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Is Specialty Retail’s Future ‘Extremely Lean’?
Executives from SpeakerCraft, Control4, Runco, Magnolia and more react to Jon Myer of MyerEmco’s grave predictions.
When MyerEmco announced it is shutting down it got people thinking about the future of the specialty electronics retail — a market in which regional retailers are struggling, downsizing and dropping like flies.
A day after announcing his stores’ closings, here's how Jon Myer summed up the specialty market:
He cited declining product margins and “the trailing credit game that vendors are playing.” Specifically, “we pay the vendors in 30 days, but they don’t pay us for 90 days, so in essence, we are financing the equipment purchases,” Myer said.
Myer isn’t alone. Specialty retailers nationwide are struggling with a trend in which manufacturers develop products and create instant rebate policies for their high volume partners, according to Jim Ristow, executive director of buying group BrandSource’s specialty electronic leg Home Entertainment Source (HES).
We asked several folks in the industry to react to Myer's comments about the "extremely lean" future of specialty retail. Click on each name for reaction.
A day after announcing his stores’ closings, here's how Jon Myer summed up the specialty market:
“The future of every multi-store specialty retailer is extremely lean,” he said, adding that when Tweeter went under, it effectively meant the death of half of the multi-store specialty retail business in the country.
“If you are a multi-store regional specialty retailer — and there aren’t a lot of them left — you need to restructure immediately to survive.”
He cited declining product margins and “the trailing credit game that vendors are playing.” Specifically, “we pay the vendors in 30 days, but they don’t pay us for 90 days, so in essence, we are financing the equipment purchases,” Myer said.
Myer isn’t alone. Specialty retailers nationwide are struggling with a trend in which manufacturers develop products and create instant rebate policies for their high volume partners, according to Jim Ristow, executive director of buying group BrandSource’s specialty electronic leg Home Entertainment Source (HES).
Industry Reaction
We asked several folks in the industry to react to Myer's comments about the "extremely lean" future of specialty retail. Click on each name for reaction.
- Jeremy Burkhardt, SpeakerCraft
- Richard Glikes, Home Technology Specialists of America
- Jeannette Howe, Specialty Electronics Nationwide
- Rick Komendera, SurgeX
- Paul Spitale, Sony
- Adam Schmidt, Runco
- Will West, Control4
- Jim Arnold, Control4
- Jack Shafton, Paradigm
- Steven Delp, Magnolia
- David Pidgeon, Starpower
- Russell Kim, Audio Dimensions
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About the Author
Tom LeBlanc, Senior Writer/Technology Editor, CE Pro
Tom has been covering consumer electronics for six years. Before that, he wrote for the sports department of the Boston Herald. Migrating to magazines, he was a staff editor for a golf publication and an outdoor sports publication. Now, as senior writer/technology editor of CE Pro magazine since 2003, he dabbles in all departments and offers expertise in marketing. Follow him on Twitter @leblanctom.
1 Comments (displayed in order by date/time)
Page 1 of 1 comment pages
This isn’t news.
Multiple factors contribute. Digital technology has made the differences in equipment much smaller than the analog days. TVs and Audio Gear are basically appliances, good enough is good enough.
Without significant differentiation why go to a specialist?
Custom/Design based is all that is left.
Why fool with a salesman for products that aren’t any different? A clerk to pull it down off the shelf is enough.
The amazing thing is people like John Meyer had enough community good will to last this long.
Jack Shafton makes excellent points, but unfortunately even speakers, which offer the greatest differentiations don’t matter that much to people.
They care more about asthetics, and they will drop $100k on speakers without listening to them. It’s become like buying a ferrari to most customers. The performance is expected, and they wouldn’t know the difference @ 200mph anyway.
Even Richard Glikes sees it. Cudos to Richard for telling the truth.
Even Home Depot Expo, Tweeter, and dozens of other attempts couldn’t make a chain of custom installers work.