"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote in message
...


iPods are having an effect, but the bigger issue, I think, is lack of
imagination and just plain balls in retailing. That's why this retailer
keeps growing every year:

http://www.rowephoto.com/index.html

Mid to high quality audio, full service, well-trained staff with
outrageous product knowledge. Began as a photo store 110 years ago. Added
audio & video in the mid-1980s. The stores are always busy. In a sense,
the owner built the business by responding to the big discounters with "So
what?" Wegmans (grocery chain) does the same thing.


Hopefully they will stay around because they are diversified. There used to
be a couple of decent high-end audio shops around my area but they have all
folded. The demand (or lack of) for quality equipment just doesn't pay the
rent anymore. Even manufacturers of decent speakers are introducing lower
performance, lower priced models of their equipment to be carried by places
like Best Buy. It's too bad because people still spend a considerable
amount of money for Best Buy's versions of Klipsch or Martin Logan thinking
they are getting high end speakers. For a small amount more they could get
the real thing.

Eisboch