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?"

Comments

Sony could do well

[erick99]

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.

Dell's already in the malls

[jrl87]

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.

Re:Dell's already in the malls

[skraps]

Yes - Sony and Dell are doing fine, since they are the manufacturer.

Problem is, Fry's is being scewed. I go to Fry's to see the product in person. Fry's has to pay for that store to exist, to have the products on hand, to have enough staff to answer my questions, etc.

But since I don't buy it from Fry's, they lose all of that pre-sale investment. The online store gets all of that pre-sales investment for free.

Re:Dell's already in the malls

[Chairboy]

> Fry's has to pay (...) to have enough staff to answer my questions, etc.

Actually, with Fry's, the customer pays for that. In spades.

Have you ever asked a Fry's employee for help?

canada

[Coneasfast]

in canada, sony has had stores for long time. there is one here in vancouver in a mall in the suburbs, not news (at least not to us).

Re:canada

[Jarvo]

Yeah, it's the same in Australia.

I wonder why Sony waited until now to open stores in the US...

Re:canada

[gstoddart]

in canada, sony has had stores for long time.

You beat me to the punch. Sony stores are in at least one major mall in most sizeable Canadian cities. Halifax has at least two, and Ottawa has two that I can think of possibly more.

I had always assumed that Sony was doing that all over the place.

Go figure.

Re:canada

[Yaztromo]

...and Toronto has as many stores as the entire US when you factor in the two new stores this article mentions:

• Bramalea City Centre
• Toronto Eaton Centre
• Erin Mills Town Centre
• Fairview Mall
• Hillcrest Mall
• Markville Shopping Centre
• Pickering Town Centre
• Scarborough Town Centre
• Sherway Gardens
• Square One
• Upper Canada Mall
• Yorkdale Shopping Centre

Ontario has, according to Sony Canada's website, 29 Sony Stores in total.

And /. is getting excited because Sony is expanding in the US from 10 to 12 stores??? ;).

(Admittedly, I'll be excited when Canada has one Apple Store).

Yaz.

Metreon

[Jeffrey Baker]

The Sony Style store in San Francisco is hideous. If the new stores are patterned after it, they will flop. The store is full of maladjusted plasma and lcd televisions, clock radios that don't keep time, minidisc players nobody wants, MP3 players that don't play MP3s, and, before they abandoned the business, Palm handhelds in various states of disintegration.

Oh, and no customers.

Re:Metreon

[LoadStar]

The same applies to the Sony Gallery in Chicago on the Magnificent Mile... horrible store.

First, you have to pass through one of the more foreboding entryways, and pass by the pissed off looking security guard staring you down like you're about to take everything in the store. Once past that, you're hit by the horrible lighting and the bad architecture, having to walk up two flights of stairs to get to the second level... to find about 3 products up there, including their high end plasma.

Product selection throughout the whole store is abysmal... high end stuff at 3x what you can buy it for at ANY electronics store, and some of the worst of the personal electronics line. All of it looks broken or not correctly set up. The store help is less than helpful... they're all off in a corner acting like the Gap Girls on SNL.

Walk down the street to the Apple Store and see what a REAL manufacturer retail outlet should look and act like.

In the UK

[Nighttime]

We have Sony Centres. As the name implies, they only stock Sony products. As far as I'm aware they are franchises and not directly operated by Sony. However, whenever a particular Sony line is in short supply, the Sony Centres never seem to suffer.

The Sony Store...in Canada

[scowling]

We've had The Sony Store in Canada for more than a decade. In my town, there are at least three, with two of them on the same street.

They're all fairly small stores, the "no sports on TV" rule applies, the prices are competitive with the big boxes -- and often better once you count the gift cards they usually give you with any reasonably-sized purchase.

Gateway made huge mistakes

[erick99]

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.

Too Expensive

[tinrobot]

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.

It didn't work for Gateway...

[gcaseye6677]

And it won't work for Sony. Both companies compete in the super-commoditized consumer electronics market. Neither of them have any real competitive advantage, other than Sony's fading brand name. Apple never tried to be the lowest cost provider; they have products that competitors either don't have or are not the same. The store model works for Apple because they compete on their own merits and people will go out of their way to buy Apple products. Granted, they are more expensive and often very proprietary, but they have a significant fan base. Sony and Gateway do not and will not have this advantage, therefore the only thing they will have to compete on will be features and price, just like every other electronics company. They will have a hard time keeping up with the massive flood of cheap consumer goods sold at Best Buy that are brought in by the boatload from Thailand and they will suffer miserably.

Re:What's the big deal?

[nuclear305]

"There's been at least one Sony shop in Dublin, Ireland for probably about five years. This doesn't seem like news to me."

Yes, but don't forget the US is the center of the Universe...it's not actually news until it happens here :(

Sad, but true.

Sony Needs to Emulate the "Apple Experience"

[SYFer]

It didn't work for Gateway because Gateway was more like a "CompUSA" (a store I loathe) and Apple is more like a high-end boutique. I realize that both models have their place and can be effective, but Gateway's essentially selling commodity goods while Apple sells a whole "lifestyle." Visiting an Apple store is an experience in itself and has drawing power. Nike stores are similar in this way (at least the major one here in San Francisco).

We also have a major Sony presence here The Metreon and its own Sony Styles store (although as a poster above points out, it's not exactly perfect). and I think Sony will do it a lot more like Apple based on what I have seen (high end fixtures and architecture, high-drama).

This is a smart move for a brand like Sony--they need to recapture the caché they once had more of.

It's a different market

[grahamsz]

Nobody buys a gateway because they really want a gateway.

But some people actively seek out sony products (i cant imagine why, but my brother has spent THOUSANDS on them, and lots more replacing them when they break). The same is true of apple. They are as close to "designer" brands as we have in electronics.

People do buy luxury watches, clothes, food items in store when they could get them cheaper online - it's more about the experience than the price.

Breakout potential?

[DeepFried]

I have visited the store a few times in the South Coast Plaza(CA.). In my opinion these stores really lack the "added value" that a branded Sony store should give. The Sony products, while very cool, don't lend themselves to the integration and "wow factor" that you get being in an Apple store and seeing cool features implemented. Also, the staff there is your basic run of the mill Circut City type employee (not particularly energized or informed).
There is not much difference in the presentation at the store vs. a nice consumer electronics shop and I don't feel like I am having a unique "Sony" experience by being in the Sony store because the products are not being presented in a new way.

While apple has a real motivation to open these botuiques (informed sales people and proper product presentation) I dont really see the long term breakout potential for Sony. They already have the benefit of ubiquity.

Having said that, its a great store to kill time in while your wife is shopping!

Gateway Had No Brand

[Anonymous Coward]

Gateway's products were all commodities w/Gateway badges on them. Why would anyone buy regular PC hardware from a specialty store?

When you buy a computer from the Apple Store, you do not buy a commodity item; you buy an "Apple." You get the style, the culture, the product line--iPod, iMac, iBook, PowerBook, Power Mac. Apple is somebody who sells a lifestyle, and that's what justifies an "Apple Store."

Alan

If they're anything like Canadian "Sony Store"s

[temojen]

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.

Re:If they're anything like Canadian "Sony Store"s

[danzona]

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.

been there done that

[fred fleenblat]

There's one at South Coast Plaza (costa mesa, CA) and it's kind of cool to wander around and see all the gadgets. Once.

Since they only sell the one brand, there aren't a lot of new products to draw people in. Plus it's retail prices for everything so you'd never buy there, just look and go home and order online.

Comparing it to apple stores...
* apple has a genius bar staffed with people who can often fix your problem right there. sony had some sales vultures trying to sell me a plasma.
* apple has 3rd party software available for purchase
* apple stores (some of them) have a closeout/discount bin for cheapskate shoppers to check out
* apple's products are just better designed than sony
* everything in the store is compatible with everything else
* grassy knowl and start button on every monitor makes the sony store look a lot like best buy or compusa

I wouldn't worry too much about Fry's

[apenzott]

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.