CompuServe Messages

Roy, Thanks for your imput about your Distributors. You are definately right that the Amiga Distributors are geared towards operations of your size and not on a much bigger scale. Personally I am between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, most of my retail experiences, were with small "family" style dealers which provided a very high level of support. The first CBM dealer I worked for was back in 1980 (CSB Inc), they were a small family run buisness which sold CBM's buisness line 8xxx, 4xxx, SuperPet and got into the consumer lines Pet, VIC-20, C-64, C-128 as they became available. We provided better service and support for the C-64 than most dealers provide for the Amiga! The MO houses and Mass Marketing of the consumer line, forced them to move out of the CBM market. They were CBM's West Coast Educational dealer for years, they sold countless C-64's to Schools and Military installations in San Diego and then CBM forced them out of the market. If they (and more dealers like them) could have still been around when the Amiga came out, I honestly believe that we would be looking a much better Amiga market right now. On the other hand, CBM needs to keep its head above water too, and that means selling machines. While working for West Coast District Sales I got assigned almost exclusively to provide service to "big ticket" dealers such as ComputerLand, and ComputerCity. Thus, I am much more farlimiar with a large dealers problems in the Amiga market, and large dealers have been largely unsuccessfull in the Amiga market. What troubles me, is that while I really believe that the success of these big dealers will greatly help both CBM and the entire Amiga market. The reality is that these big dealers will put the small dealers out of buisness, just as the mail order houses do now. I wish I had more answers, but identifying the problems is a start, -Jason-