I heard from a friend of mine today that the long established B&O York store will close on Wednesday this week. Depressing times for franchisees eh? Wonder where my account will move to now? Im a bad panny..... Roundhay closed last year too. The Yorkshire dealer who gets me as a customer next will possibly be gone inside a year too. YORK...R.I.P. Then again, it wasnt the same after Richard left.

Was it Genesis who sang...Go West Young Man....??

Honestly, it's like watching swine flu spreading..  Sad times...

Lee

KingStreet:

Was it Genesis who sang...Go West Young Man....??

I think it was the Pet Shop Boys that murdered that one by the way..

9 LEE:

Honestly, it's like watching swine flu spreading..  Sad times...

But wasn't swine flu both exaggerated and lasted for a short period of time?

Mind you, losing the one and only store in a city such as York is rather surprising. Mind you, still don't know how B&O of Yarm survives.

9 LEE:

KingStreet:

Was it Genesis who sang...Go West Young Man....??

I think it was the Pet Shop Boys that murdered that one by the way..

 

Pet Shops Boys??...................Pet Shop Boys!!!??? The song you refer to is Go West, which was a cover of the Village People track!

KingStreet is indeed correct "Go West young man", is a line from "Deep in the Motherlode" from the album "And then there were Three", by Genesis.

Pet Shop Boys!!!???

As I remember, the York store was just outside of the city centre and one of those you had to know was there - it wasn't on a visitor/shopper route - I wonder if it's these type of stores especially that are suffering.

Puncher - that is correct !!! 

In fact, I should have remembered more clearly, as that was the first Genesis LP I bought - with my milk round money. 

Obviously went on to get the other's - via Duke, then off to the "hard-core" Gabriel stuff from the seventies.

Deep in the motherlode.....very apt for this thread....

@ Lee -  your "street cred" slipped a bit there pal !!! ,  in fairness,  many songs have similar lines, I know......but, you've been round some Manchester pubs with me where quoting Genesis songs would be frowned at - but reciting Pet Shop Boys lyrics would result in much sorrow !!   Mind you, just round the corner, there are many pubs where you would get a standing ovation !

(please note - for me, nothing wrong with the P.S.B's , before i get any aggro, an old friend of mind thinks they rule the world, just not my thing - no guitars!! )

Pet shop boys????? what the heck? ........not playing on my S9000/Lab9s thank you! But yes..... might have to venture through the fog of the Pennines to find another dealer as Im not keen on B&O Leeds.

How about...erm....B&O of Skipton? :) Looking online, there appears to be a B&O representative in the small town of Skipton - not far from you? Ever visited that store?

There's always Harrogate - weren't Harrogate and York owned by the same people?

And stores closing in Australia.. B&O (David Jones) Melbourne, gone... more being considered.....

:(

David Coyne

Stores will close while B&O will have this realy stupid and stratospheric price list.

Your right, there IS Harrogate but all the staff left earlier in the year! I guess trouble is a foot, given the staff left York and then that shut up shop. Finding a dealer that knows about the kit I have, and sales staff or owner that actually works in his business is proving hard in Yorkshire. I had forgotton about the dealer in Skipton. From what I remember he sells other brands alongside B&O...... might just have to pay him a visit!

From what I can gather, B&O pushed franchisees into opening more and more stores over the last few years. But, the problem is you tend to support your local store because of the service, independant nature, knowledge by staff and typically because the owner actually sells you the stuff he was passionate to invest his own money into. The whole brand is a personal service, and a high staff turnover isnt good! Didnt the Manchester/Liverpool franchisee grow too big too quickly? He had 4 stores a few years ago before they all collapsed and B&O took over shutting 2 of them down.

A trip to Skipton and King Street is on the cards for me. Less chance of collapse as they only have 1 store :-)

What about Sheffield on Ecclesall Road? Most of my kit is ancient, but I've been in there once or twice and service was certainly friendlier than I received in Leeds when I enquired about some packaging for my Avant and Pentas :P

Once B&O take over a franchise do they then have a policy of not wanting to deal with anyone else in an area? Does anyone happen to know what the current dealer/area policy is?

The Liverpool dealership (now B&O owned) is in Castle Street, just on the boundary between the Liverpool 1 shopping district and the business district. Although it has a good shop front and is on a main street I would guess that most customers go there for a specific purpose rather than being casual/passing visitors.

Years ago there were two specialists selling B&O equipment in Liverpool- Beaver Radio in Whitechapel (now gone) and George Henry Lee (John Lewis Partnership). Both the radio shop and the department store had large B&O displays and B&O listening rooms. G H Lee gave up its dealership long after Beaver Radio but in doing so left Liverpool without a B&O dealer for a period. I'm not sure whether the exclusive B&O store is necessarily better than a dealer selling a range of brands. Certainly with a large department store department the staff will be constantly busy selling a range of products so overheads will be much lower. There was also an opportunity for customers to  compare different manufacturers products in the store and draw their own conclusions on how good B&O was (and, maybe, how expensive!)

Graham

BeoTunes:

A trip to Skipton and King Street is on the cards for me. Less chance of collapse as they only have 1 store :-)

Let me know how you get on with Skipton - they are just up the road from my traditional 'home town', so if I ever moved back up there, then that would be my local store!