Say it ain't so...

It seems the positive Ruebent mentions could far outweigh the con. If more people are exposed to and find some interest in the "high-end" it might encourage them to seek out some of the local small dealers. Hopefully, if that happens the small dealers will be smart enough to capitalize.
I haven't been into Best Buy looking for audio in a while so I don't know if any of the above mentioned equipment is available in Indianapolis. I'll have to check it out.

Nicely said Tim. Expose more people to what hi-end can do--most people have no idea. I was flying the other day on American and was very pleased to see that the airline magazine had a 4 page section on hi-end audio. It showed and discussed products from B&W, Dynaudio, Classe, Jeff Rowland, Meridian, SME, and others. The products were top of the line, B&W 801 signature, Dynaudio Evidence as examples. It was great to see that it's at least being mentioned to the general population. I think the market has shrunk largely due to the past "snobbery" approach from hi-end stores and the lack of reaching out to find new clients that might not have previously experienced hi-end reproduction.

Got to jump in
Went to Best Buy/ Magnolia here in my home town.
I asked about the Primare I 30 integrated and D 30.2 CD player. I was told they "don't carry that brand" however I saw a Home theater reciever there Made by Primare and know that the regular Magnolia stores do carry the Primare line.

Then I saw some Vienna Acoustic Beethoven demos that were on sale at a good price. Asked the salesguy if I could listen. They were hooked up to a hometheater system and for some reason the "mains" wouldn't play. I looked behind the speakers and noticed one of them was not hooked up. This was not the only problem as he still couldn't figure how to get any sound. I told him I would come back in a few and went to the bookstore next door.

When I returned he was "helping" another customer, and told me the speakers wouldn't play. Come back tomarrow maybe the manager could help me out.
Power + Source + Speakers = 5 minutes tops -- how hard can that be?
Magnolia may be there but it's still the same Bestbuy fiasco. ( I expected it )
Can you imagine the damage that must occur to some beautiful gear due to these undertrained salespeople?

i'm happy to see highend brands in midfi stores. more exposure means more interest. listening to some martin logans 8 years ago was what started me on my audio quest, and now i've planted plenty of money into this hobby. i hope there are more people out there like me, i want to see high end audio succeed.

btw, i bought some martin logan vantages at tweeter the other day, and i have to say that they treated me better than my local highend snobby store did. i'd rather go to tweeter, and get treated like a real customer, than be dismissed at a highend store because i'm only in my early 30s. oh, and they threw in a 10% discount, something my highend dealer never did for me... it was full price with them everytime.

I have to agree with Dennis_the_menace. Lately I've been upgrading my system to match some new speakers, and I can't believe the attitude I've gotten from about half the high-audio dealers I've talked to. They have been rude and dismissive, and unwilling to spend any time talking or demoing. First they have to prove they are smarter and more informed than I am, then all they want is my credit card; they only seem to want customers who just do what they say and don't ask too many questions. Maybe there are too many Google millionaires out there, dropping $50K without any work for the salesperson. My local Magnolia store isn't pretentious, and I'd much rather buy there, if only they had the products I want to buy. They don't, so I have to put up with this cr*p. Today a dealer actually told me I had to pay him a $200 "consulting fee" or he wouldn't even talk to me! He is the only local dealer for a product (in the $5K-$10K range) I was interested in.

Anyway, sorry to complain. I guess I'm hoping that there are dealers out there who might read this and re-consider their approach to customers. I can dream, can't I?