HI FI careers

I hesitated using the title of the thread in case i became responsible for killing a AOS member after they laugh so hard they have a heart attack. If the title doesnt induce cardiac infraction maybe the content will, but here goes.

I work as a retail manager for a London store and things are bad at the moment.
The store has only been open 9 months but i think i need a back up plan and im wondering if there is any such thing as Hi Fi retail left in the country.
My own observations are as follows.
Sevenoaks hi fi . These poor guys dont look very happy and the fact the Croyden branch, which i used many times, is now a Tesco express may have something to do with it.
Richer sounds. Ok, not much Hi Fi but these guys seem to never leave and always look very chipper.
Local independents. Do you have experience in the trade sir? Erm no.
Any insights into the trade from those members in the know would be very welcome and if i have inadvertently offended anyone i humbly ask them for forgiveness.

My shop is just round the corner form Richer sounds, most who work there come in for sandwiches. Had a chat with one of them a few months ago about the company and he seems to praise them very highly as a company to work for. Seem to look after there staff very well. Only thing I find disappointing is when I try to engage with any of them about HiFi on a personal level they all seem just to be into AV and the conversation goes nowhere.

..

As far as working in HiFi is concerned - it's all but over, so don't bother...

The few successful independants work from home now I think, due to low overheads. Three I know - Acoustic Arts who had the premises of my apprenticeship in Watford transferred to a village location south west of Luton, HiFi dave gave up the St Albans shop two or three years ago and Signals near Ipswich has always been run from home as I remember.

A few independant shops do seem to be surviving - just, if the overheads are low enough and many rely on ebay selling for their cash-flow I'm told. The likes of KJ West1 have a more afluent clientel these days and these don't suffer like we plebs can and do.

I agree about many Sevenoaks branches, which are all too often box shifters of 5 star WTF product. There are one or two good ones around (Watford and Guildford were memorable years ago). Audio T seem like a deluxe Sevenoaks these days, as most sell the same old-same old, although less branches have a negative attitude I found (except Reading, and the least said about that store the better IMO).

The thing about Richer Sounds is that where the nearby "Audio Salon" is often empty with little change from week to week, the local Richer Sounds is bustling and the staff do seem to care about the clients they have. Whether this is anything to do with random phone calls from Julian and the repercussions thereof I don't know, but they do give the impression of caring and the Cambridge brand is good I'm told, even if it's not "for us" particularly..

Just my tuppence worth.

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Originally Posted by captain

My shop is just round the corner form Richer sounds, most who work there come in for sandwiches. Had a chat with one of them a few months ago about the company and he seems to praise them very highly as a company to work for. Seem to look after there staff very well. Only thing I find disappointing is when I try to engage with any of them about HiFi on a personal level they all seem just to be into AV and the conversation goes nowhere.

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Interesting. I dont suppose they would be to impressed with my £30 dvd player.

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Originally Posted by DSJR

As far as working in HiFi is concerned - it's all but over, so don't bother...

The few successful independants work from home now I think, due to low overheads. Three I know - Acoustic Arts who had the premises of my apprenticeship in Watford transferred to a village location south west of Luton, HiFi dave gave up the St Albans shop two or three years ago and Signals near Ipswich has always been run from home as I remember.

A few independant shops do seem to be surviving - just, if the overheads are low enough and many rely on ebay selling for their cash-flow I'm told. The likes of KJ West1 have a more afluent clientel these days and these don't suffer like we plebs can and do.

I agree about many Sevenoaks branches, which are all too often box shifters of 5 star WTF product. There are one or two good ones around (Watford and Guildford were memorable years ago). Audio T seem like a deluxe Sevenoaks these days, as most sell the same old-same old, although less branches have a negative attitude I found (except Reading, and the least said about that store the better IMO).

The thing about Richer Sounds is that where the nearby "Audio Salon" is often empty with little change from week to week, the local Richer Sounds is bustling and the staff do seem to care about the clients they have. Whether this is anything to do with random phone calls from Julian and the repercussions thereof I don't know, but they do give the impression of caring and the Cambridge brand is good I'm told, even if it's not "for us" particularly..

Just my tuppence worth.

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Shame! From a punters perspective , i like the idea you can go to a retailers home and try out their hand picked favourite gear. I have thought about going up to AVI to hear the neutron sub but worried in case i dont like it and Ashley buries me in his garden.
Richer sounds interesting but ive got no passion for AV. I bet they are busier than me though:(

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Originally Posted by DSJR

Audio T seem like a deluxe Sevenoaks these days, as most sell the same old-same old, although less branches have a negative attitude I found (except Reading, and the least said about that store the better IMO).

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i had the misfortune of going to the reading store the other week.

I will not be going there ever again.

The writing was on the wall back in 2006. From xmas 2006 people simply had less disposable income to spend on luxuries thanks to the government with it's stealth taxes and the other "time bomb" taxes that were set in previous budgets going off round about that time, coupled with the surge in iPod and AV popularity. 2007 got worse still and that's when the bread and butter type of hi-fi dealer was going to the wall, yet the very high end was as bouyant as ever it was.

The fight back came in the shape of diversifying into stocking AV products and greater internet sales activity which some made a success of, while others didn't.

People now have only food, warmth and shelter as top priority, so luxuries like hi-fi have become a very low priority. Even the secondhand market has almost completely dried up as anyone who has recently listed on ebay or advertised in the classifieds will attest.

As for richer sounds, the last time I went in there I nearly battered the assistant because of his rank stupidity. All I wanted to do was have a listen to some speakers, but each pair that were connected up I never heard what they actually sounded like, because this twonk kept on perpetually twisting the bass and treble controls on the CA 840 amp so I could be "amazed at the quality of the bass and treble". I couldn't get rid of him for a decent listen so I left the shop ASAP.

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Originally Posted by kininigin

i had the misfortune of going to the reading store the other week.

I will not be going there ever again.

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Sorry to butt in, bit how's the Shure cartridge doing now, Darren? :)

Marco.

The glory days of midfi and hifi of the 60's and 70's my return some day to some degree MABEY but more likely not for a very long time,Hifi is now a very small nich in an even smaller shrinking market.The day of Hi Fi brick and morter stores is over.
I'd look for work doing nearly anything else.The only people makeing any money in sales here in the U.S.A. are drug dealers.
But even drug dealers are complaining there adics are haveing trouble stealing enough to by drugs because no one has money or new expensive goods to steal and pawn.
The government can't tax us much more so they are takeing steps to leaglize drugs and tax them.
The government has gotten into the Auto buisness,Banking buisness,realestate buisness,health care buisness and now recreational drugs, I'm sure they will mess that up too.
http://www.publicradio.org/columns/m...of_cigare.html



http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_d..._one_cigarette

Who is getting rich from cigeretts? Tobacco companys spend .10 makeing a pack of smokes they charge less than .60 add taxes and it's over $11.00


That's why we have Tea party's popping up all over America.
The times they are a changeing (Bob Dylan)