I received an email this afternoon from my dealer re price increases to Naim and Focal from the Febuary 1st.
Products affected will be 5 Series, New Classic Series, 500 Series and Statement.
Focal will include all product ranges.
Apparently due to increased shipping and component costs.
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Anyone know what the UK RRP for the Utopia will be from the 1 February please?
Geez, didnāt think NC could get more expensive, especially in the overseas marketsā¦.Theyāre going to be pricing themselves out at this rateā¦.
Earlier last year I bemoaned to the (now previous) Naim dealer here in WA re the current Naim RRP in the local market as compared to the previous distributor (which mostly had parity to UK).ā¦his response was that almost every HiFi manufacturer had raised their prices by 20-30% and so it was acceptable, as some form of ākeeping with the Joneāsā justificationā¦ā¦Still, theyāre now left with a load of stock still on their hands and canāt seem to clear the warehouse even after 5 months of fire sale pricingā¦.
The ājustificationsā for all these manufacturer increases become tiresome of lateā¦.but then, the world was always going to have to pay back for the madness that was the lost Covid yearsā¦the handouts were never going to be a freebie.
If the prices are substantially increased, will be interesting how sales hold up in the current cost of living environment, especially in the Northern Hemisphereā¦.though I guess those that can easily afford will always be able to affordā¦.
It would seem Vervent are are trying to line the coffers before the inevitableā¦.
SC
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? Which dealer? WA as the State?
A2A in Western Australia.
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āBlameflationā has emerged as a real thing. And itās totally opaque because every single company denies they do it but of course most do.
For example, inflation where I am peaked at 4% according to official stats. But the cost of the same basket of items in the supermarket is up 100% on 2020 prices! Youāre never gonna know which are scalping you and which have genuine massive cost increases.
But of course the annual Naim price hike, even in the 90s were about 5% which was far above inflation back then too.
Itās a bit unfortunate because I know full well there are honest businesses out there who only push up prices as they need to. But because itās impossible for the consumer to know, I just assume every price hike of every consumer product now is just taking the piss with blameflation.
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But no-one is forcing you to buy any consumer durables, presumably?
Brilliant, I like that. Sums it up perfectly!
SC
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To me, the interesting part here is the phenomenon itself. The āblameflationā. In Sweden we have recently had a series of articles describing how the large scale grocery chains have made a substantial profit from raising prices far more than reasonable in relation to their raised cost. At the same time blaming inflation for price hikes. Hence āblameflationā.
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Yes, Focal is probably trying to find some way to finance the debacle with the Naim by Focal lifestyle storesā¦
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Do you mean that there were some bricks and mortar retail sites?
I donāt think that Iāve ever felt ācheatedā by the prices of Naim (or Linn) equipment, because the quality is so obvious to see (and hear).
As most manufacturers these days work with ājust in timeā inventory management this is the result of it. In a world like today Iām surprised they donāt build more stock. Obviously things happen and will continue too for a long time. Tesla had to stop production in Germany for two weeks now and Volvo is heading towards the same problem. This due to freight having to re-route and travel around south of Africa instead.
Everything you said is correct.
But the point I am making is that those issues might affect two companies but the third company with a different supply arrangement entirely, wasnāt affected but put their prices up too because they can.
Itās like there are three companies making tinned spaghetti. The price of imported tomatoes has gone crazy and companies A and B who import from Spain have had to double their prices. Company C always grew their own tomatoes domestically and had no such problem but they doubled their prices anyway.
The consumer knows this goes on. The consumer knows costs have risen for many/most companies by large amounts. But they also know this hasnāt happened for every company or not by the same degree. Yet they all push up their prices and eventually the consumer becomes cynical and trusts none of them.
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Yes Iāve become cynicalš(again)
Since the market is very sensitive to pricing these days that would mean there is a great opportunity in doing the opposite and lowering the prices to take market shares? 
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That looks expensiveā¦ I wonder how much they have to sell to pay those rentsā¦ Many want to be Apple but forget their massive volumes.
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Depends on the demand elasticity of the product. For commoditised consumables there is more to gain by jacking up prices because demand is inelastic.
For luxury items, it is less clear. Is a Gucci customer likely to become a Bvlgari customer if Bvlgari is cheaper (or keeps itās prices stable)? Probably not. For high end electroncs? I donāt have an answer for that at all,
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Who knows. They lasted about 5 years, but now gone, along with the distributor behind the stores losing Naim/Focalā¦ā¦
Somebody fucād up somewhere ā either Busisoft or Vervent, the story is still playing out it seemsā¦ā¦
SC
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