That's reversed. Harman bought Martin Pro in 2013 and ETC bought High End Systems from Barco in 2017. Barco had purchased High End back in 2008.
Sam Ash Closing over 10+ stores
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Guitar Center, sorry. I’m going go past the Sam Ash NYC store on 34th st this weekend on the way to the NY Autoshow. I’ll see if it’s still open.
This is about Sam Ash; not other Retailers.
There was a time when this country lacked large stores outside of the biggest cities. You just had small local retailers and catalog sales. The catalogs were the convenient way to shop. Sears, JC Penney and others grew their empires via catalog sales. You are old enough to remember the Sears catalog. I used to browse the Craftsman catalog like it was porn when I was younger.
At some point these stores gave up the catalog business. They wanted people in the stores. They just needed more stores to get closer to more people. Again, that was about convenience to the shopper. The internet and logistic improvements with warehousing and delivery brought about even greater customer convenience. Amazon and others saw this opportunity while the brick and mortar people fought it. They had forgotten that their brands were built on convenience.
In nearly every market segment, consumers will gravitate towards convenience over everything else. 8-tracks and cassettes weren't better than LPs, just more convenient. CDs were more convenient still and better quality. However, the CD was replaced by lower quality MP3 that offered greater convenience. And now streaming services with huge libraries are making MP3s just another item in the audio dustbin. Why? Convenience.
Online sales isn't the problem. It is just a mechanism that in many instances delivers greater convenience than in store sales. You can even get better help online these days than in a store.