Are HiFiDealers necessary?

[The Real Professor]

ok then suppose i accept your POV for a moment, is it only hifi I'm stupid for buying from a retailer? (FWIW all of my hifi was bought at trade or less direct from the manufacturer, or in the case of my cartridge from the importer at landed price plus VAT)

should I buy my beans direct from heinz? should I buy my shoes from the maker in Northampton? should I jump on a ferry to France to buy my hair gel (yes I'm into hifi and I still have all my own hair). or better yet should I buy some leather and make my own shoes, cut the manufacturer out altogether, I mean you make a profit on the caps you use in your amps, so does that make NVA customers stupid for buying direct, and allowing you your slurp, or should you sell your amps at cost and not take a profit? or is it OK for the manufacturer to make a profit and if so why? Do I only buy from those selling direct and thus limit my choices, you and Jammy seem to be enlightened, but I just would like to know how do I distinguish when I should buy from a middleman and when it's ok to be buying from someone in the middle?

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Now you are being feckin' daft. I am talking about hifi not baked beans. If you can't argue with common semse or intelligence then don't bother, I have seen all this stupidity 100s of times before.

Specialist enthusiast hobbyist markets will go direct, not baked beans

[The Real Professor]

I was arguing with intelligence, and common sense, but I was making a point which you have answered, so why should only specialist enthusiast hobbyist markets go direct, and not others? This is a serious question? And is consumer electronics a specialist hobby? I'd say the hobby is listening to music, am I stupid for buying music from a record store instead of direct from the label? the Hifi is only a tool? should I be stupid for buying my hammer for my specialist hobby building things, or should i get it direct from Stanley?

I realise where you are coming from Richard, and I'm no apologist for Charlatans, but then I'm no apologists for generalist sweeping statements either, it's you who don't realise there isn't only black and white in this world, theres many shades of grey in between, I don't expect you to agree, but it doesn't make what I said any less true.

And for the record that is my final word on the subject, it's more fun Mongo bashing anyway

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

I give up with you, please stop wasting forum space repeating yourself.

[jammy395]

I was arguing with intelligence, and common sense, (TRP)

Well there's absolutely no point arguing with me then,
But since you seem to enjoy a good argument, may I point you in the direction of our resident champ. "Dan Quinn".

[Daniel Quinn]

If you need a 10k cd player to tell your mates you have stupid needs.

[The Real Professor]

If you need a 10k cd player to tell your mates you have stupid needs.

I agree wholeheartedly, in fact I already did. There's nowt queer as folk.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Coincidence http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35681474

[Fretless]

Coincidence http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35681474

V&D - A major chain of department stores in the Netherlands - has recently gone bankrupt and that has set off a domino-effect of closures in the general retail industry over here (especially in shoes and sportswear). Shopping centres are turning into ghost-towns as more and more people turn to internet-buying for their goods. One positive sign is that the ailing Dutch national post service is reporting its best results in years thanks to an increase in package deliveries.

General electronics stores are rapidly going bust and record-shops are all but extinct here. For some strange reason the small, specialist Hi-fi shops appear to be holding their own, and many have started webshops to improve business.

Times are changing and they are changing fast !

[The Real Professor]

Thats been on the cards for a while though, in fact I read recently that if you are currently on £14/hour or less then you are in danger of being replaced by a computer or a robot in the next 10 years.

The issue with the Dutch situation is that it's not cutting out the middleman as you want Richard, there is still a middleman, OK they are taking a smaller margin, but they have lower overheads and increased volume, and they are often not based in the country concerned, and are therefore avoiding tax (think Amazon) So the Slurp as you put it is still there, whats more worrying is Town Centres becoming like Ghost Towns, no jobs for a huge portion of the workforce, means more on welfare state supported by a smaller working population, this can't be good for society, all so people can save a few quid, how will you feel Richard if there are not enough people earning to support your current business model, the problem with society today is folks are far too parochial, and can only see what affects them and their current situation, they can't see the bigger picture. If we don't have people earning, we have no tax payers.

This deserves it's own thread, as a father with Children I find the situation quite worrying, what is life going to be like for them and their offspring, living in gated communities? assuming they can afford it, never leaving the house, working from home, shopping from home, and deprivation all around as jobs are lost so no desire to leave the home, what kind of existence is that? Thin edge of the wedge?

If we want to maintain the standards we have had in our country for at least the last 30 years, someone has to pay for it. One day we may live in a society where all are equal, and we only work if we wish to, but what happens during the transitional period?