Klarinet Archive - Posting 000159.txt from 2006/11
From: "Rommel John Miller" <rjmiller@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] WWBW Bankruptcy -- to set the record straight
Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2006 20:25:45 -0500
To set the record straight... Every bit of Clarinet related items I own came
from either WWBW or Music 123. And it always amazed my that from day one
even the stuff I ordered from Music-123 (this in 2002) came from Technology
Way in South Bend where WWBW was located, and that is why I always presumed
the two were one in the same.
And yes, I was always satisfied with everything that I received from WWBW,
except that is with the Buffet R-13 I ordered and the hassle I got in trying
to return it and exchange it and get a good one. Especially when I've heard
and read that a person often has to try out five to ten clarinets before he
or she finds one that is suitable to her or his style, taste and
temperament. Truth is WWBW wasn't really willing to work with anyone in
doing this; they were strictly a big box distributor who shipped merchandise
much in the same way Amazon.com stocks, picks and ships books. It is the
volume inventory and sales which allow them to sell at discount prices in
the way that Wal-Mart does.
So let's let the issue rest. Yes, WWBW and Music-123 were fine and good
while they lasted, and I hope they are able to rise from the ashes, I really
do hope that they can reorganize, but let us not forget the mom and pop
retailers either, those folks whose livelihoods depend on the small everyday
sales that WWBW and Music-123 saw in droves. Mom and Pop stores can't offer
the deep discounts of a WWBW or Music-123 and yet they get by whereas WWBW
and Music-123 file for bankruptcy, why is this? And see this is where I
call the ethics of such motivation into action, for what overhead and what
capital expenditures could have precipitated the collapse? Were the
discounts too deep? Were they under-cutting themselves, and loss-leading on
everything they sold? I seriously doubt it. Any management graduate of even
the Strayer school knows you don't do that. And that is why I call the
ethics of the decision into question, something deeper and more sinister and
darker must be afoot here, and if workers were treated poorly, that is one
thing and is outright unethical, but I suspect worse was underway, and that
a skimming of the books, or outright fraud by someone within the corporation
might well be to blame.
Something is more rotten here than meets the eye, for WWBW was too big, too
massive, too much a presence like K-Mart or Walmart to suffer this defeat,
some deeper, unknown and nefarious reason for its demise must be at the
source of its fall.
If anyone knows of an investigative report being done in one of the trade
papers on the WWBW bankruptcy I love to read about it.
Rommel John Miller
308 Dale Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21206-1219
410-668-4784
410-967-8994 (cell)
rjmiller@-----.net
"More Tears have been shed over answered prayers, than over unanswered
ones."
--St. Theresa of Avila & Truman Capote
-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Hausmann [mailto:bhausmann1@-----.net]
Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2006 7:31 PM
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: RE: [kl] WWBW Bankruptcy
At 06:52 AM 11/30/2006 -0800, Barton Cummings
wrote:
>I have been reading with interest all of the comments
>and letters about WWBW and I must say that it does not
>really matter why they went out of business. What
>matters is that a good company is now no longer with
>us and that is a shame.
They are not gone yet, although badly wounded. They may yet recover.
Bill Hausmann
If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is TOO LOUD!
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