music dealer in the US

[The Audacity Works]

Hi Chuck,

 

You may not be in any position to discuss this, but what's up with all the new ridiculously insane Gibson dealer agreements? I'm not interested in details, but are they trying to alienate Sweetwater as well? Even Washington Music (which I believe is still the largest walk-in music store in the country) is falling victim to whatever scam they have going.

 

Also, how do you guys deal with Digidesign's strict regional sales policy for TDM systems, where one can only sell within their territory (which in your case, is possibly Indiana and a maybe a couple of surrounding states)? That is, if I wanted to buy an HD rig from you guys, since I'm in Southern California, I can't, right? I have to go to Westlake, GC Pro, or West LA music? Or does the size of your organization bless you with an exception?

 

Not looking for industry secrets or anything, just curious. Thanks.

[Miket156]

Audacity:

 

I don't know the specifics of the Gibson or Digidesigns dealer agreements you're referring too, but I think some manufacturers would like to bring back the "Pre Internet" days when dealers were given an assigned territory and could only sell to customers within the territory. That way they could keep the prices higher so the dealers made a higher profit. That was good for everyone but the customers.

 

Some of the previous dealer agreements that manufacturers had in place were challenged in court, like MAP prices. I don't know what Gibson is up too, but if it irriates someone enough they can take them to court, or as I do, buy from a different manufacturer.

 

 

Mike T.

[Chucksweet]

 

Originally posted by audacity works Hi Chuck, You may not be in any position to discuss this, but what's up with all the new ridiculously insane Gibson dealer agreements? I'm not interested in details, but are they trying to alienate Sweetwater as well? Even Washington Music (which I believe is still the largest walk-in music store in the country) is falling victim to whatever scam they have going. Also, how do you guys deal with Digidesign's strict regional sales policy for TDM systems, where one can only sell within their territory (which in your case, is possibly Indiana and a maybe a couple of surrounding states)? That is, if I wanted to buy an HD rig from you guys, since I'm in Southern California, I can't, right? I have to go to Westlake, GC Pro, or West LA music? Or does the size of your organization bless you with an exception? Not looking for industry secrets or anything, just curious. Thanks.

 

 

Wow, you are making me walk on eggshells !!! I have been thinking about this all afternoon and evening and how I could respond to you. As you can imagine, I have signed dealer agreements with both Digidesign and Gibson that preclude me from disclosing any of the information that they contain... and clearly, I can't post the details on a public forum like this.

 

What I can say is that you are basically correct...with Gibson you can't find their products on our website or promoted via our mailers. Saying that, we ARE allowed to sell all Gibson products anywhere in the US. We just can't give them the benefit of all of our national marketing. ':confused:'grrr. I believe this is a shame for Sweetwater, Gibson, and our mutual customers.

 

As for Digidesign, yes, they encourage customers to buy from their local dealer(s).';)' Digidesign is a great company, they "get" Sweetwater and I love doing business with them.

 

I don't believe either company is trying to alienate Sweetwater. Although, I don't completely agree with every detail of their policies, I actually do respect and understand their thinking. It is their choice and their companies. If I didn't like the policies I could just quit selling their gear.

 

The bottom line is that their policies are founded on what they believe are solid principals and beliefs for their respective companies. I can't accurately speak for or represent either company, but they both really want the customer to have a great, trusting relationship with their dealer. I can't argue with that. I also happen to believe Sweetwater can do that with customers all over the country.':)'

 

All, I can say is if you want to buy a Gibson guitar or a ProtoolsHD system, I know my sales engineers would be happy to help you and give you more details about whether they can sell you one or not .

 

Was this "politically correct" enough?':cool:'

 

Chuck Surack

Sweetwater

[The Audacity Works]

Thanks for the info, Chuck. Well-written and unbiased, indeed.

 

I completely understand MAP policy and why it's implemented. If anything, I'd expect it to help dealers such as Sweetwater and my old store, two places who pride themselves on hiring knowledgable staff and compensating them well (which automatically precludes selling everything for 10% over cost as so many garage-as-my-stockroom hacks do). The reason I asked the questions is as follows:

 

1. The store I used to work at is now required to dedicate FIFTY percent of their guitar department wall space to Gibson guitars, immediately order $80k of Gibson product (while already stocked to the hilt), and ensure that some crazy number like 20% of total gross sales across the ENTIRE STORE (not just the guitar department) comes from selling Gibson product.

 

The only possible motivation they could have for enforcing such a unrealistic dealer agreement would be to force my old store out of carrying them at all.

 

All dealer agreements are different, as you're obviously well aware, but Washington Music's recent Gibson agreement wasn't much less egregious. I was just wondering if this is an industry-wide thing, or only affects dealers who primarily sell in-state. Will Sweetwater and GC be the only Gibson dealers left next year?

 

2. Digidesign was always cool to us, but we were never officially allowed to sell TDM systems, despite the fact that three out of the twelve resident salespeople owned them and practiced local tech support on the side for other TDM users. Digi's reasoning was that another dealer, in a completely different metropolitan area over 100 miles away (we were the only two pro audio shops in the state), maintained exclusive sales rights. Die-hard loyal customers would still insist on buying from us, however, and Digi would occasionally "sneak" a few TDM systems in every once in a while for this reason... That is, until one LA dealer got wind of it and complained, which shut down our TDM sales permanently.

 

Nodoubtedly Sweetwater sells TDM rigs into Southern California. Looks like we were simply singled out because of lack of buying power.

 

The most irritating part was that my local Guitar Center at the time, who employed salespeople FAR from the qualifications of those at Sweetwater, my store, or even a GC in a larger market, would get TDM rigs in on occasion, and as you might suspect, couldn't support the thing to save their lives:

 

"Uh... The '192 I/O' on the front means how many tracks it can do at once. That's what all the little tiny holes in the back are for."

 

He was referring to the 192's D-SUB connectors. No, I'm not joking.

 

Frustrating to say the least. They weren't allowed to sell TDM rigs either, but did anyway, because the GC warehouse would ship them whatever they wanted. Ugh.

 

Not surprisingly, the GC customer would inevitably end up at my store whining about how the rig he bought there didn't work, and I'd end up charging him a healthy amount to hook the thing up since he didn't buy it from me, whereas if he had, it would've been free.

 

Six years was enough of music retail so I moved to Hollywood to tackle the record industry. And wouldn't you know it? I'm experiencing less back-stabbing and politics now.

 

So despite my ill-conceived and regretful comment earlier, mad respect for you, Mr. Surack. Dealing with all that crap for a dealer as big as Sweetwater has got to be a non-stop headache. Thank God you have good people backing you up.

 

All the Best,

E-