Walking Into A Brick & Mortar High End Audio Store


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I am currently pretty satisfied with my system the way it is right now. I am not in the market for any new purchases right now, mainly because I don't have the discretionary income to make big changes. However, sometimes I get the urge to want to go into a hifi store just to look. Eventually I will upgrade my speakers, cd player, preamp, a new dac for sure and may give class D amps a shot...but not right now.

Is it cool to go into a store just to look around, knowing you don't have the money or immediate need for an item?
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128x128mitch4t
Roxy54; your response would have been much more effective had you deleted the last 2 sentences.
Roxy54, I understand what you're saying and you make a valid point, albeit rudely. But with the limited amount of HiFi stores in my area, the salesman gets to know me and I have ended up buying items within the year. It's not like I'm pretending to buy in a Ferrari dealership.

I do tell them I am in an auditioning period, because let's face it, many folks on this forum are in a constant state of upgrading. I have found due to the poor economy, the salesmen are more open to developing relationships with the customers. I'm not going into the $20K speaker room; clearly that would be wrong if my income bracket could only afford $6000 spkrs, but I would ask to see speakers higher up their line.

You may call me a "tire-kicker" or worse but when I'm treated right by a salesman, I'll be back and ask for him personally.
And it's part of the salesman's job to know the risks of having someone waste their time. When I went back and forth between 2 stores looking at speakers and 6 months later bought speakers at one of the stores, I'm not thinking that I wasted the other salesman's time.
Roxy54 has been in sales too long is obviously burnt out. If your time is that valuable you shouldn't be in sales.
Retail workers never look at the other side of the story. Maybe you should inform the customer on the downside of buying such gear online. I personally would never (and have never) bought anything more expensive than headphones and a headphone amp online. The local shop where I buy my gear appreciates the fact that I buy from them so much that I saved $300 on my speaker cables compared to Cable Co prices. That's something people don't think about. The perks I get as a customer are ridiculous and not obtainable anywhere online. I demanded that my local shop sell Hegel and he did it. He kept in touch with me while they filled out and sent in all the necessary paper work. It's give and take and if you've never experienced this, no wonder your local B&M closed down.