I frequently joke that I’m an audiophile in recovery. But that’s not really very accurate. I’m a terrible audiophile. I have terabytes and terabytes of music across multiple hard drives on my home network and they’re encoded at a broad disparity of resolutions from high to low (GASP!). Those files represent a lifetime of music acquisition. Calling it […]

In all cultures, food and meals play a central part in the human experience. Meals are where we come together as families and groups and enjoyment of food is central to bonding and socializing. Travel the world and you’ll meet people who will gladly share their meal with you, and that’s a big part of making new friends. In […]

As of this writing I have no fewer than TEN Bluetooth devices in my iPhone’s memory that it pairs to. In no particular order: A couple of different visor speakers for our different vehicles. The really great Bluetooth stereo dongle that connects to the amp and speakers in the weight room. A pair of the […]

The genesis of this blog post was an experience I had last month and remarked upon in a status update on Facebook. My wife and I have had the same insurance broker for as long as we’ve been together: 14 years. For the first time in my adult life I felt compelled to price shop our policies. As […]

Most of us live in two or more worlds, and those worlds often barely intersect. For me, two worlds that I live in are sales and sports and fitness. Today’s stories combine the two. Years ago, when I was very, very young I worked in a bike shop. One of the other salesman was an older fellow named […]

Not everyone is a model employee. Given a large enough sample size of people and you’re going to encounter a broad spectrum of personalities and attitudes, not all of them good. Certainly, in my time in retail I’ve encountered plenty of bad employees. Not just in terms of dishonesty and theft, although that is certainly […]

Not everyone is a model employee. Given a large enough sample size of people and you’re going to encounter a broad spectrum of personalities and attitudes, not all of them good. Certainly, in my time in retail I’ve encountered plenty of bad employees. Not just in terms of dishonesty and theft, although that is certainly […]

Generally these Strange Retails columns have focused on how demented customers can be. To be fair, retail employees and managers can be equally demented, in their own way. Unless they’ve worked in retail few people appreciate how driven by metrics retailers are. And it’s not just obvious things like revenue or expenses either: retailers dance like marionettes to the […]

Last week was a week of firsts. For one thing, it was CTIA Wireless Expo in New Orleans, and while it wasn’t my first trade show (pretty far from, in fact) it was my first mobile channel show. It was also the first time that I’ve travelled for work without taking a laptop. Instead, and as kind of an experiment, I took an […]

My favorite part of retail sales was always haggling, negotiating, and making a deal. I always enjoyed it, and through a combination of on-the-job experience and undertaking specific training courses (back in the day Sony offered a training course called Negotiate The Deal You Deserve that paid enormous dividend to those of us who enrolled […]

It’s no secret that video, once the cash cow of retail AV hasn’t worn that crown in years. Today AV dealers still sell video, but with little joy, and almost grudgingly. The reasons why are simple: Price Erosion: Every year the new models have a lower price than the old models. Five years ago a […]

As rAVe readers all know by now, I spent a long, long time in the retail and custom installation trenches. As a result I’ve got my share of tales to tell. Here are some of them. Every retail veteran can tell you about the regulars, and especially the odd ducks: individuals, whether they’re actual customers or not […]

I spent a lot of time in the retail trenches, and while I may miss it sometimes with a certain wistful nostalgia, it’s pretty unlikely that I’ll ever jump at the chance to return. I’m only half-joking when I say that I’ll pick up pop cans from the side of the road for a living […]

While I haven’t seen any official numbers from Samsung or market research numbers, anecdotal sales information from mobile dealers as well as positive reviews in the media have shown that the Samsung Galaxy Note has been doing surprisingly well in the marketplace. Why is that surprising? Well for one thing, not that many people are […]

Okay, so it’s not news that Facebook uses Microsoft’s Bing search engine. When you use Facebook’s search bar Bing is what brings up your search term’s web results beyond Facebook. What is surprising is that lately, when you go to Facebook’s front page and before you sign in a Bing search bar is center stage. […]

The conversations I’m having with my dealers explaining “New iPad” vs iPad2 sound like Abbot and Costello’s classic skit “Who’s on first?” “It’s the New iPad.” “So it’s the iPad3?” “No, it’s the New iPad.” “I know, the iPad3.” “No. New.” “You knew it’s New?” “THAT’S WHAT I’M TRYING TO TELL YOU!” So I’m going to start calling […]

It’s been said of Times Square in New York City that if you stand there in one spot long enough you’ll see everybody you’ve ever met. By that same token, if you spend long enough working in retail, or for that matter just plain working with the general public, you’ll see almost everything. I spent […]

So the “Odd News” story that’s been posted and retweeted over and over this week is about the regrettable incident in a Greenville, SC Best Buy where a pornographic image was inadvertently displayed on their display of 55-inch Smart TVs. There are a few takeaways here, for both consumers and AV pros. If you’re a consumer looking […]

The genesis of this blog post is the debut of the LG Optimus Vu mobile device and its included Rubberdium Pen. The Vu is not alone either; theres also the Samsung Galaxy Note (which itself blurs the lines between phones and tablets) with its supplied accessory the S Pen. Lets not forget that there are aftermarket styli available for tablets, most notably […]

Sales Managers, I have a cautionary tale to tell you, and you would do well to heed my advice: Do everything in your power to avoid creating Rockstar Salespeople. Why not, you ask? Don’t you want high performers on your sales team? Well, of course you do. But what you don’t want is Prima Donnas and Divas. […]

Everyone in this business has a closet. And they’re all full to bursting. I’m not talking about deep, dark secrets. No, I’m talking about the OBC, or the Obsolete Gear Closet. Here I’ll give you a peek into mine: A Harmony 880 remote control. A shoe box full of miscellaneous unbalanced analog audio interconnects in various lengths. A […]

I like cold calling. People think I’m weird for that, but there you go. Personally I enjoy researching prospects and meeting them for the first time. I recognize that not everyone feels the same way, and that’s fine, but aspiring salespeople also need to realize that you don’t always have the luxury of staying inside […]

The world is almost completely connected electronically now. By any yardstick that’s a good thing, and I’m just as plugged in as anyone else. But it’s important to remember that there is still no substitute for face to face interaction when it comes to building and maintaining personal, not to mention professional relationships. As you […]

Earlier this week in Paid Content there was a cogent analysis of the state of the home entertainment business, especially relating to the balance of hardcopy media and download sales. Best of all though was the headline, which read “The Bleeding In The Home Entertainment Business Slowed In 2011.” As headlines go, that’s on a par […]

Nicknames are funny things. More often than not, they are earned. Years ago I earned the nickname “Projector Boy” for my obsession with projectors, both loving them and selling them to other people. However, much earlier in my career I earned another nickname. It was my first month on the job at my first ever […]

So this past Christmas our family welcomed a new addition to the household: A second iPad. With our entry into being a multi-tablet household it made me wonder: Now will the media categorize families the way they have with other metrics? From two car families to two (and I’m dating myself here) TV families, households […]

Earlier this week I regaled you with pointless yet amusing tales of Holiday retail strangeness. As promised, here are some more. I used to work for a Western-Canadian retail chain whose Boxing Day sales were legendary. People actually lined up around the block in the middle of the night in brutal Canadian winters for a […]

Even though it’s been years since I left retail, I still feel all the things I used to feel when Christmas rolls around. I know that I’ve made it clear that I’ve served my time in retail, but if I’m honest, part of me misses it. Even though I don’t have to hustle and work from open to […]

I was just discussing screen size with an acquaintance, and the conversation forced me to confront an ugly truth. I have screen envy. When I got my 60-inch Hitachi plasma five years ago it was, by the standards of the day, a really big screen. Now, just the other day I found myself looking at […]

As a lifelong salesperson and manager of salespeople, if there is a single thing that you can do which will increase your sales, your closing ratio, and your income it’s this: Follow up. Get your prospects’ contact information, and, with their permission, follow up with them. Call them, email them, I don’t care, but if […]

I love Christmas. I really do. I don’t get annoyed at merchants getting their decorations up before American Thanksgiving, and I find myself itching to put up my own. I’ll be honest though, I was not always as you see me now. I used to loathe Christmas. So what changed? Well, there are two key […]

If there is anything that characterizes the trade media outlets for the mobile channel it’s that the Who’s Suing Whom headlines are bigger and more frequent than the new product announcements. Whether it’s Apple suing Samsung, Samsung suing Apple, Microsoft suing HTC or Google suing everybody, week after week the song remains the same. There are occasionally […]