ever think that the transshipers who sell at near dealer cost are defacing the value of the product? how is a shop buying more and selling for less less overhead? the cost of the product wont come down enough to warrant that. it would be more over head as they have to buy more in hopes of selling more. you would need 2 times++ as many sales to make the same amount. granted i started in car audio when $600 dollar amps were the norm for medium sized high end amps and subs were 300+ for quality but as a shop your "selling area" is not world wide. to a shop owner it is a business not a hobby. for them to warranty a product it costs the shop time and money. wal mart is a multi billion dollar chain store where most stereo shops buy much less and dont have warehouses storing millions of dollars in product. a dealer also has to meet the terms set forth by the manufacturer. if they do not the product in most likelyhood wont be made avalible to the retail shop.
As I stated before, this is a problem between the shops and the manufacturers. We as consumers shouldn't feel guilty for searching for the best deal. End of story.
Once again, walmart is just an example. Obviously I don't expect a shop to be like walmart and sell billions of dollars of products a year. But here's some simple math:
A shop buys an amp for $400 from the manufacturer.
They mark it up 100% to $800 and only sell 4 a year. That's $1600 in profit.
Now they mark it up to only 50% and sell 10 a year since the cost to the consumer is less (and more likely closer to online prices). Thats $2000 in profit.
That trend TENDS to continue as their prices go down. There aren't any guarantees of course, but if shops want to move product faster they have to be competitive.
Granted that is an extremely plain and simple example, but that's just the point I'm trying to make. I probably used "less overhead" in the wrong context; I was trying to show that shops would less likely have equipment sitting around for years and years that goes unsold because their prices are too high. Yes they will have to buy more products because they will be moving more stuff, but with the way shops are now, I walk into the same shop every year or so and see the same exact shit sitting on the shelves because they can't move the stuff. Their prices are always so god d*mn high. You can't make money on the stuff if you don't sell it, and that's the overhead I'm referring to.
Do you think walmart started off as a billion dollar corporation? Come on. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/rolleyes.gif.c1fef805e9d1464d377451cd5bc18bfb.gif
But the bolded and underlined part is the point I really want to drive home.
and I still wouldnt buy it if it were the #1 ever made, I just dont like sonys look just like alpine, not to say they arnt good headunits but I dont like the looks
