What's going on with the audio market?

My local dealer is in the process of expanding from two "brick and mortar" stores, to three.
Having said that, over the years they have de-emphasized music audio systems, increasing their emphasis in theater systems.
High-end audio systems is such a "niche market", bound to have ripples in the demand.
I'll never forget working at a dealer about 35 years ago, on the news a bump in the stock market, reduction in unemployment, reduction in interest rates and my boss bumped his orders up for products that moved well and we had the worst drought in sales for about three months...couldn't explain it.

Very stagnant economy the past 10 years with a feeble recovery. Middle class income wages diminishing, true unemployment rate is high. Look at the Labor Dept statistics u6=the full picture, u3 of 5% is misleading and incomplete. Our economy needs a major boost and approach. Many people lack discretionary income. National debt has ballooned from 9 trillion to 19 trillion in only 8 years, not good.
Charles,

Real Hi-Fi has always been the providence of a discriminating extreme minority. When I discovered it (via, once again, my friend Pete C.), no one else I knew cared; but then, they were for the most part musician’s, the least caring of all, generally speaking. Ironic. When I got Tympani’s and ARC amps in ’72, my friends were still playing LP’s on their childhood phonographs. When after a long separation I in the early 2000’s saw an old friend, he, upon seeing my Infinity RS-1b’s, said "Ya know, people don’t have big speakers anymore" (no doubt with pictures of Bose wall-mounted speakers in his mind); I replied "They never did". Which was not actually true, in one way; when he and I were in a Band together in ’71, our Band house had a pair of Voice-of-The-Theater speakers (our P.A.) in the living room. And people think Maggies are big?! Now it’s down to computer speakers, at best, for most people. Perhaps getting a turntable will spur an interest in that new buyer of Hi-Fi in general. I believe even entry-level products are viewed as luxury items by the general population. The products musician’s choose (with a few notable exceptions, like Henry Rollins. The big Wilson’s are in his living room!) are all of the professional grade (crap), whatever they see advertised in the music mags and on the shelves at Guitar Center.

@dgarretson: Right you are. I made provision in my will for this-- the disposition of gear and record collection. My wife knows enough people to reach out to them if necessary, but it is an issue as we age. I don’t have kids, and have no misconceptions about the value of, for example, my record collection-it will get broken up and sold off, just like any commodity. I don’t think we are the last generation who will enjoy this hobby. I’ve talked with several youngish people- mid-’30s, who are building pretty serious systems, step by step. I’m glad I have time to enjoy what I’ve put together- sometimes, we are so busy working, and I’ve lost more than a couple contemporaries in the last few years. So, play it like you stole it! Buy that record you always wanted and play the damn thing!
Had lunch today with a brainiac friend- he’s not into hi-fi but is a scientist, and he is very optimistic about the human condition, long range. Me, I’m more of a pessimist, but perhaps I’m short sighted. I don’t think a lot of people have really had a break in the last 20 or so years- more work, more stress, the world today seems harder, faster and more competitive-- so all this stuff, about the state of the economy and the state of the world in general, has to be put into perspective. What were people thinking when they were playing those ’50s era records I own? Cold war, keeping up with the Jones, food in cans and cars with fins (those I miss). I’m glad this whole thing has been an important part of my life. I couldn’t imagine life without it (even though I have gone through periods where I didn’t have access to my system or it wasn’t set up).