Best buy sells American Strats for $174 more then we do..We still have them at $999!! Fender just increased prices so maybe the ones on order will be $1099. But $1274 for an American Strat is a lot. Even Sam Ash has them for $999.

Everything we sell is at Internet prices. We HAVE to compete. We don't charge nor get a premium because we know the products and can demo them.

The difference is we have to be careful what we stock and stock what the market will buy. no sense in having Signiture Fenders. 6 American Strats and a few American Teles and 12 Mexicans and 12 Squires. Mass market stuff. Ibanez is a good seller and has better MAP pricing. In that case we can beat the Internet advertised prices. Yamaha is what it is. The same all over. We hold the MAP on Yamaha Arrangers and customers don;t seem to mind. Tyros is another Animal.

Independents can compete with the Internet. We fight the tax on the high dollar stuff though. Like Bose. $210 on $3000 is hard to swallow for many and Bose is hardline about selling AT MAP not below. We have to get creative with freebies sometimes but it can be done. Again we can compete. B & M stores HAVE to compete.

But we also have to floor sale able items. Workstations are not sale able for us. Arrangers are not sale able for GC. Yet we both sell every other kind of MI gear. Go figure.