This past week brought the news that Myer-Emco, a specialty retailer in home electronics has ceased operations. In an interview with CE PRO Magazine company CEO Jon Myer made a number of statements regarding why this happened to a company annually regarded as one of the tops in the specialty retailing market. The stated reasons by Myer included the credit crunch, the huge dip in the economy, and unfavorable terms with many vendors as well as his claim that "this market isn't coming back".
He states that pre-wiring homes for customers like Toll Brothers died; he also claims that 45% of the companies business was in flat panel TV's and that people want simple do-it-yourself solutions like Sonos and will not continue to pay for advanced and more expensive integrated systems. What Myer doesn't say (and apparently didn't realize)is more important to integrators than what he does say.
The market for pre-wiring homes for large production builders has been a loosing proposition for years. Integrators realized this nearly 10 years ago, even at the height of the building boom. Flat panel TV sales have been an eroding market as well, many integrators don't want to touch them, you can not profit from these, note to Mr Myer: Don't make a a loss leader responsible for 45% of company sales, especially when your vendor terms put you even further behind the 8 ball. He is right, people do want simple DIY solutions like Sonos; but not all people, not even close.
The failure of Myer-Emco is a failure to respond to the market, it was a failure to alter company culture and lead the market as a high profile integrator or leave it. Integrators of home systems have known this for a long time. Selling, designing and understanding integration systems is something NO specialty retailer has done successfully to date just like Home Depot has yet to turn out a design for and build a custom home. It doesn't mean the market is dead; it simply is isn't done well or understood by specialty retail. As an integrator I take no joy in seeing a large high profile specialty retailer bite the dust, they are good for integrators and help raise public awareness about what we do. I take no joy but based on what happened at Myer-Emco I am not surprised.
