1. If it was not AVAD it would be some other company doing it. Don't blame AVAD specifically, blame the state of the industry.
2. AVAD is doing what any company should be doing; trying to prosper, grow, profit. They should not and definitely are not looking out for us. We are in charge of looking out for us.
3. AVAD is taking advantage of a sea change in the audio/video industry, where vendors are looking to cash in on a boom in business. AVAD is (as far as I know) a group of reps that have moved into distribution and used their rep background to secure both sides of the business with the vendors that will play ball with them, i.e. almost everybody. Smart move for them, I think.
4. The moves that AVAD has made are not to my advantage in many cases. I have based my business on a high margin-high service model. My customers expect high service, and I have to earn the revenue to support that. My customers expect me to be "competitive", and don't especially value my pleas that I need the money when I'm up against a trunk slammer. Customers are looking out for themselves and not me, see Random Thought #2 above. I need to support the brands that I can earn higher margins on, and that by infrence will exclude those brands that are available from any distributor, AVAD or other.
5. There are a number of vendors who are interested in growing with a small number of direct dealers and outside of distribution. These vendors are not Empire Builders like the AVAD vendors, they are Smart Cookies (in my view)because they are not going to see their sales go straight up and then straight back down when no one can make a dime on them.
6. AVAD is useful to me for what they do best, distributing parts and components that I don't base my system presentations on, but need to complete the job. They are actually a pretty skilled distributor, and service me well.
I will build my business with the brands that value my solid support. In the words of a friend in the industry; "I want to dance with thems that brought me to the ball....."
