Car Stereo Store of the Future: Look at the Alpine Room

Attention to Detail is a store in Middletown, CT that is breaking the mold in car audio retailing and taking some tips from Apple.

It built a new Alpine room for $10-$15,000 that resembles the same clean, white displays Alpine showed at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) last year.

In fact, Attention to Detail store manager Dan Labbe was so impressed with the CES display, he asked Alpine if he could just copy it.  The result is below:

There’s a 42 inch touch screen computer set up in the middle of the room  so customers can look up more details on any of the products in the store.  Labbe said he’s not concerned with comparison shopping because the customers he attracts are looking for craftsmanship and service.

He does a lot of expeditor work so much of the store traffic comes from car dealer referrals.

The room has changed the way the store sells. “It has completely changed the way we handle the sale.  One, the customer comes in and the clean appearance seems to impress him. Two, the way it’s set up, I start with the features [wall].  I ask if you have an iPhone or Android phone and do you listen to Pandora.  Do you have satellite radio. It’s all on the wall.  Then the last radio on the wall is the CD138 that has everything,” he said.

Then he moves on to the navigation section and asks if the customer wants navigation.  “I’ve sold more navigation this past year than I know what to do with.  I’ve already sold 50 of the 920s from Alpine in about 2 months,” he said.

From there customers go past a backup camera display, and then to the audio wall starting with the high end Type X speakers.  You guessed it, he sells a lot of back up cameras and full systems.

The one-store shop started in 1999 and covers about 2,000 square feet.   Alpine is the main head unit brand.  Other brands are Rosen, Clarion, JL Audio, Memphis and CompuStar.

Why did Labbe want an Alpine room?  “I was tired of the way we were selling car audio before.  Everyone has boxes on the floor and a couple of working displays.  I wanted to clean it up and make it look more modern.”

He also took inspiration from Apple.   “I copied the cleanliness, just the product as the focus point… Let me tell you it impresses people.”

Labbe built the room himself.  He’s adding 3 projectors at the ceiling to show motion graphics of the Alpine logo and feature logos for Pandora, HD Radio and others.  “I’ll have those logos flying around the wall,” he said.

Obviously, at a time when most stores are backing away from brand-focused sales, Attention to Detail is taking the opposite path.  It sell 3M paint protection and floor mats from WeatherTech.

People recognize the Alpine, 3M and WeatherTech brand names and trust them, he said.  “WeatherTech brings a lot of business to us.  They’ve advertised so well on TV and we’re a Diamond dealer so they put us on their web site.  We get a lot of people to order the mats and then they say ‘Oh, you do navigation.’”

Attention to Detail also sells heated seats, sun roofs and window tinting.

The Alpine room is almost complete and the store will have a grand opening on Friday September 21 at 5pm followed by a car sound off event on Saturday, September 22^st. The store is located at 195 Dekoven Drive  in Middletown, CT.

Source: CEoutlook

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