I don't believe it has anything to do with Internet sales. The problem is twofold. First and foremost, high ticket items sit around too long in most Music stores, thus tying up funds that can be used for lower ticket items that quickly move through the stores and produce far more revenue in the long run.

Secondly, manufacturers do not provide product training for the store's sales staff. I believe the reason they do not provide this is that the sales staff tends to be younger people that really don't care to learn about the product because the job is usually a summer job or one that they consider something to provide income while they look for a higher paying job in another field.

When I had a fishing tackle store and boat dealership, OMC provided service training for all technicians employed by me. Each person I sent to their NJ training facility cost me an average of $4000 for the two-week course. You have to sell several outboard motors to make back that $4,000 outlay.

In a music store, you really don't need someone that is a skilled technician in order to sell guitars, amps, mics, drum sets, bongos, etc... But, it does require someone with a fair degree of technical ability and skill to sell an arranger keyboard and demonstrate it's myriad of features. There's not a lot of Michael Vonken's out there and most music stores, Sam Ash, GC, etc..., would not want to pay his salary to just sell arranger keyboards or synths.

The only folks I can place in this category is the Scott Langholffs of the world. Scott sold some big ticket Lowrey Organs and knew every nook and crany of the instrument. He not only knew how to play the instrument very well, but he was also quite knowledgeable about the operating system. And, while their sales staff did not make high base salaries, their commissions were fairly high. I don't know of anyone working in a regular, big box, music store that works on salary plus commission.

The Internet allows us to see the product, or at least photos of the product, videos and hear some top notch demonstrators put the product through it's paces. From this point on, however, it's a crap shoot. You pays your money and you takes your chances.

Cheers,

Gary