The many faces of Tweeter call it quits

by Steven Kim, posted Dec 3rd 2008 at 1:29AM

The long-suffering Tweeter chain has thrown in the towel and closed its remaining stores, including those under the Sound Advice, Showcase and HiFi Buys banners. We heard about the Sound Advice news almost a month ago, so there's a definite note of inevitability to this news. CEPro is reporting that the future of the unsold inventory which was cleared out of the Tweeter distribution centers when liquidators stepped in and now sitting on showroom floors remains in question. It's definitely been a rocky year or so for the Tweeter chain, which has already come back from bankruptcy once before, but somehow we think the current economic climate will make for a long hibernation this time around.

Filed under: Industry

Tags: bankruptcy, business, closing, economy, hifi buys, HifiBuys, showcase, sound advice, SoundAdvice, tweeter

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

Ken @ Dec 3rd 2008 2:22AM

Lame.

Even if these were the lamest stores ever, these products really need to have some sort of retail presence. If I were a hi-end company, I would be burning the midnight oil to come up with a business plan that involved direct or internet buying as my bread and butter, with the products available to retailers if they wanted them.

One thing I can imagine is a few complementary/non-competing companies (say MartinLogan speakers, Vidikron displays, and McIntosh components) having one demo center per big city (LA, NYC, Miami, Chicago, Seattle, etc.). Point would be to get potential customers to demo your products, and either order from you, or order elsewhere.

Idea is - if there are no hi-end retailers, where will you be able to see or hear this equipment, and what does that mean to your business?

Neutral

Joseph @ Dec 3rd 2008 3:16AM

I am a high-end company as you're describing and nearly all manufacturers do not allow us to sell their products on the internet.

I am not implying that high-end products are not available on the internet, but the warranties are usually void unless the company is authorized for online distribution. If the serial number is still on the product the dealer can be traced and will lose dealer status and the ability to buy future product.

Neutral

Mike @ Dec 3rd 2008 8:10AM

Go the the Tweeter.com website now. Seems like we have some disgruntled employees..

Neutral

tim @ Dec 3rd 2008 8:41AM

love the site now....picture of geortge bush giving the finger and a note about management.
i thought i had mistyped the web addy until i used the store locater

"George Schultze is the George Bush of Tweeter!
He made promise after promise for over a year. In the end, those promises turned to one big finger.
Craig Boucher, his lackey, is a flat-out liar!
Every time he made a public move, he addressed the Tweeter employees - "there's still hope; keep coming to work; we'll actually pay you..."
"

go to www.tweeter.com

Don't trust either of them!!!

Neutral

J.Goodwin @ Dec 3rd 2008 8:39AM

It's too bad. The prices were routinely too high for me to actually buy anything, but their staff were actually knowledgeable and helpful, and their return policies were extremely customer friendly, particularly on things like speakers.

Apparently too much so.

Neutral

Eric @ Dec 3rd 2008 10:45AM

Looks like they've taken down the website entirely, but the Google cache still shows the hacked site minus the images (as of the time of this posting). http://tinyurl.com/68osen. Hope someone did a screen grab - I admit it's immature, but I can't say I blame them too much.

Neutral

bobby4919 @ Dec 3rd 2008 12:08PM

Stopped in my local Sound Advice last week, interested in a Sony KDL52xbr6. Their close-out price was around $2700 + tax. No returns. Amazon was selling it for a little more that $2200, no tax, free shipping.

No wonder they're out of business.

I loved browsing through Sound Advice, and occasionally bought a big ticket item from them. But they just couldn't adapt to internet sales pricing. They wouldn't budge from their near retail pricing structure.

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