Do you remember when audio specialty shops used to open on Sunday

taters

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Jun 6, 2012
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I know this is an older crowd generally speaking. When I was a teenager growing up in Detroit all the audio stores would advertise in the Detroit free press on Sunday. All the stores would be open and it was one of the best days to do business.

I have lived in Southern California for 30 years and for the past 20 none of the specialty dealers have opened on Sunday. In fact most close on Sunday and Monday. Now I'm not referring to the box stores. They open 12 hours a day 7 days a week. There are even some specialty dealers that close Saturday and Sunday.

I grew up working retail and Saturday and Sunday were always the best days for business. I'm just wondering if this is a national thing or is this the way this type of business is going.
 
I remember when there was a world of difference between Eico and MacIntosh, too. :)
 
When I was "growing up" the stores were all closed on Sunday because of blue laws. It wasn't until later that some were open Sundays. On Long Island the high end stores aren't open on Sunday and one good store isn't open on Saturday either.
 
Over here all are open on Sundays.
 
taters i've lived in so cal all my life I cant think of one high-end store or 'specialty' store I frequented that wasn't closed sun-mon. this goes way back before 'online' retailing the internet, audiogon, etc. the upside was the opportunity to borrow gear over sun/mon for in-home evaluations.
 
taters i've lived in so cal all my life I cant think of one high-end store or 'specialty' store I frequented that wasn't closed sun-mon. this goes way back before 'online' retailing the internet, audiogon, etc. the upside was the opportunity to borrow gear over sun/mon for in-home evaluations.

I remember a time when Shelley's and Sound Factor and Paris audio were all in Santa Monica and they all opened on Sundays. I believe this was in the early 90's. Up till a few years ago L.A. audio used to be open on Sundays.
 
I wish that was the case...unfortunately not really true. Stereo Design and Stereo Unlimited are the only two that come to mind in the whole city! Stereo Unlimited is apparently struggling greatly:(

You have 2 in Carlsbad. One of them specializes in TT. The other one does home theater and high-end audio. There is also Blackbird audio that mostly does 2 channel. I think there is one more but I can't recall for sure.
 
All audio shops in Montreal(when I lived there) were closed on Sunday with the exception of one place. His shop doubled as a Restaurant, although he didn't serve any food, but he remained open due to a technicality I suppose. Place was always jammed. I remember buying a pair of BIC Venturi Formula 4's there. The other thing was....you could negotiate on price as he wanted to move as much as possible.
 
You have 2 in Carlsbad. One of them specializes in TT. The other one does home theater and high-end audio. There is also Blackbird audio that mostly does 2 channel. I think there is one more but I can't recall for sure.

Taters, I wouldn't call the 2 in Carlsbad or Blackbird in Santee "shops". They are all working out of their homes. Therefore, all of them are by appointment only. Not saying that these guys are not audio speciality outfits BUT they do NOT qualify as "shops"in my books. ( splitting hairs maybe, BUT your OP was calling for the brick and mortar type of store, or at least that's what i thought).
 
Taters, I wouldn't call the 2 in Carlsbad or Blackbird in Santee "shops". They are all working out of their homes. Therefore, all of them are by appointment only. Not saying that these guys are not audio speciality outfits BUT they do NOT qualify as "shops"in my books. ( splitting hairs maybe, BUT your OP was calling for the brick and mortar type of store, or at least that's what i thought).

You make a good point.
 
I remember when audio was a club. We were civil, respected each other. Man guys operated out of their home and the store was always open at reasonable hours. We respected each others opinions.At closing time we often sat around with the store owner and listened to our favorite records,
 
I remember when audio was a club. We were civil, respected each other. Man guys operated out of their home and the store was always open at reasonable hours. We respected each others opinions.At closing time we often sat around with the store owner and listened to our favorite records,

Those were the days my friend.We thought they would never end.But nothing is forever.
I could understand that audio shops are a dying breed but what I dont understand is the lack of respect we show on all the audio forums.
What happened ???
 
I remember when audio was a club. We were civil, respected each other. Man guys operated out of their home and the store was always open at reasonable hours. We respected each others opinions.At closing time we often sat around with the store owner and listened to our favorite records,

Those were the days my friend.We thought they would never end.But nothing is forever.
I could understand that audio shops are a dying breed but what I dont understand is the lack of respect we show on all the audio forums.
What happened ???

I'm not so sure that was really the case. In 1956 Stan Freberg found quite the opposite.
I checked and he is now 87 years old.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xxz6_utUsZo&feature=share
 
They went out of business.
 

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