidentiality agreement that I signed when I started with that company, even if I am no longer employed. The only reason that I felt comfortable posting this information was the fact that you can find entire lists of the employee discount pricing online, as well as trading systems to allow non employees to make purchases on the employee discount. I in no way condone the trading systems and understand that posting those prices was sharing confidential information, and apologize for doing so. Once again I hope I didnt offend anybody by posting such things on this forum.

cirrusly_fast

Copper - Posts: 90

Joined: June 30, 2005

Location: United States

Posted: February 16, 2006 at 11:46 PM / IP Logged

so here's a quick question for you indie shop owners. Would you ever turn down a person looking for a job who said he has worked for a big box company?

also who is FS?

I'm not asking as part of this thread. If you have read the foot in the door thread, you know I'm just interested in getting into the industry.

Cuz I'm Kewl Like That.

System: 1-12" Orion H2, Crossfire VR2000D,Odyssey C2150 battery

dstang24

Copper - Posts: 98

Joined: September 06, 2005

Location: United States

Posted: February 17, 2006 at 12:27 AM / IP Logged

What do y'all think about Ultimate Electronics' ProShop install locations? Full custom work...

Any thoughts?

I believe it's a cross between the big box store environment and the Custom quality.

Team Edge Audio

tragik

Copper - Posts: 169

Joined: September 28, 2005

Location: Alaska, United States

Posted: February 17, 2006 at 1:48 PM / IP Logged

I wouldn't refuse to hire a former big box employee. In fact, the most valuable lessons I recieved in installation were the ones I recieved as a big box employee. Only after I had seen the level of quality lacking in big box stores did I truly apreciate the value of doing things correctly.

As far as Ultimate electronics is concerned, They are no better than any other big box. I worked at an Ultimate Electronics in Phoenix AZ briefly, and thier training and installation practices are no better than Best Buys. They do offer custom work, but what difference does it make if it is all held together with t-taps and butt connectors. Thier training is a joke too. At least when I did it. It was a 3 week training course, which consisted of 10 days learning Ultimates corporate practices and sales techniques, and five days of Install training. Of the five days of install training, 3 were for home theatre and two were car related. I did get MECP certified in that thime tho, but in my opinion MECP is a joke too. Any certification you can get without ever having been under a dash is useless.

Northstart.....or start it your damn self.

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