"Sofie" wrote in message
...
Ray L. Volts:
Reading between the lines of your posting here you are guessing that there
will be a lot of techs and shops that will soon get out of the
business........ that is good for the ones that have make the proper
investments and are prepared to stay because they will now get the repair
jobs that the out of business shops were once getting.

It's been occurring steadily for years here. There aren't many left right
now, so the number of those who quit will be small.
I live in a city of 80,000+ population, a fair mix of wealthy, middle-class
and low-income. Ten years ago, there were at least half a dozen shops in
town. Now there are but 2 full-time video shops, only one of which offers
camcorder repair.

I've spoken with the owners of these and other shops in nearby cities and
all of them have expressed a steady decline in their customer base. People
aren't leaving town in droves. Quite the opposite, population continues to
rise.

Shops are finding they must act in cooperative rather than competitive mode
in order to survive -- trading parts, schematics, tips, referrals, etc.
These guys are highly qualified, have the latest Sencore gear (et al), have
been in biz for decades and are scared.

The closest shop out of town is about 30 miles away. I seriously doubt the
decline in customers here is due to them driving their units so far out of
their way or having the long-distance shops come to them. It wouldnt be
worth the hassle or, in the case of a home visit, the added expense. And I
don't for a minute believe consumers are paying to ship their
out-of-warranty units for service.
No, their best choice would be to have competent, in-town techs do the work,
and yet those techs are steadily seeing fewer jobs come in.

Even if a monopoly existed in town were one of the shops to close, I'm not
convinced the remaining shop will maintain a profit margin appealing enough
to sustain it for many more years.

I don't know where you guys are, but I'm sad to say things look rather bleak
in south Texas. If the news is this bad in a city of 80,000 folks, I can
imagine it must be even worse for shops in smaller towns.

-Ray-