A B**ch session:
I didn't want to hijack the other thread about Tweeter and B&M audio stores, but I had an experience last night that I had wanted to share….
What the hell is up with employees in music departments of retail giants or even music stores not even knowing what SACD or DVD-Audio is?
If I walked into a Wal-Mart, I wouldn't be surprised if the employee didn't know what these discs were. But, last week in my local Circuit City, I noticed that the Sony end-cap display of SACD was empty of discs, so I asked an employee of the music department if they were put in a new section. He didn't know what I was talking about. I had to walk him over to the "audio hardware" area, about 50 feet away, and show him the empty display. He had never heard of them or was aware that they were there…. I know that the display was there for months.
Last night, I walked into a FYE (For Your Entertainment, a chain with hundreds and hundreds of stores) and asked two employees if they had a section for these discs.
"Oh, DVDs with music? Like concert videos? They're over there."
"No, not concert videos. They're audio discs. It's a higher-resolution format, and offers surround re-mixes."
"DVDs HAVE audio, already."
"These AREN'T regular DVDs. It's an entirely different format."
"I don't know what you're talking about, so I guess we don't have them."
"So you don't have any SACDs either? Super Audio Discs?" (clearly baiting a bit at this point as I'm annoyed that he's giving me attitude like I asked, on a bet, for something me and my friends clearly made up).
"I don't know what those are either, so I guess we don't have them."
Now, I know that these are probably minimum wage jobs and not likely career choices. And I DO know that their possible knowledge of music will serve them better than the knowledge of delivery systems. Further, I know that these two formats are certainly NOT flying off shelves; my understanding is that sales are pretty damn small as a percentage.
But really…
If you work in a music store… your sole focus is music… how can you be completely unfamiliar with formats that have thousands of releases and have been out a couple of years?
If you work in the music department of a large retailer like Circuit City, how can you be oblivious to a display of discs and a department that sells the players for these discs fifty feet away?
I'm not going to deny that this is a somewhat passionate topic for me. I LOVE music, and am enjoying the somewhat limited selection of these discs that I own. I purchased a Pioneer 578 specifically for these discs, with the intention of it being a temporary measure to the $1100 Denon 3910 universal player I want to match my Denon receiver. I thought I'd dislike surround music ("Who the hell wants to hear instruments BEHIND them?") but found instead that I like it once I experienced it. I want to hear my coming Axioms with the best versions of the best discs I can, with the QS-8s holding their own in mixes that demand much of the rears. I want these formats to succeed. I don't want to see them go the way of Quad or Betamax. I don't want to wait another 5 years for someone to come up with some audio version of BlueRay with 10.2 / 384Khz sound. But how is this format going to survive if it's not only NOT marketed, but doesn't even flash a glimmer of awareness among those in the trenches?
OK. Disc sales numbers being what they are, I don't expect rows of displays in the B&Ms, and I'm not totally surprised that there aren't even small displays in some stores. But can't a store or department manager even MENTION to an employee that these discs exist? That they're available on the prospective companies websites by the thousands?
Shouldn't employees be aware of their existence, even if they're not carried within the store itself?
