Klarinet Archive - Posting 000887.txt from 2003/02

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausmann1@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Eefer overhaul
Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2003 22:08:30 -0500

At 12:03 AM 2/26/2003 -0800, Kelly Abraham wrote:
>I fully understand supporting the local store, but have also
>encountered the local store gone $ crazy. I think a 10-20%
>markup from wholesale prices is a maximum for me to support a
>local store. Anything more than that is worth me FLYING to
>another city to support a local store for an instrument or major
>music purchase. $50-100 difference is one thing. $500+ is quite
>another. I hate when I hear people being taken for a ride,
>especially in a situation of a small church that probably had to
>pull money from another part of the budget to spend on a
>sub-standard instrument when they could have gotten a truly
>great instrument for that amount of money with the right
>salesperson to guide them.

It would be nice if you could actually stay in business with margins that
thin, but the music business is hardly a big moneymaker even with
real-world markups. It costs a lot of money to keep a retail operation
going. You are also dealing with a product line where, unlike with, say,
automobiles, only one in one hundred people in your area are even POTENTIAL
customers. You are also competing against the big mail-order places who,
because they sell more, can get larger discounts from the
manufacturers. They can often make a profit SELLING instruments for less
than OUR WHOLESALE price! Soon you may not have to worry at all about
getting shafted by the local retail music store. It won't BE there any more.

Note: I am in no way defending unscrupulous dealers, but the honest ones
are having a hard time making a buck, too, and have the additional drag of
trying to overcome the bad reputation these people hang on us (guilt by
association).

Bill Hausmann

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is TOO LOUD!

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