In the last couple days I've heard the news of 2 area shops shutting down, Divine Sounds in Tampa and Pop My Trunk in Port Richey.
HH Gregg is also closing down their car stereo department, although that was only ever a half-assed effort at best anyhow.

 

T & A Customs on Dale Mabry (next to 2001) closed first of April.

 

I have heard BADDDD storys of divine sounds.. Only time I went in there was to see if they could check out a sub I was buying and they kept trying to sell me shit the entire time I was there.. I asked if they could make speaker mounts they said only if they installed em..?? wtf.. like? and a buddy of mine went down there after I repeatedly told him not too and I would do it but.... he had a 2 channel amp that was stable at 2 ohms per channel and he wanted to do all 4 speakers off it they told him it wouldn't work.. and tried to sell him more stuff..

 

Divine was around for a LONG time and had their fair share of good installs to offset some of the bad stuff. They always had at least one good installer (great actually-he was there for 18 years and built some show winning stuff). There was usually another average installer-then the rest varied. So, the job that came out of there depended on the installer who did it. They had a LARGE customer base.

Pop My Trunk was small and only there for three years. And, I forgot about the "strip club" shop-kinda short lived too. Only the strong have survived and thrived in this economy. And some made enough money and just hung it up-not wanting to fight to make a living anymore.

HH Greg was a joke as far as car audio. Best Buy has crap for installers left and their 12 volt department has shrunk to nothing. And many of the new stores don't even have a 12 volt department. I wouldn't be suprised if they exited the car audio/video segment all together in the next year.

This business is slowly being brought back full circle to the smaller, single-store brick and mortar shops where it all started back in the 80's. Except, customers are smarter. They expect more from the shop. They want it clean, presentable, and with a good reputation. They want good value, and great customer service. You know the guys who are delivering this=still in business, still going strong!

 

^^ Best Buy is a hit or miss with installers. My buddy just got a job installing there, who is a pretty decent installer, and he said the guys for the most part know what they are doing and do it right. Given they don't have a broad knowledge but they know what they need to. And their car audio deparment is actually expanding big time this year. They picked up Kicker, Dual, Infinity and I believe one other brand.

PS: Tell Pioneer to get to work lol!

 

great they take on brands that small shops could, and they do NO CUSTOM WORK, if it just does not bolt in they are not to install it.

 

Picked up? they have had those brands forever.. idk about kicker but I know 100% on the others..

 

Kicker is the new one, and they picked it up to replace Rockford. So that was more of a sideways move than a step ahead. I don't forsee any real growth in their car audio, look at the newest stores they've opened - car audio is jammed in a back corner with nobody staffing it most of the time. Last time I was in a best buy (the newer one on West Hillsborough ave) I couldn't have bought car audio if i wanted to, because there was nobody working anywhere near that area.
They are hit and miss on installers for sure. There are some stores that have a few decent ones and other stores that have all morons. The issue is often there is nobody in a managerial position that knows anything about car audio, so there is no leadership. To me that's not an acceptable standard.

 

From what I hear BB is getting rid of 12 volt to replace with musical instrements.

 

if they were to go to how circuit city did back when they started, educated sales people, working off a base with commisions and spiffs for special items, they would dominated the market, employ installers that know there shit, do some custom work (boxes, trunk beauty panels, speaker mounts) they would have no compition, with there buying power and finace abilities, hours of operation and chain of stores to support nation wide, they would dominate! to bad they dont think that way.... good for the independents!