Sound Advice founders to relaunch defunct chain

[PhilCohen]

Despite doubts from industry observers, two of the founders of the now defunct
"Sound Advice" hifi chain have purchased the company name from liquidators(who sold off the assets of Sound Advice's final owner "Tweeter Home Entertainment"), and these guys plan to re-launch the stores later this year with a store in Ft.Lauderdale,Florida and more to come.
Co-founders Peter Beshouri & Michael Blumberg(no, not the famous one) intend to have fewer and physically smaller stores. In an article July 23rd in "The Miami Herald" newspaper, an industry observer doubted whether there was still a market for high-priced dealers with "assisted selling", and that consumers weren't willing to pay that price anymore.
Beshouri seems defiantly opposed to changing Sound Advice's approach. Under Tweeter's ownership(but with Beshouri still running things), Sound Advice became mostly a television store(which de-emphaisized audio equipment), and they were selling mostly the same flat screen T.V.'s as Sears & Best Buy, but at drastically higher prices. Sound Advice's tactics(under Tweeter's ownership) included stating fictitiously high list prices to create the illusion that Sound Advice was discounting. In fact, the opposite was true: Sound Advice was exceeding manufacturer's suggested list price(mostly on T.V.'s) by a typical 15% ; a process generically known as "gouging".
If Mr. Beshouri thinks that a marketplace of suckers will sustain "Sound Advice" in the 21st century, he's got another thing coming. Today, a middle class or upper middle class consumer that is going to spend thousands of dollars on audio or video equipment can(and often does) read magazine or online test reviews, and these consumers will know the manufacturer's suggested price and if Mr.Beshouri and his company are engaging in unethical gouging.
Without a change in Sound Advice's mentaility, the revived company's fate will be the same as it was for the company's previous incarnation, and hopefully, mercifully quick.

 

[sholling]

I shopped at a Tweeter a couple of times. But I only bought their clearance items and got some great deals. Everything else was bloody high.

 

[Ito]

Sounds like a business model for someone who doesn't care about their customers. I don't get why you would start a small chain like this just to rip of your customers...I don't know about you guys but I don't know if I could feel proud of myself for just selling products to idiots.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Sounds like a business model for someone who doesn't care about their customers. I don't get why you would start a small chain like this just to rip of your customers...I don't know about you guys but I don't know if I could feel proud of myself for just selling products to idiots.

I guess no different from selling homeopathic stuff.

 

[bandphan]

Sorry for the post, but Peter was always a profit guy. Tweeter preferred that come from private label and exclusives, where Sound Advice did make its meat from the CI business, one which tweeter had no clue about. Regardless of ones opinions about Peter, and that goes back to the car audio only days, ( just think where JL would be without them) he did try to put viable products in the market place in the days before ID. This is a non story currently and naming "names" doesnt validate or disavow what the project may bring. This thread is currently non news worthy And FWI Peter had about as much to do with tweeter as nancy pelosi with honest politics, all in a title

 

[tom67]

Sound Advice

I miss the store here in Palm Beach Gardens....that is the Sound Advice that existed before Tweeter ownership....Knowledgeable people and they did have some deals along with quality goods and tons of setups with good listening rooms.They matched internet prices on my purchases, adding only sales tax and subtracting the cost of internet shipping which I felt was fair. In the 90s their profit center was home installation during the housing boom down here in FL. My guess is that they would have to revive that part of the business which wont be easy during the present housing bust on high end homes.

 

[PhilCohen]

Sorry for the post, but Peter was always a profit guy. Tweeter preferred that come from private label and exclusives, where Sound Advice did make its meat from the CI business, one which tweeter had no clue about. Regardless of ones opinions about Peter, and that goes back to the car audio only days, ( just think where JL would be without them) he did try to put viable products in the market place in the days before ID. This is a non story currently and naming "names" doesnt validate or disavow what the project may bring. This thread is currently non news worthy And FWI Peter had about as much to do with tweeter as nancy pelosi with honest politics, all in a title

A non-story? The only reason that I couldn't provide a link to it, is because it was a print article. I guess I'm old fashioned. I still read newspapers. The industry observer who expressed doubts about a relaunched "Sound Advice" was Stephen Baker, an electronics industry analyst with NPD Group, who said, "The market has changed. There's not much room for that kind of company. While there's a certain place for assisted selling, it's a smaller segment than it used to be. Consumers aren't willing to pay the price for that anymore."(The Miami Herald, July 23,2010.Section C, Page 1). And by the way, Peter Beshouri continued to run Sound Advice even after Tweeter bought it.

 

[Ban-One]

I loved that store. My dad started to go there in the early 90's. He had several people there over the years that would give him big discounts for everything he bought. The store would also give me that same deal to keep my dad as a customer.