Bose prefers to service their own gear if it's under warranty. I would imagine that Primare, Vienna, and Martin Logan would be the same...

The consumer trend towards purchasing so called "luxury items" is still going strong, so I would bet that played strongly into the decision. Also, Wal Mart is now the second largest retailer of CE goods (in very short time), so BB is wise to position themselves as a higher price/better performance alternative as Wal Mart will surely soon be number one.

My question really is, does BB carrying higher performance goods help the high performance audio industry by exposing it to more people, or hurt it by not allowing these goods to be displayed in the best manner?

BTW--All of this is not new, Ultimate Electronics, Tweeter, Sound Advice, and many other smaller chains have for years carried some well recognized and respected high performance brands. Some manufacturers worked well, some did not.

I just found all of this interesting, is all. I knew once BB purchased Magnolia a few yers back, they had something up their sleeves.

Regards,

Lee