Neil Campbell

Shopping strategies...???

I'm about to buy my first home theater setup (DVD player, receiver, RPTV, speakers). I'm planning to buy it all at one store to try to get the best pricing. I have a couple of stores that I can go to, to get competitive quotes, although I suspect they will be reluctant to give me their absolute lowest pricing unless I'm prepared to buy on the spot.

My questions are around when, how and with whom should I shop.

Is there a good time of the day, week, month, year to go into a store for some serious price negotiation? It seems that right now is year-end for some the equipment I'm looking at (Toshiba RPTV, Yamaha receiver) so it seems like a good time to get last year's models at great prices.

I had planned to go in sometime when the store is less busy so that someone can give me the attention I'll need (evenings?) but I'm not sure if they have their best salespeople working then.

I've done a fair amount of research on this forum and others to narrow down my equipment choices so I think I can handle most of the BS I'm likely to here but are there any special tricks to look out for or tips to make the process less unpleasant?

How can I find that one reasonable, helpful, fair salesperson that I know must exist in these stores?!?

Thanks for any advice you might have.

Brian Fellmeth

That guy is hard to find. When dealing with a retail salesperson, you can't get around a fundamental conflict of interest; you want appropriate products as cheap as possible. He or she wants you to purchase the most profitable items for as much as possible (short of driving you off to the next store). Bottem line is they are not on your side. The skillful salesperson is the one who can create the illusion that (s)he is on your side. I just avoid all of this and purchase mail order gear that is well reviewed. In store auditions are next to useless cause its not your room and not your turf.

Jack Briggs

Neil Campbell

Is it just me or did I spell "here" instead of "hear"?!?!?! I meant that I expected to hear BS from the sales guy, not "here" in this forum. :b

Thanks for the advice, Brian. I have a little more difficult time with mail order here in Canada (fewer choices, border hassles,...) and the stores I'm referring to are box type shops (Futureshop...) so there is limited opportunity to develop loyalty between me and them.

I'm happy to let the store have a reasonable profit on the merchandise. I just don't like playing games from beginning to end, especially when the game ends with my credit card on the table.

chun howe

the very first strategy is set your budget. bcos if you don't you might be thinking you are going to only spend $1500 for the whole thing but you end up a $3500 setup.
(that's me)

the second one would be lot's of patience and read lot's of reviews before you face some BS saleperson. before you read reviews you might want to gather some brands you like/prefered first. over here and some other forum are very influential and many conflicted recommendations, so you should be aware of this. (my initial planning was to go with infinity - that's what its popular back in my country, but i ended up paradigm)

ecoustics.com is a very good place for reviews.

third would be give your ears a chance. audition as many receivers and speakers setup you could possibly combine. try to go for a good return policy HI FI shop, buy it hear it and return it (unless you decided to keep it). demo room is almost always sound better than home.

i like your idea of buying all at one store. this way you could establish rapport with your trusted dealer, and later down the road when upgrade is needed you could always goes back to them.

and about the perfect timing thing, i would suggest end of the month or year. or best still check for discount advertisment on web/tv/newspaper.

and about the saleperson thing, i personally prefered i am the one in command not him/her.

one more thing, bring you wife along, women are the best price negotiator (provided she's on your side)

last weekend i was in a HI-FI shop trying to get the best trade in price for my VSX-D711 and best purchase price for an elite VSX-45TX. all i can say is without my wife i could be dishing out at least $200 more.

Dan Lindley

Jack is one subtle dude.

dl

edit: I really meant that! I like a good turn of phrase. And substantively, you really can usually ask questions here to sort out what you hear out there.

Heck, I reckon you wouldn't even be human beings if you didn't have some pretty strong personal feelings about nuclear combat.