Granoff Out At Tweeter

How is anyone surprised that a guy who worked for TWO companies that went bankrupt couldn't turn around a bankrupt company? Or maybe that was the idea all along.

It truly is a sad day when there were, and still are, some incredibly smart salespeople that have known what was needed to allow this company to remain profitable. These are the people who will suffer the most when Tweeter goes down, while the corporate idiots (Judy and others)will still get their fat stipends and get another job destroying another company.

The beginning of the end or what appears to be the end started back in 2002 when Tweeter bought Sound Advice.I am sure that people from both Tweeter and Sound advice would agree.Tweeter was growing to fast and this merger was the one that broke the camels back leading up to the collapse in 2007.With no advertising to drive customers into the stores and finally on credit hold and no cash they were forced to adopt a direct marketing approach,but it was to late.Mean while the sales staff that hung on hoping and believeing that we would make it through were suffering loses in income and many were in draw.Tweeter files for bankrupcy as part of a buy out deal with Schultze investments.Just in time for the holidays the product starts flowing and we all seem releived and then they start to take back the old draw balances from the people that stayed through the hard times!In many states the labor laws protect employees from unfair practice.That is not the case for Sound Advice employees because Florida's labor laws do not protect employees from this preditory act.Not only that they decided to stick the direct marketing plan and not advertise to get people into the stores.The only thing that did not change through this period was how the sales staff was paid.The pay structure was based on a well oiled marketing and advertising plan and not a direct marketing plan.If you are not going to support your sales staff and treat them with respect you are going to fail no matter what you do!Granoff was doomed from the start.

Do you see how many FL people comment? That's because Sound
Advice was once the only store to buy in most of FL. We had the best
product, best people, and everyone knew it. What a shame! Tweeter
killed a once proud and profitable company. They need Peter to come
and buy the company back. Get the lines back that made them
special. Oh wait! Too late. hhgregg is in FL now. Let me tell you that
they will eat anyones lunch. Trained, commissioned associates and
they will sell something a dollar above cost to make a deal happen.
Wait until they have a store count above 400. Then we will see
someone truly stand up to BB. They pay for everything with cash.
Inventory, new stores, no debt. An easily sustained business model,
especially in the tough economy ahead. Goodbye Sound Advice. I
loved working there all those years through the good times, and am
just sick at what Tweeter did to you.

At the end of the day the type of retail that Tweeter has tried to achieve can not be scaled to a large number of stores. The level of detail and Communication that is required is best left to a smaller number of stores. Places like Kranes, Bjorns, Vanns, 6th Ave still have the magic because management can still touch all the stores. Be respecful of the people that work at Tweeter corporate everyday the ones that come in everyday and try to do the right thing no matter what. They too will probably end up un-employed. Reserve you hurtful posts for Sandy, Jeff, Joe, Philo, Judy, and George.