there are dealers that have been 'forced' to discount guitars deep,
due to some customer sense of entitlement & anyone who knows
someone that owns a shop that there is hardly any $ in selling
a guitar, even at the 500 series range, after the bills are paid,
at that 'standard discount' which some customers feel is 'fair',
so in order to try to meet that expectation & to make the sale,
some are 'forced' to beat everyone else's $, which is unfortunate
it's not about being competitive & it's not about maximizing profit -
it's about being able to keep the doors open in order to provide
ongoing service to customers & to continue being an operating dealer
i've seen music stores that have been in business for 30 and 40 years
that ended up calling it, because when it came time, after all was said
and done, it got to where there just wasn't enough to keep on doing it -
if someone walks into a store, has an employee help them, answers their
questions, pulls out various instruments to be tried out & takes the time
to try to provide what will meet the customer's needs the best, what value
is placed on what it takes in order for the store to be able to do that?
in all fairness, what should the store be allowed to make for their service?
is it fair for someone to spend hours of their time, only to
see the sale go to another shop because the e-mail quote
they were asked to match was basically a 'near-nothing' deal?
manufacturers feel that if a store is willing to put the time, effort,
resources & finances into carrying their product line, they would
like to see the store be successful, but for some reason or another
this is not always the case & so not all stores carry all products &
that leaves the store to determine what will make it possible to
sustain their business as it changes, which takes more each year -
being able to communicate with the customer directly allows the
shop the opportunity to help them in the best way that they're able,
rather than to see who bought what where for how much on a webpage
josh hasn't asked for anything in return for keeping this place running,
nor has he received anything that he hasn't passed on, so in my mind
there really shouldn't be any question why it is, it's just because it is -
there are plenty of places to go for information & in doing some
research, there might be some enlightenment found along the way
ymmv
