Re: random thought
Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2013 5:25 pm
there has always been a huge divider that any shop could put up by simply pricing themselfs into a certain catagory. I started off at best buy sales and worked back to the bay before going to that high-end home theater/furniture store with the sweet car audio room, and then from there went to scottsdale az. I started off just replacing speakers in the big box, got my teeth cut in the custom world with the high-end furniture shop, and then was amazed what they chareged in az.... All the shops were successfull in their time and it just depended on if you wanted to pound 10-15 cheap/easy/dirty cars a day nickel/diming each customer to try and get a couple of buck profit or if you wanted to do 2-3 really nice/clean cars a day, not sweat nearly as much or get as dirty in the cars but also carry a HUGE liabitity.
Best buy we would stack as many cars as we could back-back-back-back and just start knocking them down. We were often running between the cars, rarely got breaks and each installer could do 8-10 per day depeding on what it was but the average ticket was probably less then $100 each eash. The shop in scottsdale, the first day I walked in they pulled out two BMW M8's that they did a K40 radar detector in each car the day before and had a ticket price of $2500 each. We pulled in a porsche 911 carrara 4 twin turbo that we then spend the next 2 days putting a deck, 4 speakers, 2 amps(with an amp rack), subs and a deck in. That would have been a $300 ticket back at the big box, I studdered when I walked by and saw the work order was for $1700 labor alone before the equipment which was not being sold at bargin basement prices. Now working on teh 911 was alot different from anything that ever went into the big box with a full leather package, hell it took a special headlight removal tool to run the power wire for the amp alone... After 2 days putting in a clean system, the guy tipped us $100 and said "yea it sounds nice" as though he didn't care and signed the $4k credit card receipt.
Which would you rather do? Not everyone has access to the people and cars that are in scottsdale by any means but if I could have my choice, I sweat alot less in the desert of scottsdale doing 2-3 cars a day then I did in Indiana at the big box doin 8-10/day.... The install bay at best buy back then was hourly with a good commision while you were working on cars but the bays in scottsdale were salaried. Az paid better but cost of living killed it....
Best buy we would stack as many cars as we could back-back-back-back and just start knocking them down. We were often running between the cars, rarely got breaks and each installer could do 8-10 per day depeding on what it was but the average ticket was probably less then $100 each eash. The shop in scottsdale, the first day I walked in they pulled out two BMW M8's that they did a K40 radar detector in each car the day before and had a ticket price of $2500 each. We pulled in a porsche 911 carrara 4 twin turbo that we then spend the next 2 days putting a deck, 4 speakers, 2 amps(with an amp rack), subs and a deck in. That would have been a $300 ticket back at the big box, I studdered when I walked by and saw the work order was for $1700 labor alone before the equipment which was not being sold at bargin basement prices. Now working on teh 911 was alot different from anything that ever went into the big box with a full leather package, hell it took a special headlight removal tool to run the power wire for the amp alone... After 2 days putting in a clean system, the guy tipped us $100 and said "yea it sounds nice" as though he didn't care and signed the $4k credit card receipt.
Which would you rather do? Not everyone has access to the people and cars that are in scottsdale by any means but if I could have my choice, I sweat alot less in the desert of scottsdale doing 2-3 cars a day then I did in Indiana at the big box doin 8-10/day.... The install bay at best buy back then was hourly with a good commision while you were working on cars but the bays in scottsdale were salaried. Az paid better but cost of living killed it....