AlanO,
I'm sure John Clayton can fight his own battles, but I'd like to add some information as background...
Store locations - In the past RS had a policy of putting stores in student areas, and it seems like a perfectly sensible approach to me. Put the product where the people can see it every day.
End of line deals - What exactly is the problem? Lots of dealers are offered EOL deals but don't take them; RS does.
RS also has the foresight and financial muscle to take a risk with product; for example the Onkyo HTX22HD. Onkyo saw a gap in the market for a HDMI audio decoding all-in-one kit. Obviously UK dealers and disti's didn't share their faith. Onkyo must have thought they'd caught a cold with the product, and so offered a volume deal to RS. Once word got out this product was a massive hit. It was only then that other retailers jumped on the band wagon.
I also know from personal experience where RS has taken huge deals on continuing lines that are overstocked with a manufacturer.
Thanks for your comments, as I have already said we are and have been trading successfully since 1978 and continue to do so! Whilst I admit there are no guarantees in life we feel we are considerably stronger than certain banks at the moment!
Also you are quite correct some of our stores are in out of town locations which enable us to save on extortionate rents and hopefully pass on savings to our customers and as Kev said on this thread many customers actually prefer this.
End of line deals are actually very few and far between and the majority of the models we stock are current please see www.richersounds.com and I think it's worth mentioning that we literally stock hundreds of different current lines from all the major manufacturers and we guarantee to be the cheapest on all with our price beat policy.
Finally our warranties aren’t insurance backed and are clearly advertised as being underwritten by ourselves, and actually feel this is of great benefit to our customers. There are no complicated insurance claims to process with our warranty and by financing it ourselves we able to offer a much better deal.
I remember about 20 years ago, going all the way to london by train to get some gear from richer sounds. About a 250 mile journey altogether. It was an Akai AV amp with a little b/w monitor built in.
Still Richer Sounds aren't exactly close. I think the nearest shop is Bristol from yeovil. I absolutely hate driving in Bristol.
The few occasions I've gone in a Richer Sounds I've enjoyed it and the staff are friendly. Exactly how it should be. Good products, good prices and good people.
My first visit to Richer Sounds was the Leeds shop when I lived in Hull. I blew the last of my student grant on some £65 Goodmans Maxim 3 speakers. Goodmans have a reputation on the cheap stuff, but these were fine speakers. I still use them as my rear pair of the 5.1 system, 17 years later!
The staff are knowledgeable, helpful, polite, they used to have free coffee machine and lollies, would help you carry stuff to the car, lend you a brolly and have a seat inthe corner to sit and read magazines. Not been to a store for ages though as I buy online.
Goodmans have a reputation on the cheap stuff, but these were fine speakers.
'Were' is the relevent point - Goodmans were a high quality British manufacturer of speakers (both HiFi and PA).
I don't know if they went bust?, or were just taken over - but they went from that market to selling cheap imported crap a good few years ago. To make matters even worse, they sold the rights to also use the name to Comet, and Comet bought and batched their own cheap crap as well.
This gave the situation that their were two entirely different 'Goodmans' available, both of which were just badges on cheap rubbish. As far as I'm aware, the Comet deal has expired now?, but I'm not 100% sure.
Your speakers were probably back from the 'real' Goodmans days.
Takes me back - we used to go to a local record shop (long closed now), and if you wanted a record playing he put it on his Thorens TD125AB record deck, with a Shure V15 pickup, I think the amp was a Quad?, and played it through a huge pair of top-end Goodmans speakers. It would sound great, you're buy the record, get it home, and it would be really disappointing
Hitachi and Grundig are also owned by Argos, along with Bush, Alba, Goodmans and Hinari. All pile em high, sell em (not THAT cheap) ! Look around, you will get a Philips, LG, or a Panansonic for not much more, and probably from a local electric store where you will get a better,personal service.
Hitachi are not owned by Argos, they are still the same Hitachi they always were. However, in the 80s they started to make cheaper products as well as their better, more expensive ones. Many of their cheaper products are made by the same companies that do make products for the Argos brands too (Hitachi PVRs are made by the same company that make the Wharfdale and Alba units for example - Vestel).
Grundig are the same, they were part bought by Alba (in partnership with Beko) who at the time were part of Alba Plc but Grundig was sold soon after Argos bought the Alba name. Harvard International still own the distribution rights to Grundig in the UK but Alba deal meant that Alba (Argos) own the rights to use the Grundig name in the UK until 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grundig
Harvard International are not owned by Argos and they retained the rights to their other brand names, namely Goodmans, Ministry of Sound, Kinetic (medical equipment), Disney etc. Only the Alba and Bush names were fully sold to Argos (although Bush Australia remained with HI, and Alba Plc (the rest of the group that wasn't sold to Argos) went back to their previous name of Harvard International. http://www.harvardplc.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alba_%28electronics%29
It really does get quite complicated when you look into it
I have no problem with Alba, my nephew bought an Alba 19" LCD from Argos £130 no problem whats so ever, decent sound, picture and built in freeview, the only manufacturer I trust 100% is Panasonic, Sony, Philips, LG, Samsung, Thomson(have you seen there tutv pvr) Hitachi all have there cheap tat lines and people are just paying for the name, my sister bought a Sony Micro System from Argos, it cost her £100 and it was rubbish, I've heard £35 Alba systems that sound better, Ritcher Sounds best retailer in the UK.
I'll also stick up for Richer Sounds. I used to buy a lot from them when I lived up in Edinburgh, also found their staff a lot more knowledgeable than any of the wee guys and girls at the likes of Dixons, Comet etc.
It may be true they buy end of line stock but that isn't always a bad thing. Unfortunately there isn't a Richer Sounds near me, none of the cities or towns round about me have one (Wakefield, Barnsley, Pontefract). The nearest is in Leeds which from here is quite a trek.
Never knock the cheaper makes. I own a 32" Baird TV which I have had for 2 years and the picture quality is better than some more expensive TV's. When we had the Sky Engineer come round to install HD he commented on how clear the picture was on the TV compared to his Samsung LCD that he has. More expensive doesn't necessarily mean better. As for Alba I have never had any problem with any of their products and find them very reliable BUT, as you can with Argos, always make sure you take the policy out on it just in case something should go wrong. I bought the Alba 3.1 Surround Sound Speakers about a month back and was very impressed with the sound on it and the quality of it. It may not be a top of the range one offering 5.1 DD sound but it does the job and cost me £50.
Comments
I'm sure John Clayton can fight his own battles, but I'd like to add some information as background...
Store locations - In the past RS had a policy of putting stores in student areas, and it seems like a perfectly sensible approach to me. Put the product where the people can see it every day.
End of line deals - What exactly is the problem? Lots of dealers are offered EOL deals but don't take them; RS does.
RS also has the foresight and financial muscle to take a risk with product; for example the Onkyo HTX22HD. Onkyo saw a gap in the market for a HDMI audio decoding all-in-one kit. Obviously UK dealers and disti's didn't share their faith. Onkyo must have thought they'd caught a cold with the product, and so offered a volume deal to RS. Once word got out this product was a massive hit. It was only then that other retailers jumped on the band wagon.
I also know from personal experience where RS has taken huge deals on continuing lines that are overstocked with a manufacturer.
Thanks for your comments, as I have already said we are and have been trading successfully since 1978 and continue to do so! Whilst I admit there are no guarantees in life we feel we are considerably stronger than certain banks at the moment!
Also you are quite correct some of our stores are in out of town locations which enable us to save on extortionate rents and hopefully pass on savings to our customers and as Kev said on this thread many customers actually prefer this.
End of line deals are actually very few and far between and the majority of the models we stock are current please see www.richersounds.com and I think it's worth mentioning that we literally stock hundreds of different current lines from all the major manufacturers and we guarantee to be the cheapest on all with our price beat policy.
Finally our warranties aren’t insurance backed and are clearly advertised as being underwritten by ourselves, and actually feel this is of great benefit to our customers. There are no complicated insurance claims to process with our warranty and by financing it ourselves we able to offer a much better deal.
Many Thanks
John Clayton
Operations Director
Richer Sounds
Still Richer Sounds aren't exactly close. I think the nearest shop is Bristol from yeovil. I absolutely hate driving in Bristol.
The few occasions I've gone in a Richer Sounds I've enjoyed it and the staff are friendly. Exactly how it should be. Good products, good prices and good people.
The staff are knowledgeable, helpful, polite, they used to have free coffee machine and lollies, would help you carry stuff to the car, lend you a brolly and have a seat inthe corner to sit and read magazines. Not been to a store for ages though as I buy online.
'Were' is the relevent point - Goodmans were a high quality British manufacturer of speakers (both HiFi and PA).
I don't know if they went bust?, or were just taken over - but they went from that market to selling cheap imported crap a good few years ago. To make matters even worse, they sold the rights to also use the name to Comet, and Comet bought and batched their own cheap crap as well.
This gave the situation that their were two entirely different 'Goodmans' available, both of which were just badges on cheap rubbish. As far as I'm aware, the Comet deal has expired now?, but I'm not 100% sure.
Your speakers were probably back from the 'real' Goodmans days.
Takes me back - we used to go to a local record shop (long closed now), and if you wanted a record playing he put it on his Thorens TD125AB record deck, with a Shure V15 pickup, I think the amp was a Quad?, and played it through a huge pair of top-end Goodmans speakers. It would sound great, you're buy the record, get it home, and it would be really disappointing
Hitachi are not owned by Argos, they are still the same Hitachi they always were. However, in the 80s they started to make cheaper products as well as their better, more expensive ones. Many of their cheaper products are made by the same companies that do make products for the Argos brands too (Hitachi PVRs are made by the same company that make the Wharfdale and Alba units for example - Vestel).
Grundig are the same, they were part bought by Alba (in partnership with Beko) who at the time were part of Alba Plc but Grundig was sold soon after Argos bought the Alba name. Harvard International still own the distribution rights to Grundig in the UK but Alba deal meant that Alba (Argos) own the rights to use the Grundig name in the UK until 2010.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grundig
Harvard International are not owned by Argos and they retained the rights to their other brand names, namely Goodmans, Ministry of Sound, Kinetic (medical equipment), Disney etc. Only the Alba and Bush names were fully sold to Argos (although Bush Australia remained with HI, and Alba Plc (the rest of the group that wasn't sold to Argos) went back to their previous name of Harvard International.
http://www.harvardplc.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alba_%28electronics%29
It really does get quite complicated when you look into it
My living room has had three non-Alba tellies in that time, albeit that one of them had been in position for a few years before 1999.
It may be true they buy end of line stock but that isn't always a bad thing. Unfortunately there isn't a Richer Sounds near me, none of the cities or towns round about me have one (Wakefield, Barnsley, Pontefract). The nearest is in Leeds which from here is quite a trek.