Brands, what do you carry and why?

Most shops sell what they know is going to sell, of course. You wouldn't sell something that is so expensive that nobody is going to buy it. Regardless of how good that product is, people are going to pay for whatever they can afford. Reliability and performance surely play a big factor as well for a shop owner, but I would say that price is the biggest factor. A perfect example would be the kind of brands I seen getting sold here in the south compared to where I'm originally from(Wisconsin). In WI they were selling high-end stuff with brands like Nakamichi, Precision Power, Alumapro, Orion, Eclipse, etc. Down south I'm seeing cheaper products from Memphis, Boss, Planet Audio, etc... I've also talked with a lot of people here in the south and almost all of them said that they wouldn't want to spend more than $500 for a good stereo system, whereas up north I know people that wouldn't even hesitate to drop a couple grand to get something good.

I too seen that limited product distribution crap when I moved to the south, where shops can only sell certain brands that the other shops around town don't have. I think that is completely wrong! A shop should be able to sell whatever they want regardless of what the guy across the street is selling.

Protected lines are good and bad, I have a competitor about 10 miles away  and he doesn't not care about anything do with the market he makes all shops look like crooks when they will sell things dirt cheap ie remote starts installed for $99. I know I would (customers view) have to say what the hell are these guys makin' on these things if they can sell them for this. The reason I use this example is I have been trying to get Eclpise product line but the rep wants to split it with this other shop, makes me leary who would buy something from me when he'll sell it $10 over cost. I can see both sides to the coin but I lean towards semi protected lines, although if opening a new shop if you buy in to these protected lines I hope you've got some seriuos capital to play with it ain't cheap. Sorry about the run on sentences its still early....