FYI. It was announced Friday July 16th that B & W will be sold in Magnolia HiFi ( Best Buy )
Starting this fall with a broad portfolio of their product mix.

Hanging my head, with tears in my eyes.............this has to be twilight zone.

This will continue to happen with everyone. Manufacturers care about 1 thing and 1 thing only. Moving boxes. Magnolia will sell more of their products in 1 quarter then all of their current distributors do in a year.

Best Buy put the squeeze on distribution.

Walmart is putting the squeeze on Best Buy.

Amazon and friends are putting the squeeze on everyone.

The economy is backing manufacturers into a corner.

I think BestBuy will be gone in 10 years. Cameras/iPods/TV's/Computers will come from walmart and costco and everything else will be purchased online.

Nomination for longest thread title of the year!

I am actually curious about the numbers that Magnolia does. I have been in the Magnolia section of stores many, many times and it's always like a waste land with the few people who occasionally walk into it looking like the curious browsers with no intention of buying. While I have no doubt they move some boxes based on nothing but the sheer volume of their stores, I have a suspicion that they are not the powerhouse one might think when it comes to selling any of the higher end brands.

I have never been into Magnolia but I do believe that certain products are very hard to sell outside of a high end store or high end CI firm. There are very different clients for a pair of B&W bookshelves and a 801. You need a certain kind of client and for the life of me, I do not see that client looking to purchase that product from Best Buy.

I've seen some shoddy setup WATTs and Nautilus in my day but that client walked into a salon to get duped. I don't see that client walking into Best Buy or Best Buy having the salespuke to convince him that a pair of 801s require a Levinson amp and Spectral Audio DMC-20 preamp to sound their best. Moreover, as every sales assistant in Best Buy will explain, any Bose speaker system outperforms any other speaker on the market.

Alan

B&W does not have distributors, Stamp... their model has been to do business directly with a select group of displaying independent retailers and very select group of upscale integration firms.

As some of these firms were seeing a significant reduction in their overall business, their B&W business suffered as well. In addition, B&W's Chairman even acknowledged that they were impacted by numerous closures of once valuable dealers.

Their choice was add suitable candidates in numerous markets to replace the lost business, or find a quicker answer through a national retailer or distributor.

This is similar to what happened with Martin-Logan as they found themselves nearly exclusively sold by PRO Group retailers. These retailers were high-volume specialists who sought (and received) exclusive rights to sell the line in many markets around the US. A large number of these retailers were acquired one-by-one acquired by Tweeter. As Tweeter eventually faltered, M-L lost all or most of their presence in all of those important markets and saw a significant portion of their sales volume evaporate.

Also, it's common knowledge that there are two 'levels' of Magnolias....

Magnolia Audio Video, which has only 9 locations plus 2 'commercial sales' locations...

Or

Magnolia Home Theater, which is the store-within-a-store concept in 350+ Best Buy locations.

Perhaps Julie could confirm if its MAV only, or both MAV and MHT that B&W will be selling to.

I agree, every time that I have walked in there they are empty. The clerks are bored and most of the time watching DTV. I had a couple friends that worked at BB and got "promoted" to Magnolia. He said that what drew the customers in there were the seats and the higher end feel of the rest of the store.

He also said that for ever 8 people that would walk in 1 would buy 4 would get shocked at the higher "prices" and 3 would drop there kids while the the parents shopped.

He did say though when a client walks in and spends the average sale they sold was 14k and that didnt include the installation. they would push Martin Logans, the yamaha amps the 2nd third and fourth zone with speaker craft in those and 3 tvs with universals yadedada.

Magnolia is set for the customer that has just walked into alot of money, maybe a new job wants the cool good stuff that all the "rich" people have and has zero idea where else to go, "Best buy has got to have all the best stuff". And what the sales guy tells him is what goes. (unfortunately this is marketing at its best)



I agree 100% except i give Best Buy 6 years. With the onslaught of HH Gregg (trash store raping BB on prices) Walmart continuing to take over the world and Newegg/Amazon owning the internet its only a matter of time before the leader falls



To be honest, marketing tells these rich people that bestbuy has the best prices(and unfortunately now some great products). Now granted 90% of the time the client looking for that kind of speaker/ experience basically hands over a blank check. But those kinds of clients are slowly disappearing while more and more customers slip into the save money here lets go buy a yacht their.

I don't see that client walking into Best Buy or Best Buy having the salespuke to convince him that a pair of 801s require a Levinson amp and Spectral Audio DMC-20 preamp to sound their best.

Didnt you hear? Krell and Mcintosh are coming next month =)

Moreover, as every sales assistant in Best Buy will explain, any Bose speaker system outperforms any other speaker on the market.

9 times out of 10 a customer falls for that, and they are the happiest people in the world thinking they saved them selfs a boatload of money and think "my system sound 10x better then the rich fart that spent 200k on two speakers. I got me 6 YAYYY!"

Cruel world.

Do they still use the "Squad" For installation?

And 2nd Rick nailed it. Thats exactly what happened with B&W and im sure they are selling through the 350+ locations.

Im not sure why they didnt try going through higher end distributors first then using BB as the fallback but i guess they have to move the boxes.

I wasn't sure about this so i specifically left out B&W and just said manufacturers.


This is what i was getting at. They dont have any other choice.

I actually think HH Gregg will vanish in 3 unless their is a quick turn around with the economy. They are trying to expand their reach into an ever shrinking market during a recession. I dont get it unless their business plan is to build with credit, live on cash and count the days until it all comes crashing down.

First B&W will get to best buy.. then they will begin building best buy products and join companies like Harmon Kardon Klipsch. The name will be recognizable for a while and at some point people wont know the difference between B&W and Coby.

Have you noticed that Best Buy is starting to bundle product and installation in their ads. That tells me they are trying to jump start their A/V install sales.

+1

We have been told that our local BB will not have it and the closest markets will be Kansas City and St. Louis. There is NO online presence, NO shipping from one store to another, etc. We'll see what happens, but if B&W's quality starts to slip because of demand, they will find out why so many companies lose respect after trying the mass merchandising scheme.