[Blue]

Falconeye, You have a pretty good model here. There are a couple of weaknesses however.

Originally Posted by falconeye

Over they years, I developed a clear vision of what is happenning here and I am eager to share it with you:

(1) Retail stores sell a mixture of consultancy and delivery. People use the internet to get cheapest delivery and only enter retail stores to get free consultancy which includes a free "showroom service".

Well, the one brick and mortar store (excluding the Mall Ritz) isn't a showroom in regards to Pentax because they don't have any Pentax. They can't sell what they don't carry. However, the same thing would happen if it were Olympus, etc. It should not be a problem for a B&M to have a K20D, K200D, and K-M on hand with a few accessories. Perhaps a lot of that responsibility goes to Pentax. And Pentax's delivery system is probably the key to actual product availability on a local level.

Originally Posted by falconeye

(2) Therefore, all retail stores die (except for the very last ones which transform into stage #3, cf. below).

I don't think this will completely happen. BH, Adorama, Bedford Camera, BlueMoon, KEH and Chains like Calumet still do business they way the did 25-30 years ago. KEH uses the Internet rather than mail order. They would have to go under to get completely to 3 below

Originally Posted by falconeye

(3) Once dead, a new type of retail store will arrive: free delivery (read same price as the internet) but paid consultancy which includes an entrance fee for the "showroom service". The consultancy is paid per visit or an annual membership fee. It isn't as obvious as everybody thinks that entrance into a retail store is free. I remember to have seen shop signs (when I was a kid) reading: "entrance is free".
A variant of #3 are free "showroom only" stores run by manufacturers. They will appear in the early phase of this stage and disappear at a later phase.


Of course, stage #3 can only happen after #2 has happened. Therefore, there are reasons to accelerate #2 to sooner arrive at stage #3.

Model 3 has never worked that well in the U.S. and those kinds of "show rooms" come and go and usually go a lot faster than the come. Sears and RoeBuck were one of the Pioneers of this type of system and they are struggling. Another example is ServiceMerchandise

Originally Posted by falconeye

A few exceptions exist already now (where one company controls both, retail and the internet sales channels) which allow to have a glimpse at how stage #3 will look like. One example are the florishing Apple stores.

Face it, if it weren't for the IPod, Apple would be in serious trouble. Pentax has never attempted this type of model and don't think they could survive relying on this type of model