I've been on all three sides of the fence; sold musical instruments in retail stores for years, worked for several keyboard manufacturers on the wholesale side, and have been a retail customer since I was 14 or so. Back when I started buying keyboards for myself back in the mid-70's, I appreciated the experienced salespeople that worked at the local music stores. The keyboard guys were players, knew the products inside and out and were able and willing to share their knowledge to a young kid. When I got into retail, those positive experiences I had as a kid taught me how important it was to know the product I was selling and gave me a good foundation on how to relate to a customer. And that meant a lot to my customers. Unfortunately those days are all but gone. The customers are as bad as the salespeople. The customer wants the local dealer to match ridiculous prices. The store owners try to match what they can in order to stay in business, but costs have to be cut somewhere and that is typically done by lowering employee pay, which relates to lower employee quality. It is hard to find a truly knowledgeable salesman, and harder still to find one that is willing to take the time to provide training on the products they sell. The internet certainly has had a huge impact on free standing stores, before that there were catalog sales, and before that there were dealers who would advertise outside of their authorized territory. Of course none of that would make a difference if customer's remained loyal to there local dealers. If customers would support their local dealers, those dealers may be able to pay a decent salary to a knowledgeable salesperson. I can't remember how many times I've heard the line "I need to be able to put my hands on an instrument before I buy it", followed by "I bought it online". Meaning they used the local dealer as a showroom for the online dealer. That's just wrong.

What kind of wining would there be if someone started hounding in on your gigs by undercutting your fee. And don't be naive enough to think that your gigs couldn't be taken away. If the price is low enough...

------------------
Wm. David McMahan
LearnMyKeyboard
JazzItUp Band
The Modulators

[This message has been edited by WDMcM (edited 10-01-2009).]