I originally started this post not because I was upset over Zon's decision go sell through Crutchfield (I'm not a Zon dealer & could care less) , but rather the contradiction to their stated policy. If I had HAD bought into and made an investment into their product, I'd probably be pretty PO'd right now.

Historically, Crutchfield has served as a stepping stone for manufacturers to use to test the mass merchandising waters. 15 years ago, I never would have imagined the day that Mitsubishi, Klipsch, Yamaha & Rockford Fosgate would be in Best Buy, when Sony XBR would be in Circuit, when Denon would be in Sears, but guess what?

Jump ahead year 2004. Where have all the specialty A/V stores gone? What happened to the day when people would walk into your store, buy a truckload of stuff and leave happy campers?

The perceived answer is "well gosh, people want to have trained professionals designing and installing their gear these days."

Yeah, a lot of them do. Those would be commonly known as "our customers".

However, I'd challenge anyone to spend a Saturday afternoon at the local Best Buy and watch the hundreds of thousands of dollars of audio/video gear that leaves those stores on a daily basis.

Take a look at the customers who are buying stuff there. They're not exactly all mobile home dwellers. I see an awful lot of upper income people shopping at those places? A lot of people who are driving $50K plus automobiles. A lot of people who are putting their new gear into their 5000 sq ft homes.

Remember them? They USED to be our customers too.

Fortunately for us, Best Buy's not going to be installing Crestron systems anytime soon, but they do have their sights set on our business. So does Sears, Crutchfield, Microsoft, and a million or so online retailers.