Best city in America for car audio business?

The internet

sadly the above statment is correct. i rarely ever visit any local car audio shops - exept for the flea market and when i go there im on a mission for a specific thing and have a price in mind already that im willing to pay and its usualy way below retail.

What are the strengths of what you have to offer? What can you do to be better than everyone else? Who can you bring to fill in where your weaknesses lie? I think these matter more than what city you choose, because there are successful specialty shops all over the country.

Oh the internet can troubleshoot a remote start, build fiberglass sub boxes and tint my windows?Please... I'm an installer looking for the best city to install, not sell ****.

Click to expand...

your title says looking for the best city for a car audio buisness which generally means selling ****. dont got b a nozzle you can respect the people that actually will post something on your thread and place there opinion.

Down south we buy a lot of mids n highs but fiberglass is king

sadly the above statment is correct. i rarely ever visit any local car audio shops - exept for the flea market and when i go there im on a mission for a specific thing and have a price in mind already that im willing to pay and its usualy way below retail.

Click to expand...

same here and even when i go to the flea market im on my phone compairing prices car audio is a tough biz to be in now caues of the internet but if you want to be a mobile installer that could work

if you do decide to open up a shop - may i please suguest having a demo viechle done up to 100% of your abilitys ( custom door pannels ) fiberglass kicks / custom rear deck / custom dash / lighting / full custom sub stage and amp racks and battery bank - and have it all realley nice to show potential customers you are capable of mild to wild.

Not topeka, ks in case that was high on your list...... maybe austin, tx that place is blowin up.

I agree on TX, I get the most buyers from TX for any kind of av electronics I try to sell. Surely not all of them are installing it themselves...

But then again, its very true that the internet has made alot of install / retail audio shops lose business and even close down. This is because an average person can get online and actually get free help on how to install anything and yes even a full alarm system or remote start and this includes troubleshooting help all for FREE!

Dropshippers have boomed (lol no pun) over the last decade. No warehouse, no rent, no employees. At the end of the day, who is not willing to save money even if it means giving local businesses the middle finger basically.... sign of the times.

Good luck OP...

I live here.. But Birmingham, AL is in need of a good shop in the Richest part of town.. on the Highway 280 Corridor Between 459 and Chelsea. We have two or three shops around here.. And they are pityful .. VERY pityful.

We had a Sounds Great, it dropped in 2007 or so with the recession.. and a Tweeter which dropped everywhere.. used to have Circuit City.. went a long time ago.. so there's no High End Store Front with good solid, professional staff around here. And the area I outlined which includes Mountain Brook, Inverness, MeadowBrook, Brook Highland, Greystone, and Highland Lakes (+ more) has the most money in the state hands down. Cost of living is reasonable.. ie: Nice house for 2-300k.. Average house for 150-200k. In low crime areas. City of Greater B'ham population is 1.3 Million.

Otherwise,.. my first thought was LA,.. I'm sure it's a saturated market, but if you can make a name for yourself you get business,.. but Celeb endorsement probably makes or breaks people there and cost of living is astronomical.

The Mobile Audio and Tint is a good idea. Though becoming known wouldn't be easy. I still like places with a solid brick and mortar Store.. I miss that since all the Car Audio shops closed a few years ago here.

Good luck,

shame you are looking south. we had a good install shop but it closed a while back. now all we have around here are a bunch of pre-fab installers. there is 1 shop that has a couple of good guys but that place overcharges on everything. went there the other day and they want $800 for a 1500w rockford amp and $1600 for the 2500w rockford.

Not west TN, we have SONUS out here