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What's Happening to Sony Stores?

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Gary Eickmeier

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Sorry if this is an old subject already covered, but I just learned that the Sony store in Tampa has closed! In Tampa! Anyone else experience this in your area? What's going on?
 
In San Antonio TX our sony store closed last year. I can see in the future Sony doing a store inside best buy. A store inside a store..
 
That would be a good plan. At least they could put a knowledgeable representative in each store. Such a representative could even circulate between stores in a city or region to educate sales people and set up displays. When the Sony SLT cameras hit Best Buy in my city it took nearly a year to get one into a display where it had a charged battery or power supply so I could actually look at the EVF.
 
Our Best Buy in Lakeland Florida has a DSLR display that is supposed to have Canikon and Sony, but the Sony part is usually 3 empty stands. They have the NEX, but not the Alpha.
 
Last time I looked, there was a Sony store in the Town Center Mall in Boca Raton FL.

It's just a couple of feet from the Apple Store.

Guess which one is always crowded.
 
jeffcpix said:
jeffcpix wrote:

Last time I looked, there was a Sony store in the Town Center Mall in Boca Raton FL.

It's just a couple of feet from the Apple Store.

Guess which one is always crowded.
Click to expand...
The McDonalds next door? :-)

rio

PS: my local Sony Store closed last year as well (Cardiff, UK)
 
The one in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada (the only one in the province) closed a few months ago - been there like 22 years or something. No doubt they're counting on the biggies, like Future Shop and Best Buy, and their website, picking up the slack.
 
This is a part of the ongoing financial crises and industry meltdown. All industry and technology (including the American car, electro, fabrication) are closing down everywhere in US.

Only service sector (McDonald, hair-clippers, hookers) and financial fraud (big banks) are still doing business in these days.
 
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JerryCurtis said:
JerryCurtis wrote:

The one in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada (the only one in the province) closed a few months ago - been there like 22 years or something. No doubt they're counting on the biggies, like Future Shop and Best Buy, and their website, picking up the slack.
Click to expand...

Very scary stuff. Depending on Best Buy's marketing geniuses that can shut you down like a light bulb. Our Best Buy is not too good at seliling Sony. Samsung forced them to make an island for just their stuff, like Apple's. I wouldn't mind that.
 
It's still there as of a few weeks ago at least. Though many stores in Town Center have been slow in the economy as of late...ironically enough the highest-end, most expensive stores are the ones having the most success (rich people always have money to burn!).

The problem with our Sony Store is the employees. Not that I think there are very many service or retail industries left that have any employees worth a dime under the age of 30, but the Sony Store here has far too many employees that have no knowledge at all of the products, and that 'I'm too busy texting a friend to serve you' attitude.

I see a surprising number of people enter the store, walk around looking at things, and after 5-10 minutes of getting no attention whatsoever, walking back out. I've done it myself - several times. I've gone in to check if they have any refurb deals for lenses sitting on the shelves, and have even been CARRYING a Sony camera around my neck, picking up lenses and looking at them, and still not been helped.
 
We had 2 stand-alone Sony Style stores close in Vancouver. The 3 that are still open are inside malls.
When I was talking to the sales guy that was working in the location closest to me that closed (he is working In a mall store now) he told me that Sony was closing the stand-alone stores as they didn't generate enough walk-in traffic. He said that the mall stores are busier, but the people that came into his old store were usually buyers.
I guess Sony figures that the people that are buyers will be buyers and will travel to a store, and it is better to have a lot of people coming through the store as some of them maybe impulse buyers or influenced by seeing lots of people in store.
All speculation of course as only Sony really knows what their motivations are.
 
zackiedawg said:
zackiedawg wrote:

It's still there as of a few weeks ago at least. Though many stores in Town Center have been slow in the economy as of late...ironically enough the highest-end, most expensive stores are the ones having the most success (rich people always have money to burn!).

The problem with our Sony Store is the employees. Not that I think there are very many service or retail industries left that have any employees worth a dime under the age of 30, but the Sony Store here has far too many employees that have no knowledge at all of the products, and that 'I'm too busy texting a friend to serve you' attitude.

I see a surprising number of people enter the store, walk around looking at things, and after 5-10 minutes of getting no attention whatsoever, walking back out. I've done it myself - several times. I've gone in to check if they have any refurb deals for lenses sitting on the shelves, and have even been CARRYING a Sony camera around my neck, picking up lenses and looking at them, and still not been helped.
Click to expand...
 
I was in the Millenia Mall in Orlando about a month ago and the Sony store was open, in fact there was a new Sony store under construction in the mall. There were more employees in the store than there were customers, but they were all too busy talking amongst themselves to bother to see if they could help me.
 
I've been in there quite a few times...I've had one or two decent employees who either knew a little bit or at least had a decent measure of pleasing customer service...but the majority were more of the smart-phone-addicted socially-inept and generally clueless variety who seem to be the norm almost everywhere today. It makes those few decent ones stand out all the more!
 
....

For the last ten years I've bought my cameras, lenses and most accessories on the Internet ( mostly B&H or other major store ). Unfortunately salesmen ( either on Sony Stores or most other photo and the like stores ) are too Canikon biased or just clueless to actually share any helpful information on Sony gear. Where I can I go to a photo store just to handle and have a "feel" of the camera/lens/etc by myself before committing to it!

... Lucas
 
If so, it's possible they would sell off their stuff, but you see that less and less except in bankruptcies. If they are corporate, they would just return their stock to the regional warehouse.
 
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