#Amiga Dealership
18 messages in this thread
Hello Amiga Users, I am deeply involved in trying to start an Amiga store.
I am currently doing market research and I am looking for other Amiga
dealers to ask some questions of. If it is convenient I would like to ask
for names and phone numbers of dealers around the country in cities of
populns about 250,000 persons. This is a dream I have been pursuing for a
long time and things are coming together great. Also, I am tired of
hearing Commodore bashing and national sales gloom and doom. I am doing
intense research and I feel that I am well aware of the risks involved. I
also believe that the Amiga is a great computer with a signifigant
cost/performance advantage. I am inspired by the Amigas shot at multimedia
and I am going to give it a go. I will not toss out dire opinions but I am
not entertained by complaining about CBM – I KNOW CBM is a problem – but it
is a problem that can change & I believe is changing. So anyway, I'll just
keep checking out these dealers and meanwhile, start getting set up to sell
the most awesome personal computer there is!
thanks James Lloyd JL
James –
As a former dealer in Houston – one main suggestion:
Make sure you have PLENTY of funding available! At a minimum do not expect
to make a consistent profit the first year… Also make sure you have a
good hard head for business, not just a dream and belief in the Amiga (my
problem).
Thanks Jane, I know it's a pretty risky endeavor. I'm sorry to hear
that you are a former dealer. I'm working with two great accountants
so I can count on them for hard-headedness. Did you mean to imply
that with enough funding you would have had a better chance? And a
belief in the Amiga shouldn't be a problem! Thanks for the message.
JL
another thought, though I wouldn't want to bet the whole business on it,
you might look into REALLY supporting MIDI on the AMIGA. All of the pieces
are in place, but none of the other MIDI/MUSIC stores want to put in the
effort to support the AMIGA. One good dealer could make a difference, and
possibly make a profit at the same time.
..Bill 😉
Bill, you are the first person to mention that and I am glad because yes, I
do want to support MIDI. I am designing the floorspace to showcase the
three basic Amiga machines (500, 2000, 3000) and I had intended to connect
my Kawai K4 to the 500 system. My own Midi experience has shown me that a
500 with a simple MIDI and internal hard-drive (have you seen that little
drive!) would be perfect. I use Music-X but I would have to learn and demo
the surviving sequencer packages. Thanks, JL
The first thing I'd recommend is to get the demos of Bars and Pipes and
Pars and Pipes Professional, they are really first rate sequencers. THere
are also demos available for SoundQuest and MIDISampleWrench, two programs
no MIDIot can be without. Dr.T's Copyist is available as a demo as well,
and worth looking into. KCS is a very powerful sequencer, but if the
cistomer is ready for that they probably don't need advice! M and Music
Mouse are now distributed by Dr.T's as well, and M has a demo. If you can
not find any of these demos let me know, I have most of them!
Good luck, and let me know when you are in business!
..Bill 😉
James, we Amiga users wish you the best luck in the world with your new
store. I think if you stress the Multimedia and DeskTop Video aspects of
the Amiga then you will have a much better chance of getting some of the
corporate business. You might want to get on CompuServe's Multimedia forum
to get an idea of what people are looking for in Multimedia applications.
Anyway, best of luck and I hope you sell a million of them. (Commodore
wouldn't mind either, I'm sure 8^)
John (in beautiful downtown Walla Walla) – via Whap!
Thanks John for the re on the AmigaStore. I will rush right over to
multimedia, that was a great suggestion. Yes, I will be selling
mostly to multimedia and video users – especially hoping to tie into
CDTV. Thanks again, JL
James:
Good luck! I hope your venture is a great success!
Clint <VRLI>
Where are you starting this store?
Hello John, I am hoping to start this store in your backyard. I've met you
at Cameo meetings before, if that's a clue. I'm still just researching but
if the plan comes out OK I'm shooting to sell some computers to students
before christmas! I'd like to talk to you at length sometime. Look up my
other business, Conscious Image and give me ring if you have anything to
say, (as opposed to typing). JL
I saw the name, but couldn't be sure from what you posted… after
all, there might be other "James Lloyd"s. Did I see you print a
classified ad selling some Amiga and film equipment a few months
back? Why not hook up with Full Compass – I've often thought they'd
make a great Amiga dealership.
John, full compass is a good idea. I don't know how they handle Amigas now
other than as Toaster support systems. I'm really jazzed about CDTV –
maybe full compass is carrying that. And no, I haven't had a classified
selling equipment – that's the guy on the square who does video and film
production. I'd be interested in more of your thoughts about C= and the
software distribution industry. I've spoken with Perry at ASDG and he
painted a pretty dismal picture for selling software at retail levels.
Thanks for the reply. JL
Yes, I can;t imagine how some dealers survive. Do you have the requisite
$25K to get dealer status? Do you have enough to survive for six months
without a dollar in income?
Yes, I do have the finances toget going, but I am now looking for a new
location – my Regent Street spot got too expensive. Any ideas? No, skip
that, I'll work something out. C= wants me open by September! By the way,
I'm putting together a board of advisors for the store – know anyone who
might be interested in sitting on such a board? Later, JL
I've been through the dealer dilema… When we finally had the spare $25K+
to wave under CBM's nose so we could get serious consideration, we got so
much official misinformation from CBM that we canned the whole idea. We're
already a builder of our own brand of PC's, do network consulting, custom
programming, and repairs (even the entire CBM line though we're not an
authorized repair center). And we've been in business for seven years.
The dealer app is a joke. One of the things they want is a map showing all
the other computer stores in the city, and colored in blocks showing
residential, commercial, industrial areas along with income levels. etc.
etc. etc. etc.
Then the rep comes up from San Diego. All he will talk about is CDTV. We
wanted to sell/support Amiga COMPUTERS, not yuppie game machines (please,
I'm not knocking CDTV directly, but it's not our market, we serve BUSINESS
customers). When we talked to higher ups from CBM, we were informed that
the rep was out of line and shouldn't have been talking to us about the
CDTV, that it, the 500, 2000 and 2500 were all "consumer" items and were
going mass market. They said the only Amigas we could sell were 3000's and
3000AUX machines.
There's already two Amiga dealers in this town, and they have problems
supporting the common user, much less business people (one of them supports
business people by selling them PC's). This town wouldn't be able to
support ONE workstation store, much less THREE.
Of course, this was all almost exactly a year ago… hence the term
"misinformation".
Rick,
What town was that? Not the same one where I got charge $329 for a one meg
Agnus installation by the CBM authorized repair facility was it?
wmc
$329 for a one meg Agnus installation!! Boy, they saw you coming, didn't
they 8^) I hope you turned them in to the Better Business Bureau and CBM.
John (in beautiful downtown Walla Walla) – via Whap!