Scotty: you raise good points but the fact is that informed consumers that can learn how to operate a sophisticated instrument on their own like you and I are not the normal customers of music stores. Professional musicians make up a very small percentage of business actually... most consumers are walk-in, Mom & Dad or grandparents, churches, beginners, hobbyists, etc. Some shoppers would compare a $10,000 home upright piano to a Technics KN7000 priced at $6,900 and figure the Technics offered them more for the money (especially when it goes on sale for $4,500). They always expect the dealer to take the time to answer any questions they'll have about how to operate their new keyboard for days, months and sometimes years after. I used to sell keyboards at MSRP to cover my support time, and even then that didn't always cover my time once the questions started. The worst problem was selling Yamaha PSR keyboards at list price only to have Circuit City and Sam's Club sell the same keyboards at deep discount and refer their customers to us to answer questions! We purposely started selling keyboards that only MI stores could get after that.

The market for expensive high-end technical keyboards isn't really that large (compared to the guitar market for example) especially in smaller markets, so some KN7000's take up retail space for months. This is why you almost never see a Yamaha 9000 Pro on a display floor. Maintaining retail space costs money that you get back only in the long run if the keyboard sells at a good margin.

Sure, music stores can't sell a KN7000 to US for $6,900, but I have no problem with them selling it for that to anyone they can.