You gotta remember. most of the people buying these HTIB systems are middle income or below. People have been brainwashed to believe that they NEED surround sound to go with their cheap, made-in-China 50" 720p Plasmas for them to be "worthwhile", and since most of these people are working for wages that puts them just a fraction above the poverty line, they are budgeting $300 max for the sound system.
I worked at Sears for a year last year (while I was taking some classes to prepare for grad school) and believe me, I know this situation from both sides. As a salesman, I was exposed to the seedy underbelly of the consumer electronics industry in a way that took me MONTHS to shake off...
Most of the people in the sales end of this business (at this price point) are high-school grads, have never even HEARD of most of the brands we own, and have NO idea what REALLY good systems sound like. They have grown up on downloaded MP3s, blaring through cheap headphones and over-blown boomy car stereos. They think live music consists of Metallica concerts and dance club DJs. They have no background in electronics (other than to sell them) have no idea what the specifications they are quoting REALLY mean, and think Bose is the pinnacle of consumer audio.
Management pushed you to sell "extended warrantees" (or as they call them at Sears Purchase Agreements) so much that they would rather you sell someone something they don't really want (and will probably return) WITH a PA than sell them EXACTLY what they want without a PA. It's a messed up system. The commission on TVs and HTIBs are between 3 and 5%, but the commissions on PAs are 10%. We had our head Store Manager stand in ur department one morning in a meeting and actually tell us to push PA's to "commercial customers", even though it EXPLICITLY states on the PA paperwork that it wont be honored if the TV is used in a commercial setting. It's a sick, sick system...
I had one guy come into our store to buy a whole system for his new house. He bought two small LCD TVs, a large one (46") and a HTIB rig to go with the big TV. When I showed him the HTIB systems we had, ranging from $199 to $599, he said that she thought $600 for a sound system seemed a little extreme, and asked what I had. When I told him that my center speaker alone cost that much, he looked at me like I was insane, and said he didn't believe that...
I just happened to have a pic of my rig on my iPhone, and I showed it to him. He asked how it sounded. I told him that it made the best thing We sold sound like a boombox. When he asked how much the Sequels cost, I told him. He paused for a moment and, then he said "you're really into this aren't you?". I told him my stereo was not just an appliance, it was a hobby, like some people own boats, or 4-wheelers, or woodworking. Then he started to get it.
I ended up selling him a set of components (Onkyo receiver, Boston speakers, Sony BlueRay) instead of a HTIB.
He called the store a month later and told me he LOVED the way his system sounded, and it sounded WAY better than anything his friends had. He thanked me for helping him, and then asked to talk to my supervisor, so he could send my praises "up the chain"...
The guys I worked with thought I was nuts too. I would go around, adjusting the EQ on all the HTIBs, so that they sounded less like a "contest car" and more like "music". I would mark the "tweeked" positions of the speakers with tape on the floor so that when our tin-eared managers would "straighten up" the gear, I could easily move them back so they sounded good. I would bring my own CDs in to demo the systems, and they included a lot of "real music" with female voices and acoustic instruments.
I sold more sound systems than anyone in our department, and I had only one return in a year, and THAT was from someone who traded up because three days after they bought their system, we put a better one on deep discount...
So the long and short of this is that the types of people who shop at "big-box consumer electronics" stores are mostly cash-strapped middle class folk (or poorer than that), they are NOT hobbiests, or they are older folks who's hearing is shot and they need bigger sound than a TV's built-in speakers allow. They are NOT us. They have no interest in the gear we have, and they do not have either the time, inclination, or funds to invest in the sort of gear we have. But a LOT of them own a boat, or 4-wheelers, or have a big woodshop in their garage, so if you take the time to explain why our stuff isn't insane compared to a HTIB, they can sometimes relate...
When you explain to them that Bose is riding on their reputation based on 20-year old technology, and that their systems are essentially $100 systems in an $800 cardboard box, they don't have as much of a problem looking at "component" systems like Boston, Onkyo, Pioneer, or Klipsch for the same (or often less) money, ESPECIALLY when you demo them side-by-side, with acoustic music.
Not EVERYONE in the "consumer electronics" business is an idiot. But most don't give a flying fig about "quality sound". And the management in most of these situations is comprised entirely of soul-less, amoral, money-grubbing sociopaths who actually REWARD you for doing illegal and unethical things. Believe me, I've been on the inside...
