Sell FRACTAL at Sweetwater.

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Xcdchdchjjf

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I am all into being a hard@ss, in life, but Fractal really should take after Empress, Strymon, Meris, and SELL TO SWEETWATER.

I have been to the Sweetwater building and its a beautiful place out in the country of Indiana... maybe Fractal could visit.


I hope to once again own a fractal either FM9 or the FM4TURBO..... But I hope Fractal distributes through this fantastic AMERICAN company Sweetwater, and Cliff can retire in the Bahamas and sleep on his Dumble pillows.

Or maybe he already is but regardless............ ..... please share fractal with the world and distribute thru Sweetwater.

They are a class act.
 
Apparently the demand exceeds the current ability to deliver. Adding costly distribution points makes no sense financially. It would increase the price of the product and/or cut into FAS profits.
I’m not trying to backseat manage FAS. They seem to be doing fine without my managerial advice!
 
i've always assumed that the sole reason cliff hasn't gone sweetwater/zzounds/etc is because it would ruin the culture here with by exposing us to a lower class of end loser (I mean... i'm probably stretching that lower boundary for you as it is lol).
 
Sweetwater's a great place to buy gear. Over the past couple of decades I've dropped many thousands of bucks with them and they have a great return policy. That said, while distributing thru Sweetwater might increase the popularity of FAS products (though they're already pretty popular), it likely wouldn't do much to improve availability, especially with the chip shortages of the past couple of years that have impacted the availability of pretty much all electronic devices.

As other's have mentioned, adding a middle man would likely mean a cost increase of some kind. FAS is doing a great job by keeping it small and keeping it real. Yeah, sometimes that means waiting lists but I've encountered a lot of "out of stock expecting more soon" items at various online music distributors as well lately. Not taking anything away from either company but, in this case, I can't think of a compelling reason for FAS to change its business model. It's clearly working well.
 
I agree Sweetwater is a great place. I have a pretty good relationship with my sales dude and have purchased tons of gear and two higher end guitars that were perfect on arrival. Then again Hookers treat you like a king until they got your money.😜 However if a company can pull in the proper revenue to profit and grow without a middle man then that’s the best way. I love the close relationship FAS keeps with its customers. I dont know if the foreign market has quite the same ease of access. I like it just the way it is.

Edit:
Looks like @WW Audio was saying the same thing as I was typing. Well no “Hookers”. (Oh BTW, the hooker comment is based on what I’ve heard and seen in movies!🥸)
 
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No thanks. I'm more than happy without the middle man markup. Fractal have worked very hard to build a loyal fan base through word of mouth so that third party distribution would be unnecessary. Doing so now would either increase prices or cut profits - neither of which make sense after doing the hard work of creating organic demand for their products.
 
Selling in stores means tossing in some advertising budget. Fractal's competitors are much bigger, with deeper pockets, and able to throw a lot more money at the stores, and online magazine and video "impartial reviews". That budget could be better spent on R&D, which is where Fractal seems to put it, given the rate of firmware updates we see.

"How can I help?" is apropos.
 
Xcdchdchjjf said:
I am all into being a hard@ss, in life, but Fractal really should take after Empress, Strymon, Meris, and SELL TO SWEETWATER.

I have been to the Sweetwater building and its a beautiful place out in the country of Indiana... maybe Fractal could visit.


I hope to once again own a fractal either FM9 or the FM4TURBO..... But I hope Fractal distributes through this fantastic AMERICAN company Sweetwater, and Cliff can retire in the Bahamas and sleep on his Dumble pillows.

Or maybe he already is but regardless............ ..... please share fractal with the world and distribute thru Sweetwater.

They are a class act.
Click to expand...
What's the advantage to Fractal for selling their products to Sweetwater? They already can't meet demand direct to the consumer. Why would they sell units (cheaper) to another distributor?
 
I too think Fractal is doing fine the way they are. But I don't know that. But some of these assumptions of what would happen..., you don't know that. Obstacles to making a business deal have a myriad of ways of being worked out. Everything is negotiable. SW's owners might have connections to better supply channels for parts, for example. They could offer to buy X # of units at a reduced price, so they could continue to sell them at the same prices, placing the ball in Fractal's court to make the decision as to whether they'd want to consider that option. The increased volume might give them opportunities they don't now have.

Lots of variables could be in play. Fractal may have already been thinking about such things, especially if in doing so might have a way of helping them with sourcing chips, which Matt has said may soon start affecting the Axe III as well.
 
You can count on Cliff having envisioned every possible permutation of business relationships between Fractal and other players. He's doing what he wants to do, which while not exactly the same thing inherently as what's best for the Fractal community, I bet there's close alignment.

He's a smart cookie.
 
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Keeping everything in house, including distribution, ensures that everything remains at the standards that Cliff has established for his company and his products.

When Mesa/Boogie first started selling through Guitar Center a lot of people cheered at the availability, but it quickly turned into a dumpster fire because of GC’s approach to things. I bought an Express 25 at GC not to long after they started carrying them, and they couldn’t find the slip cover and owners manual! I gave them a week to come up with those items, and when they couldn’t I returned the amp. The salez doode tried to substitute a cover from a Lonestar, but I wasn’t going to play that game.
 
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