I’ve been into a number of Sony stores in London and I’ve noticed two characteristics

1. They are ridiculously, completely unjustifiably, expensive

e.g they were still selling the the DSC V1 digi camera for £550, when any fool knows you could pick it up for (at that time) £400 (and I mean retail, not via the net). They were selling the TR1 (at that time, the only TR model out) for £1800 when you could literally walk over the road, and get it for £1650.

2. The smaller stores have no demo models.

The store in Putney, London, for example, claimed that they could not power up a TR1 for me to have a look at because they “weren’t allowed to”.

“What do you mean, you’re not allowed to?” I asked.
“Head office rules,” they said. “We can’t demonstrate models for sale.”
“Well, okay. But surely you have a demo model?”
“No.”
“Who’s going to hand over £1800 for a laptop without trying it out?”
“We’ve sold 10 this week, sir.”
“I don’t doubt that. But that’s because the people who live around here are f*ckwits who have more money than sense.”
“You’re free to shop elsewhere, sir.”
“I will. I’ll go up to Tottenham Court Road where I can demo a TR1 to my heart’s content and it’ll cost me £150 less. I just though seeing as you are supposedly the high street representative of the brand I intend to buy that you might be able to show me a working model.”
“No.”

Ah…the Sony retail experience…

Because they really weren’t meant to be used as a huge retail selling point.

I personally think its more of a pride thing…for example, a high level employee at Sony might say to someone at Acer, oh, well our company has 50 retail stores…does Acer?

But thats just my opinion, I see very little redeaming value to the stores…

Erik

Thinking about it…you’re right. Maybe Sony views these places more as showcases for their products, their technology, like a glorified stand at an exhibition, and somewhere if you wanted to, I mean if you really had to, you could purchase their product. Just don’t expect it to be price competitive or even expect customer service.

I think Apple had the right idea with their stores, and they seem to be doing pretty well, judging from their financial report today. With Sony, you can find their products on sale elsewhere cheaper, which usually isn’t the case with Apple. Who wants to pay MSRP plus 8-9% tax on top of that? I usually just go to Sony stores to check out the latest gear before buying it elsewhere.

apple has a strong control over their sales.  their marketing strategies are different

I have heard it said that Sony has too many drivers in the drivers seat.  They sometimes do not know which direction they are headed.  They even have internal departments competing with each other.  That is not a good thing and I hope someone can step up to the plate and “trim the fat”.

I think the Sony stores are just PR…...getting the Sony name promoted.  It is not the most profitable philosophy, but it is what it is…....unfortunately.