RETAIL WARS
BEING THE BAD GUY Currently, Cuenca doesn’t do any advertising, but it’s not because he doesn’t believe in it. A few retailers in Santa Ana and surrounding areas have been heavily criti- cized for misleading ads run in the PennySaver and other local publications, claiming outrageous deals on multiple- monitor systems and autosound products—all with free installation. “If I run ads, I have to compete with that,” said Cuenca. “Either I do what they are doing with pricing or my ad will be ignored, and I won’t play that game.” Unfortunately, this was a lesson Cuenca learned the hard
way. “I listened to one of my salespeople at the time and we ran an ad like that,” he remembered. “We got a lot of foot traffic, but it just ended up in arguments with custom- ers over ‘the fine print’ in ads that says installation is free, but harnesses, kits and other add-ons are extra. Then I had my customers asking me why I’m trying to be like these other cheap shops. ‘Come on Cuenca, you don’t do that,’ one of my customers said. After ending up in court four
dustry. If you walk the store’s large but packed showroom, you’ll see blow-ups of the cover everywhere, depicting him driving off while his staff runs after him carrying and waving various computer components. This year, he looks to be a start-up again, only in a different arena. And ironically, it seems the computer-toting staff finally caught him. “I want to be the
Crutchfield.com of Orange County,” said Assad. He is close to launching a new, improved version of
crazystereo.com, which is poised to do one thing: sell products.
DON’T FIGHT ‘EM; JOIN ‘EM Assad, who has a degree in computer engineering, made the decision to expand his business in the “cyber” direction after seeing not only steep declines in his and surrounding businesses, but seeming increases in Web-related sales by companies such as Valencia, Calif.-based SonicElectronix. com and
NewEgg.com, headquartered in Whittier, Calif. In addition, he saw an increase in customers who came into the store wanting to have Internet purchases installed.
We got a lot of foot traffic, but it just ended up in arguments with customers over ‘the fine print.’ After ending up in court four times in one month, I stopped that practice.”
times in one month, I stopped that practice.” Like many retailers, Cuenca’ challenge is a lack of time to spend on improving his store’s income potential, particu- larly with online marketing. “I don’t want to go back to multiple stores; there are too many headaches with liability, overhead and staff cost,” he said. “But I do want to concen- trate more on getting a Web site going and monitoring what customers are saying about my store online.”
CRAZY STEREO: HEADED INTO SPACE Crazy Stereo, located just outside Santa Ana in Fountain
Valley, was featured in a 2006 issue of Mobile Electron- ics magazine. The story centered on Owner Becker Assad’s business view as a start-up in the mobile electronics in-
40 Mobile Electronics April | May 2011
“In our store, we work hard to promote our brand to the community,” he said. “We provide excellent customer service before and after the sale. We give free system check-ups, and even do simple automotive maintenance from time to time. But it’s difficult to anticipate what the economy will do to business. Add to that the fact that we are constantly being undercut by Internet sellers that mark products up only a few points and make up revenue through volume discounts from shipping companies. That’s why we are looking at expanding to being online in addition to our retail location.”
Assad rents out additional office space in the same automotive plaza as his store, and staffs it with people dedicated to developing , and later managing, the new Web
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