IceCreamMan wrote:
Joe Moore wrote:
Here is a version I've heard :
There was a partnership between 2 guys who owned the Marshall group .
There was an unfriendly split.
The Cape Town guy changed his stores names to Mars Music .
The Jhb guys' stores are still called Marshall Music.
The Cape Town guy wants to teach the Jhb guy ( and the rest of the industry ) a lesson.
He teams up with the guys from Music Mate and they rename the existing Music Mate stores to Mars Music .
This new entity is also in the process of opening a 'huge' store in the Midrand area ( near the big mosque ) .
They plan to 'take over' the musical instruments industry ... ( apparently ) :-\
If Joe said this, then its all true. Just wait n see.
We in a time of recession, cleverer guys than me would open a megastore in mid rand....
Combine JPG, Chad and Joe's comments and that's pretty much what I've observed over the last 18mths or so.
I'm breaking out the popcorn for this one, definitely a soap opera in the making.
The hope would be sharper competition - but I wouldn't hold my breath. There might be a bit of a bun-fight initially...but I have my doubts distributors will easily give up their healthy margins locally. I kinda understand - as the market is fairly small for low margin, high volume approach like online retailers (musicians friend/amazon/zzsounds/etc). Locally, If they can 'fleece' a consumer with the full-fat RRP, they will.
I'm busy pricing a gig worthy bass combo (200W+ 15in). Noticed that for my choices, local RRP is +/-200% of US online retail. Fender Rumble 200 = R15k retail local, sale price R10.5k...my price after heavy negotiation...R7.5k. Online retail in the US is R6.7k. I can live with that margin - although it'll be for November only - and this price was as close to a endorsement deal one could get without signing anything (I have friends in low places ?).