Margin on speaker sales by high end dealer

The ultra high end speakers, controversial for some, would seem to pull up prices on lower high end speakers. High end speaker manufacturer have many price points that serve to stretch a buyers purse strings. It can be a costly upgrading process. All hifi component manuf do this. Just a few thousand more gets you so much more, or so they want you to believe. A consumer struggles with a path to getting good value, it is not easy.

I got friends that used to be McIntosh, Anthem....etc dealer.   He closed his business cause not getting too many buyers.     In order to be a dealer, you need to pay license fee to those brands.   He can get almost like 50% off from any items.  

McIntosh won't allow them to sell discount price.   If they do, they probably do it under the table, or no sales tax.

 

What? It's not a GM Dealership for pucks sake. 

zombiedad
 

What is the nature of the licensing arrangement? I thought dealers bought the product marked it up and sold it.