Car Audio Central - Ultimate Car Audio Forum and Community

keep in mind also that while sales people are on commission and working for spiffs, where certain products of the day earn them a bonus for selling that item, often times even if they cam bargain on a price, labor can't be bargained for installs, and a lot of products are fixed on price, or limited to the amount of bargaining to maintain their price point and exclusivity. Alpine for example did/does not allow greater than ten points variance from MSRP for anything.. so you won't see anyone offer more than 10% off the MSRP on a new Alpine product in a store.
Some companies like JL do the same thing, or demand MSRP for their products to avoid bottomfeeders from lowballing stores to save $2 on a $800 product.

Shops don't tend to make a lot of money because they don't sell products for much more than cost and overhead anyway. Also with the introduction of the internet it's gotten even harder to sell products, since nobody wants to pay retail and would rather risk the gray market for cheaper prices, then complain when labor rates are higher for carry-ins than they are for installing in-house purchased items.

The way shops pad their income to make ends meet is by selling the crap products like audiobahn and power craptastik at what seem to be cheap prices (what they buy this crap for is amazingly cheap) so be glad in a sense that shops sell this garbage, because the thousands of morons who buy this junk blindly are the ones lowering the overhead of the shop enough to offer you the good products at what's actually a lower price than it would cost you otherwise.

it is really hard to sell high end stuff. people wont even take a look at my DLS stuff i have to pretty much force them to take a listen then they might bite. when you sell a product that kicks ass and will stop any of the competions stuff but its not a big name its really hard to sell. i bet i could sell alot more kicker but why would i its crap. i did a very good comparison with a kicker prefabbed dual 12" cvr box with a kicker amp against an american bass prefabbed box with 2 of their lowest line subs in it and the american bass got 10dbs louder on the same amp and sounded better but the funny thing is i sell that box for half the price of the kicker box.

and it does take alot of money to keep a shop going. winter is really hard on a shop too i know there was a few months that i barely scrapped by.

Most dealers will reason with you to an extent. Sure, some are anal about sticking to MSRP, but if you make them an offer with a take it or leave it attitude they'll often bite. They have the option of making money or not. But that's when you start a balancing act between volume and profit- any potential problems a customer could have won't justify a small profit, not counting that the customer will probably blurt out the good deal to his buddies and you'll be expected to do the same for them. Doesn't work with high end equipment, the volume isn't there to justify it.

It's just like being a car dealer really-you'll make a lot more money selling truckloads of compact and midsize cars than you would high end luxury vehicles. It's just whether you want to fool with the extensive customer service and being known as the guy that'll make you a great deal on a cheap shitbox. Personally, I couldn't deal with that, while others have no problem with it. That's the reason I don't have a car audio shop anymore-the market for it was nonexistant and I (and my brother) decided to kill the business altogether than lower ourselves to selling RF, Kicker, and Audiobahn for the rest of our lives.

Not all shops are like that. Car audio is more of a hobby than a necessity in our society, and most dealers make less than you think. There is a ton of overhead for the average car audio shops, so their initial investment has to be offset for a reason. If you ask any of the dealers on this board I think they will tell you that there is a great deal of financial risk involved when starting a car audio shop, and only those with a strong work ethic survive.

Jonathan wrote:Yup, usually.

ummmm yeahhhh, they remind of a used car salesman

brent wrote:You know the saddest part of this whole thing is the shops that push this stuff like its the best thing ever and charge you out the @ss for anything in their stores. Are the guys in sales generally on a commision?

Yup, usually.

You know the saddest part of this whole thing is the shops that push this stuff like its the best thing ever and charge you out the @ss for anything in their stores. Are the guys in sales generally on a commision? I have to drive 2 hours to a shop because the owner their will come out and talk with you, and sell you the less expensive item if it will suit you just as well as the more expensive. I have never seen him push anything on anyone. Whatever happened to ethical standards?

its all about the brand names... no one cares about what quality as long as it "thumps". No one cares about doing it right either... i know someone that had a box built.... had someone build a box that looked like on of JL's boxes on their website, taking no care to volume or port tuning. its terrible

Man, this sounds so familiar (I co-owned a shop a few years ago). It's getting to the point that the only way you can run a shop selling high end equipment is if you compete and are very successful.

That's my point exactly. I currently run Kicker and MTX cause that's all I really have available to me. I come from the old school where if you are going to do something do it right (although you couldn't tell by looking at my truck) I want to be able to open the eyes of people around me to the advantage of quality even if that means blowing there doors off on the mic and taking home all of the trophies myself.... Ahh the sacrafices I make for the betterment of mankind.