Guys, what's your take on the industry as a whole ? Can it survive this onslaught of independant shops ? What is it going to evolve into ?

How many are getting into the car side of things, not just the audio.

Mostly interested in the west coast but all opinions are welcome.............

I know alot of independant shops bitch about the big boxes or the internet. Let's face it a few years ago, a car stereo shop was basically a license to print money. The ebst part was you could be a crappy businesman, and a mediocre installer and still make money. Nowadays that is gone, you have to have good business sense if you expect to make it. Here in the Hat we have one independant shop and it will be out of business by January. It is the most mismanaged shop I have ever seen, the owner takes cash out of the register whenever he needs beer, he doesn't pay the installers for like 6 weeks at a time, yells at customers, pretty much everything bad you can imagine. And this guy thinks Chad (Visions installer here) and I sit around and plan his demise, it's crazy.

Any shop should look at diversifying and performance and styling parts are a natural extension of car audio, as well as maybe home theater.

In short, a well run independant shop has nothing to worry about, but the poorly run ones are living on borrowed time.

yeah dukk your totally right. i'm kinda lucky there cause my shop is allready part of a home store and i dont think they are going anywhere soon. probably the only real benefit of being part of a home store [img]tongue.gif[/img] business has been growing rapidly latley just hired/stole a new installer from future shop and the guy kicks ass. but he is also a licensed mechanic and wants to get into modifying tuner cars. being that our city allready has a really well established tuner shop i've been somewhat reluctant. i guess we'll just see how things go after the remote start season settles. i think atleast in my area that the industry is still really strong and has definate potential for growth.

:confused: Paul hasn't posted here yet :confused:

^^^^

Your Dukk and George I hear :D

doooooh me gots to stop posting at 6 in the morning with no sleep, sorry dude i meant dwvw. sorry man my bad.

Dereck just sounded smart like me :D

I think that a smart indy can not only do well but clean up in todays market. I also agree that bolt ons and beauty parts compliment car audio and should be offered.

From what I have seen...

The shop owners that are spending all their time whining and crying that the big box stores are taking away their profits are suffering.

The smart independant shops, that know how to buy right, pay bills and promote their businesses are rocking house and making money. They aren't whining either.

There are lots of shops that tried the 'automotive performance' route, then, after trying to install a piggy-back fuel controller and subsequently popping the motor in some kids Civic, gave up and resorted to bolting on exhausts, intakes, shift knobs, tail lights and strut tower braces. Like high-end car audio, you can't half-ass the performance side of things.

^ True - I personally would avoid anything other than basic bolt ons and body mods.

*L* funny I think you and Wade have been waiting for that shop to go under for 4-5 years now ;)