We’re getting a glimpse of some of the Black Friday deals that will be promoted over Thanksgiving weekend by prominent car audio specialists.
Door busters include a 6.2 inch Pioneer AVH-270BT DVD player at $149 down from $280 and a Kenwood Excelon KDC-X399 CD receiver with Bluetooth at $79, down from $150. Some other door busters include the Pioneer DEHX2700Ui at $49, Rockford R500X1D at $99.99 and Jensen VX7020 at $249.99, according to online fliers and statements from members of MESA, the (Mobile Electronics Specialists of America) 12 volt buying/marketing group.
A CarPlay/Android Auto package with Sirius/XM tuner, DVD/receiver with 7 inch screen and license plate backup cameras is being offered by Sound of Tri-State at $524.99 (versus $899).
MESA Executive Director Ryan Gunter said the group, with 139 retail members, is doubling the number of door busters it is offering its members this year, and getting more aggressive in helping members participate in the biggest shopping day of the year. (He did not reveal specific deals).
In addition, more members are promoting on Black Friday for the first time. Last year about 35 retailers ran their first aggressive Black Friday promotions and this year 25 additional members will join in the pre-holiday sale, said Gunter.
Gunter said the sales are profitable as members step up customers “to the better technology…I can guarantee you there’s going to be a lot of Apple CarPlay sold,” said Gunter.
Separately, Car Toys also expects CarPlay to be a strong seller over the Black Friday weekend. The 50-store Seattle based chain said it is promoting on TV with radio remotes running in 15 locations. “We’ll be featuring …a strong push on remote start products as well as Car Play,” said VP Merchandising and Marketing Jim Warren.
Black Friday has always been a difficult holiday for car audio shops to master. Those who sell remote starts can enter winter with their bays booked out weeks ahead, so why run discounts to get more people in the door?
But a failure to promote over the years, may be contributing to the low awareness of car audio products.
“We’re going to fight for our market share,” said Sound of Tri-State’s Mehdi Narimanian. “We’re campaigning to create excitement and interest and showing the necessity of the products we sell now. We’re showing the convenience of remote start, Apple CarPlay. People are not going to be knocking on our door. We have to take the message to them.”
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So glad our specialist shop does not participate in these things.
Ah yes. Tis the season for speeding up the race to zero. Nothing quite like watching the “specialists” of our industry take the lead and set the example. Breaking MAP policies, using the old bait and switch method and still getting all the praise. These black Friday tactics are great for my business as they anger a lot of people and send them my way next week and into next month. This makes selling to some of them much easier but some are a little jaded by their experience from black Friday that they seem hesitant or even suspicious like they’re just waiting for the catch in process. Maybe I shouldn’t complain because I do benefit from all the advertising efforts put forth by these “specialists” as they do raise awareness to our industry this time of year. I guess while my employees and myself are at home enjoying our extended weekend with our families we should just be thankful that the “specialists” are out there working so hard to make things better for all of us.
Ben, well said! Work smarter not harder! My employees had almost every Saturday off this summer and our numbers are way up! Like My friend Mark M. from WSS said, “we are finding better ways to fine tune the machine without working harder.”