In addition to being a reseller I provide assistance, installations, repairs (yes we are still an old-fashioned repair center where you can enter and you don’t have to wait 3 weeks for your TV)
As a reseller we also provide the full service for our customers. So not just sales and goodbye like with a bcc or a media market. As a specialist retailer, we help your 92-year-old grandmother with her TV because she accidentally pressed the Source button. Or we offer your partner the right washing machine that suits your family situation instead of buying a device and having no idea what you are getting.
So as a reseller / reseller we certainly have more than enough to offer that a manufacturer cannot. There is a reason why the media market is seeing their numbers plummet at the time of writing. Young people like to buy something themselves and play with it, but when things go wrong they are just as angry that a shopkeeper refers them to a manufacturer, while our legislation really indicates that they should knock on the seller’s door. So yes, the online stores and prices are cheap, but the service simply isn’t there. You can’t digitize the experience and trust you get from a specialist trade. As a tweaker I am certainly aware of the changes, but if this is always positive how do you enter @Boxman I doubt it. There’s a reason retailers haven’t given up on the fight, and that’s called customers. Not everyone wants to be a number in a manufacturer that has to keep up with millions of customers. Come to me for a good advice conversation, a nice cup of coffee and a lot of confidence that if things go wrong, I’m ready for you as a customer. Although this sometimes costs us a lot of time and money as resellers. Ultimately, we care about the relationship with the customer, his family and our environment. Nice and old fashioned, and this with competitive prices. I think it’s a real shame to see dealerships disappear. But I don’t think the “no longer needed” added value of a retailer only emerges when problems often arise with a product that the user has no idea how to fix. Most of the tweakers here on the page can definitely rate, fill out, do their homework, and buy independently. But how will you do it when you are older, you will no longer be able to follow it correctly, or even less skilled and you will not be able to do anything on your own. So you are happy if there is a specialist dealer who helps you from A to Z, right? Or if this is for your grandmother, you can just keep working on your own and let a professional fix it. However, the artisan needs the producer to survive in an ocean of rock bottom prices.
Fortunately, some manufacturers still see value in specialty stores and have a good solution in the form of “chainless models” of products in their line. However, what happens now is using the retailer for reputation and advertising / displaying products, then running away and setting the retailer aside. In my opinion, that’s not how the business world was born. Trade must remain fair and we must give each other something. Very unfortunate to see / read that people seem to be losing this feeling and thinking.