Sound Advice Re-Opening Showroom

By Alan Wolf -- TWICE, 3/3/2011

Fort Lauderdale, Fla. - Sound Advice, once Florida's premier A/V specialty chain, will open its first showroom tomorrow since shutting in 2008 with corporate parent Tweeter.

The company was resurrected online by former chairman/CEO Peter Beshouri, who reacquired the brand, mailing lists and other intellectual properties in Tweeter's bankruptcy sale.

The new showroom, located here in a former Sound Advice location, will hold grand opening sales March 4-8, the local Sun Sentinel newspaper reported. Promotions will include buy-one, get one at half-off deals on speakers and headphones, and "deep discounts" on TVs, the retailer said in a customer mailing.

Sound Advice operated about 33 stores throughout the Sunshine State in 2002, when it was acquired by Tweeter in a stock deal valued at over $100 million. The chain initially continued as a wholly owned subsidiary but was later integrated into Tweeter's operations. Tweeter filed for bankruptcy and shuttered in 2008.

Beshouri told TWICE last summer that the loss of powerful, independent regional A/V specialists like Tweeter, Sound Advice and Magnolia has created "an extraordinary void in the marketplace - and nature abhors a void."

To help fill that niche while adapting to new economic and marketplace realities, he said he planned to leverage the Internet, limit showroom size and expansion, and keep a tight rein on costs. The company would continue to offer the best in A/V hardware while focusing on service, upgrades, connectivity and solution-oriented selling, Beshouri said, and would bank on the 35-year-old brand's sterling reputation and thousands of former customers.

 "If anyone can resurrect the Sound Advice legacy," he said, "it's its founders."