Klarinet Archive - Posting 000481.txt from 2004/02

From: "Rebecca Brennan" <u_cant_kill_the_rooster@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Revolt to Costco!!!
Date: Sat, 28 Feb 2004 13:51:53 -0500

I say lets all go to our local costcos and try to do something about this! I
am totally for Nancy's idea to get the media involved. I think we all need
to write the ICA too.

Hey Elise, do you wanna go to Costco with me? lol.

-Rebecca

>From: Elgenubi@-----.com
>Reply-To: klarinet@-----.org
>To: klarinet@-----.org
>Subject: [kl] Re: Costco Clarinets
>Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2004 02:08:52 EST
>
>Mike Marmer said: Costco doesn't care. They are in the business to sell
>and
>move products, including clarinets.
>
>Ginger said: Any clarinet that sells for less
>than $300 is a waste of time and piece of crap. Can't the ICA sue these
>people or something? ..........CRAP musical instruments. .......
>I'M MAD!
>
>Apologies, Ginger, I edited a little, but I think you're mad??
>
>I'm not making light of this; I can tell my own story, and these
>instruments
>turn my stomach.
>
>But......
>This is not a rhetorical question. I really want to know. Why does Costco
>sell these? I don't love Costco, but when I was in a hurry to buy a DVD
>player
>without shopping, I went to Costco and bought a DVD player, assuming that
>the
>buyers had found an OK basic player, and that I would pay an OK lowish
>price.
> I always assume that Costco will have basically OK, sound buys. But not
>these horns. Why doesn't Yamaha or Leblanc send their buyers there and
>have
>Costco sell their basic stuff? And I'm not talking about taking care of
>the
>small retailer; that is a related but different issue. I don't expect
>Costco to
>care about small retailers, but I do expect them to care about their
>reputation
>as a reliable seller of OK things.
>
>And I have an observation or opinion: not all Chinese instruments are the
>same degree of 'crap'. At NAMM this year (my first time there) there were
>probably 50 Chinese dealers of clarinets. I believe it is the common
>belief on this
>list and on the BBoard that one should trust almost no oriental clarinet.
>But I saw and heard about different degrees of quality; one importer,
>Chinese,
>and a better player than I am, said that they buy their clarinets from a
>maker
>near Beijing, and completely disassemble them and set them up in Fullerton,
>California. Costs for Chinese (and Indian) clarinets range from near $50
>to
>300 and more. Many really do have Silver plated keys. ( Environmental
>standards are less in China, so plating can be cheaper---- but that's
>another issue.)
> Some makers say their keys are forged, and not cast pot metal. I wiggled
>a
>lot of right hand trill keys and some felt much better than others. My
>point
>is that Costco could shop harder and find better clarinets than the First
>Act
>horns they now have. Small retailers can and do carry some of these
>cheaper
>horns. We will see more and more of them, as time goes buy. We will need
>to
>shop harder, and we will give the oriental manufacturers the feedback they
>want
>to make better horns. I bet that in 20 years or less they'll be mainland
>Chinese horns competing for professional status, as Yamaha does now. And
>the
>beginning of that evolution is now.
>
>Honest disclaimer; I do work in a music store (mostly strings [by the way,
>Chinese strings are more advanced than winds, apparently. I think that
>Western
>string dealers have been in China longer, bringing the industry up.]) and
>we
>kick around the idea of what kind of winds we could sell if we did that
>business, but mostly I am really curious about how this will play out. And
>I dislike
>predjudice; I believe that sooner or later we will be accepting Chinese
>instruments.
>
>Wayne Thompson
>
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