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Sony Quietly Opening Retail Stores
as400tek writes "According to CNN, Sony
Electronics Inc. has been opening stores in selected cities all over the
US. Denver and Las Vegas are the next two location, or location numbers 11 &
12. Should the Apple retail model
be applied to Sony, and if so why didn't it work for Gateway?
Should Dell be next to enter you local shopping mall? Should large retailers like Best Buy and others be afraid of this model? Does this mean better service
for Sony's already nice line up of electronics?"
Their online stores have done very while. I am surprised that people shop online and pay retail prices when I am used to shopping online in order to get a discount. They have great brand recognition and people, by and large, believe Sony to be a high quality electronics provider. I think they have a good shot at being successful.
http://www.busyweather.com/
I live in Texas, most of the malls in my area (DFW) have Dell Kiosk things in them that are actually quite nice where you can demo several products and make orders if you decide to purchase.
The times I've been inside a Sony store, it seems like everything is priced at retail.
I can get Sony stuff cheaper at the discount stores.
IIRC the Apple stores came out after Gateway's.
Also the gateway stores sucked major ass.
Apple stores are awesome.
I'm sure Sony's stores will be pretty good considering they're the only PC maker that can compete with Apple in terms of style.
He who knows not and knows he knows not is a wise man. He who knows not and knows not he knows not is a fool.
I live in Fort Worth, TX and there has been some construction on a Sony store here.. looks like its gonna be a neat place when its built..
anyway, I took a quick snap with my digicam as I drove by, it looks rather unique..
We've had "Sony Stores" for years and years around my parts (Alberta & Saskatchewan).
They read over the sign, "The Sony Store", they are very swanky and very expensive. Usually in malls, but my home-town did have a stand-alone one about 5-10 years ago (I belive it closed eventually).
Things are usually priced above MSRP in them for some reason, perhaps to appease retailers who carry Sony products.
I think 2 malls have Sony sotres where I live. I've been in them, but never purchased anything at either as it's just so much cheaper to go somewhere else (I also don't like salesmen in suits with slicked hair trying to fast-talk me when I'm Sunday shopping - get enough of that during the work week thankyouverymuch).
This site says they have 70 stores in Canada.
..mork
Dell is already in the shopping malls. From ifoAppleStore:
Dell Computer doesn't depend only upon its telephone and on-line sales: they have 81 kiosks within the hallways of shopping centers in 11 states. They're now running a billboard promotion with the tag line, "We're In The Mall."
Jeremy Logan's Website.
Having been to more than one Sony Style store I can say I'm pretty disappointed with them. Sony wants to have their own stores where it's wall to wall Sony products but doesn't want to make the stores somewhere you want to go to. There's very little difference between a Sony Style store and a Best Buy whereas there is a world of difference between an Apple section of a CompUSA and an Apple Store. If Sony could make some stores a little more enticing, similar to the Sony section of the Metreon, I think their stores would be far more attractive.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
Plus, who shops at the mall with $1500, ready to buy a computer?
But yet Apple stores seem to be doing fine...
Yep.
At Circuit City, BestBuy, CompUSA, RadioShack, Computer STOP, Fred Meyer, Allstar Auto, and a smog check station near where I live where I had to get my car tested before getting it registered in CA.
In general, I've stopped going to stores for info. I have gotten to the point where I've researched what I want to buy to the extent that I know exactly what I'm looking for and I just need to find the best price to get it. On top of that, when a sales rep comes over and makes a comment like, "SuSe doesn't do as well as Windows, because...", or "32 bit processors, like Intels, are better than 64 bit processors, like AMDs, because the processor doesn't have to work with big numbers all the time. 64 decimal places is much bigger than 32 decimal places, and that's where the problem is."
Better yet was a mechanic trying to tell me that my Audi A4 didn't need its transmission fluid changed because "German cars are so well built that they don't need to have the transmission fluid changed." This was even after I pointed out the Audi Service Bulletin that described the mileage between changes and what transmission fluid to use!
In each case, I found that it was irritating, but kind of fun to call them on their lies. One guy even tried selling some RAMBUS RAM to me saying that they use genetically engineered silicon. I was like, WTF!? (I was looking for PC2100 RAM at the time.)
It was also especially fun if I made quite a bit of noise in the store about the salesperson lying.
s/Canadian/UK/
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
Where do you live? I used to frequent the Sony Store at the Scarborough Town Centre (Toronto), and not only were there prices competitive with places like Future Shop, but they also had Viao laptops, Clies, and a selection of computer parts (CD/DVD drives, Viao acccessories, etc.).
Yaz.
There was another company whose name escapes me now, because it's long dead...they had a prosperous direct-order business and then killed it by opening retail stores in the states most of their orders were coming from. As soon as they lost the advantage of tax-free interstate sales, they couldn't compete.
rj
They'll be the most expensive place to buy Sony products, only carry home electronics (no computers or parts), and be staffed by people who know all the buzzwords but have little idea what they mean.
Until Sony closed it, I used to go to the one in Chicago once a month so I'll address these points one at a time:
1. Their prices were the same as those on Sony's website. Things could be found cheaper from other resellers. Note that the sales tax is 10% on Michigan Avenue, so that might make it more expensive than most places.
2. They carried the full Sony line including computers (even Aibos). They sold accessories for the products, but it didn't appear that they had every part - for example, I doubt I could have purchased a replacement power supply for my Vaio.
3. I think you are right about the staff, although I never expect the staff at a retail outlet to know much. They aren't getting paid enough to be domain experts.
I don't think Sony expects people to go to these stores to ask questions about the products. I think Sony has the stores so people can see the products that they have been reading about up close and decide if it is for them.
Gateway didn't succeed because you went to their store to configure and order a machine. You then waited several weeks or longer for it to arrive. When they had these in my area they did zilch. People could go to any number of stores and walk out with a computer and when people are ready to buy, most didn't want to drive to a store just to place an order. I think that towards the end they started keeping a few preconfigured machines in stock but not many. They also had an awful compensation plan for their sales people.
Emphasis mine, but to show a point. That was one of the biggest mistakes that they made. The commission plan that Gateway had in effect made the sales people prettymuch force the "extras" down peoples throat. I worked at Gateway Country stores for almost 3 years and I routinely was forced to rip off anyone that walked in the store. You only make 0.5% off the actual hardware that was sold, which ended up being only a few dollars per month. The way that we all made money was on the 100% profit items for Gateway: training, software, and warranties. ESPECIALLY training. In the end I left the store and didn't even bother calling in to quit because I was so disgusted with making elderly couples purchase a $500 system with $2000 of training and warranties on it.
At least at the other places the sales people are hourly rate only, little to no commission, so if you say you don't want something they will mostly say ok and continue on. At Gateway stores, the salesmen would still find a way to tack that training onto the quote and hide it somewhere in the final price.
This caused many people buying from Gateway Country stores to get upset since they would always find systems either on gateways website or from another company for 1/2 or 1/3 the price they just paid. Pissing off almost every customer that walks into your store when there is both a CompUSA and Best Buy directly across the street is not the way to run a business.
"Well kids, you tried your best, and you failed. The lesson is, never try." -Homer Simpson
I have worked at Fry's (They deal dirtier than Wal*Mart to their suppliers, employees, and customers.)
I am sure you have seen those advertisements that Fry's puts into your local paper.
Guess who pays for them. (Hint it is not Fry's Electronics, it is the manufacturers that were advertised within the first third of the page.)
In the San Jose and the SoCal area there is at least an 8-page Fry's Electronics "news section" once a week.
--
For the products you see "featured" on the endcaps or other high visibility areas, the manufacturers pay "rent" to Fry's for this "premium real estate" to the tune of US$5K/week/store (this was 1993!)
I have seen some vendors end up PAYING for the privelege of being porked by Fry's at the end of the promotion because the product did not sell on its own merits despite this preferred placement. (The "rent" completely engulfed the $sales expected by this promotion. The Fry's brothers learned this trick from their parent's grocery business.)
--
Also, Fry's is notorious milking their net terms with their suppliers and due to their size can "choose another vendor" if current supplier does not cater to their whims.
--
Their xxx days "same as cash" sales/financing is done by the manufacturer; Fry's gets this as "money in the bank" from the manufacturer when the merchandise leaves the store. On some products the vendor does not get paid until the item is sold.
The Roman Rule: The one who says it cannot be done shall not interrupt the one who is doing it.
Or about half a million places in Markham :).
You'll get no argument from me -- I was thinking more along the lines of their consumer electronics when I mentioned prices. When I bought my Wega and a DVD player several years ago, The Sony Stores prices were the same as virtually everywhere else (for Sony gear).
The one nice thing about the Sony store is you can haggle with them somewhat if you're buying multiple items. I was able to do this when buying my TV and DVD player -- I not only saved a few hundred dollars off the sticker price buying them together, but I also got them to throw in the extended warantee and a bunch of DVD movies as well.
Sure, other places do this as well -- but in the end I got quite a good deal (better than I could get anywhere else at the time), and some nice free extras. The key is not to go in and pay the sticker price if you're buying a few major items at once -- talk to the sales person, hum and haw a bit, mention to them you might buy the other item "down the road", and talk them down and get them to throw a few things in for free.
Yaz.
We've had Sony Stores in Canada for a long time. I remember purchasing my first good discman there over 7 years ago as a teenager. They tend to be pricier than Walmart/FutureShop/BestBuy because Sony charges the strict MSRP so as to not compete with their web store. They also sell extended warranties but I have had a very good experience with them. They farm out the repair jobs to a local shop but they don't give you a hard time at all.
The one thing that sucks just like every other store, is that the clerks tend to not know what they're doing. You'd think in a Sony store the guy would know everything about Sony's products but really he's no better than the kid working at BestBuy for 7.50/hr. Last time I went there, the guy couldn't tell me the difference between the 100$ cd player and the 500$ cd player. Sorry fella, but I want to know about read errors, skew/jitter, seek time, digital outputs.. I mean the guy does nothing else all day might as well learn about the stuff he sells. But it's no worse than what you'll see in any megastore or even radio shack.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
And every product will be the latest most-advanced DRM implementation that came out the R&D labs.
The consumer electronics companies are going to be hard pressed to deal the 'vintage is better' mentality should it ever hit them. This is where people actually pay a premium for older used electronic goods and buy the newest, latest, and greatest only as second choice if something new is not available.
This seems absurd because it has never happened in consumer electronics before. But if the big companies start sneeking in DRM into their newest models, and, if content that plays on the older equipment won't play on the new equipment, the a secondary market will start alongside of the markeet for the latest stuff. Sony and friends will be the last to know because their market for new stuff will still be growing, and they won't be paying attention to the parallel market. Until some-day some-one notices that the price on eBay for 5-year-old handheld DVD players is double the price of the latest HiDef UltraDVD players that have ten times the resolution and features.
I see something like this happening on eBay already in the obscure electronic niche of guitar effects devices: the stompboxes like distortions, chorus, phase shifters, and wah-wah pedals. {eBay: Musical Instruments-Guitar-Parts,Accessories-Effects Pedals}
Here you might find a ratty old metal box containing a dozen old resistors and five transistors selling for $800 while a new plastic pedal with a custom VLSI-DSP (very large scale integration digital signal processor) chip and a hundred surrounding support components selling for $14. The difference in price being due, of course, to the 'rich warm tone' of the vintage device that was hand-made by an old hippie electronic genius who actually used to smoke weed with Jimi Hendrix and designed the device according to what Jimi used to say he wanted his guitar to sound like.
Boutique electronics...and I'm not sure how Sony is going to eventually handle it. Maybe they will release retro versions of old DVD players ( without DRM ) so people can 'fall in love again' with old classics like Lord of the Rings and, snicker, snicker, here it comes...anything with Lindsey Lohan.
the sony shop in the trafford center, manchester, UK is selling 256MB of PC133 RAM for 169UKP. anywhere else is selling it for 25UKP. this is because the idiots who buy sony desktop PCs buy on image: and assume a Samsung ram chip with a sony logo on the box is the only thing compatible.
actually, considering their approach to their consumer AV hardware, this is probably the safest approach to take.
also, tried getting support on your Vaio recently?
sony look nice, but unlike apple *absolutely suck ass* when it comes to any sort of aftersales or support.