flatfourfan
12-08-2004, 02:40 AM
I know that a lot of you guys buy off ebay and reckon you get great deals etc etc, but after looking at getting some parts and stuff from the states, I got turned onto a guy called Ed Roman in Las Vegas. While I'm not American, I really feel for this dude and he makes some great points about big superstores and E-Gay.
http://www.edromanguitars.com/rant/ebay.htm
Second thing he mentioned was chain stores........a supporting the *little guy*
(this is copied from ed romans website) Makes for some serious thinking. Yeah I know it's for guitars, but it works in any field of sales.
Remember the Superstore Mentality !!!
1. Come into a town with a big splash.
2. Hire all the competitions best salespeople by offering them top dollar.
3. Open up a cool new store with every possible product and accessory in stock.
4. Get the newspapers and radio stations to promote them free because they advertise so much. at Any Price Policy".
5. Open earlier, close later than the competition.
6. Stay open 7 days.
7. Often there will be a sharp, hip store manager who will be charismatic and a great musician to boot. He will have all kinds of great Rock & Roll war stories to tell to all the young gapers who will be amazed when they hear he was a roadie for Kiss or that he did lights for Metallica . He will seemingly be everywhere in the store making friends, making deals, gaining your trust. You will run into him at a concert. He will always have a backstage pass, it seems like everyone knows the guy and you say to yourself "I gotta' align myself up with this guy". So you start sending your friends in to see him. You remind your friends, to make sure and tell him that you sent them. (Starting to sound familiar?).
Remember, Mom & Pop stores like to close on Sundays. They also need to make a profit to pay their rent and presumably make payroll. It becomes very hard when one of these superstores opens. They can't compete with the big city hype and hoopla that the superstores start up with. They can't afford to stay open the same long hours. They certainly cannot afford to advertise anymore so the radio stations and the magazines shun them and do articles on the superstores or have live in store broadcasts etc etc. You know the drill.
Ok, so lets say that your local family owned and run music store bites the dust. It usually takes a long time for it to happen because they are usually musicians and musicians have big ego's, and the last thing they would ever want to do is admit defeat. Like Meg Ryan did to Tom Hanks in the Movie "You've Got Mail". By the way the owners of the superstores are usually not musicians, they couldn't give a s#!t about the Van Halen tour with David Lee Roth and they certainly don't care if the guitar you bought won't stay in tune after the warranty has expired. In fact, one of these Superstores is publicly traded on the stock market.
Most of those little stores are already out of business, they just don't know it!! There is a small dirty little grimy, mildew smelling, health hazard of a music store in my town owned by a guy so stubborn he has hung on for more than 25 years. (Let's call him Maurice) Maurice has had the same 20 or 30 guitars in his store for over 15 years. He survives by taking on a small new line and simply not paying his bill. Most of the manufacturers write him off as a bad debt and don't bother trying to collect from him. The cost of collection on a $3,000.00 debt can be $5,000.00 so the manufacturers just don't bother. So between giving a few guitar lessons and Bulls#!tting some of the newer smaller companies who don't have credit managers, Maurice manages to keep his doors open. Of course Maurice never has anything good and he probably never will. He has been there nearly 40 years. I worked for him when I was a kid. Maurice had really cool stuff then, he always had Marshall's, Gibsons, Hagstroms, and all the other cool things from 40 years ago.
In any case Maurice is of no importance and certainly will never affect the local music market ever again.
Last one was buying american..............
A Simple Primer for a Simple Mind.........
Stop complaining, shut up, and spend your damn money, There has never been a better time to spend your money, There has never been a better reason to spend your money. Money is not edible, Most money is not collectable and money does not even make good toilet paper. SPEND IT!!! that's what it's for..... (oh yeah use it to buy American products) (Just because Toyota has a factory in Kentucky does not make it an American product) The profits all go across the pond, leaving us with the weaker economy. We are rapidly becoming a poorer country.
These slimy terrorist Bastard f#$ks have succeeded in throwing the country into a recession because everyone is too wimpy to get off their money. I am going to point out a couple of obvious facts.
1, Somewhere, it is written, that you should keep some cash around your house, just in case the banking system should collapse. Bulls#!t!!!!!!!!
If the banking system ever collapsed your cash would be worthless anyway. I don't believe that the banking system will collapse because the government will have to step in and simply print more money. This will cause massive inflation and your cash and your savings won't be worth s#!t. By you hoarding your money it's entirely your fault that the recession exists in the first place.
Interest rates are at an all time low. That's because the government wants you to spend money. Automobiles are at ZERO percent APR. That's because the government wants you to spend money.
I believe that if everyone kept the money moving, we wouldn't have to go to war to jumpstart the economy. I hear people saying things like "We need to go to war, That will fix our economy" Bulls#!t !!!!! all we really need is a spine. I say it's the spineless wimps who are saving for a rainy day that will never come. That money they are hoarding is holding back our economy. Spend don't save.... Spend don't save !!!!!!!!!!
Are you getting my point, Dexter !
http://www.edromanguitars.com/rant/ebay.htm
Second thing he mentioned was chain stores........a supporting the *little guy*
(this is copied from ed romans website) Makes for some serious thinking. Yeah I know it's for guitars, but it works in any field of sales.
Remember the Superstore Mentality !!!
1. Come into a town with a big splash.
2. Hire all the competitions best salespeople by offering them top dollar.
3. Open up a cool new store with every possible product and accessory in stock.
4. Get the newspapers and radio stations to promote them free because they advertise so much. at Any Price Policy".
5. Open earlier, close later than the competition.
6. Stay open 7 days.
7. Often there will be a sharp, hip store manager who will be charismatic and a great musician to boot. He will have all kinds of great Rock & Roll war stories to tell to all the young gapers who will be amazed when they hear he was a roadie for Kiss or that he did lights for Metallica . He will seemingly be everywhere in the store making friends, making deals, gaining your trust. You will run into him at a concert. He will always have a backstage pass, it seems like everyone knows the guy and you say to yourself "I gotta' align myself up with this guy". So you start sending your friends in to see him. You remind your friends, to make sure and tell him that you sent them. (Starting to sound familiar?).
Remember, Mom & Pop stores like to close on Sundays. They also need to make a profit to pay their rent and presumably make payroll. It becomes very hard when one of these superstores opens. They can't compete with the big city hype and hoopla that the superstores start up with. They can't afford to stay open the same long hours. They certainly cannot afford to advertise anymore so the radio stations and the magazines shun them and do articles on the superstores or have live in store broadcasts etc etc. You know the drill.
Ok, so lets say that your local family owned and run music store bites the dust. It usually takes a long time for it to happen because they are usually musicians and musicians have big ego's, and the last thing they would ever want to do is admit defeat. Like Meg Ryan did to Tom Hanks in the Movie "You've Got Mail". By the way the owners of the superstores are usually not musicians, they couldn't give a s#!t about the Van Halen tour with David Lee Roth and they certainly don't care if the guitar you bought won't stay in tune after the warranty has expired. In fact, one of these Superstores is publicly traded on the stock market.
Most of those little stores are already out of business, they just don't know it!! There is a small dirty little grimy, mildew smelling, health hazard of a music store in my town owned by a guy so stubborn he has hung on for more than 25 years. (Let's call him Maurice) Maurice has had the same 20 or 30 guitars in his store for over 15 years. He survives by taking on a small new line and simply not paying his bill. Most of the manufacturers write him off as a bad debt and don't bother trying to collect from him. The cost of collection on a $3,000.00 debt can be $5,000.00 so the manufacturers just don't bother. So between giving a few guitar lessons and Bulls#!tting some of the newer smaller companies who don't have credit managers, Maurice manages to keep his doors open. Of course Maurice never has anything good and he probably never will. He has been there nearly 40 years. I worked for him when I was a kid. Maurice had really cool stuff then, he always had Marshall's, Gibsons, Hagstroms, and all the other cool things from 40 years ago.
In any case Maurice is of no importance and certainly will never affect the local music market ever again.
Last one was buying american..............
A Simple Primer for a Simple Mind.........
Stop complaining, shut up, and spend your damn money, There has never been a better time to spend your money, There has never been a better reason to spend your money. Money is not edible, Most money is not collectable and money does not even make good toilet paper. SPEND IT!!! that's what it's for..... (oh yeah use it to buy American products) (Just because Toyota has a factory in Kentucky does not make it an American product) The profits all go across the pond, leaving us with the weaker economy. We are rapidly becoming a poorer country.
These slimy terrorist Bastard f#$ks have succeeded in throwing the country into a recession because everyone is too wimpy to get off their money. I am going to point out a couple of obvious facts.
1, Somewhere, it is written, that you should keep some cash around your house, just in case the banking system should collapse. Bulls#!t!!!!!!!!
If the banking system ever collapsed your cash would be worthless anyway. I don't believe that the banking system will collapse because the government will have to step in and simply print more money. This will cause massive inflation and your cash and your savings won't be worth s#!t. By you hoarding your money it's entirely your fault that the recession exists in the first place.
Interest rates are at an all time low. That's because the government wants you to spend money. Automobiles are at ZERO percent APR. That's because the government wants you to spend money.
I believe that if everyone kept the money moving, we wouldn't have to go to war to jumpstart the economy. I hear people saying things like "We need to go to war, That will fix our economy" Bulls#!t !!!!! all we really need is a spine. I say it's the spineless wimps who are saving for a rainy day that will never come. That money they are hoarding is holding back our economy. Spend don't save.... Spend don't save !!!!!!!!!!
Are you getting my point, Dexter !