Reminds me of when I got Ornette Coleman’s saxophone from the middle aisle in Aldi.
Really, though … who buys this kind of shit at Costco?
I’m sure there are a few people out there who’d buy this … but those people would be shopping at high-end specialty stores for it, and at this kind of price point, they probably don’t care about saving a few percent on the price, even if Costco has it for cheaper.
Do these things ever actually get sold from the Costco floor? I really doubt it. What’s Costco gain from using a relatively large amount of retail floorspace on something like this, something only a vanishingly small minority of their shoppers ever could or would buy? And not only does it take up quite a bit of floorspace that could probably be devoted to something more likely to actually sell, it runs a pretty significant risk of someone damaging it, either deliberately or accidentally, while it sits there – so it’s not only an opportunity cost, there’s also a significant chance that they might lose a lot money on this.
Seriously… What’s the point of putting something like this on the floor of a Costco?
It’s a sales tactic. These huge, big-dollar items are displayed right near the entrance, and now the customer is more likely to throw impulse buys in their cart because, “it’s not like it’s a $180k piano.”
I used to sell downhill skis. The store would advertise full set-ups for $200 to get people in the door, and once they’re in, I’d take them to look at the $1,500 set-ups first. Suddenly buying skis for $800 didn’t sound so bad.
Yeah but they get you because it comes as a 6 pack and you’ll likely only ever need 2, maybe 3 baby grand pianos at a time… max.
Maybe you need that but I like to have lots of tunings available. Equal temperament is for 20th century music, but everything else demands a better temperament. You can’t play music as the composers intended if you can’t match the notes they had. I just wish I could find a piano with 15 keys per octave so I could play in quarter common mean tone in most cases without the wolf note.
That’s not even counting prepped pianos.
You might only e er need 3 at a time but its really convenient to have backups so you don’t need to lug em around, and extras for those of us with children
They’ll ship it in a structurally inadequate box and I’ll have to figure out how to throw it in the trash when it inevitably reaches my station in a billion pieces.
I can’t believe they trust the public with that thing…
I suspect they have some dude there to watch over them. Might be the guy sitting there
Börsendorfer?
It dorfs Börsens.
Can I have one of the keys as a sample?
I wonder why they even dedicated floor space to this. If I’m spending an obscene amount of money on a piano, it’s a surrogate penis to wag at guests. Bosendorfer is prestigious in the piano world but I can’t think of a time I’ve noticed it on a piano even though I’ve watched thousands of performances. Steinways can be bought at half this price and any random schmuck walking into your house knows the name. With this you’d have to explain that you spent $180k on a piano that isn’t a Steinway for it to be impressive to a non-pianist. Otherwise a concert pianist isn’t going to buy this at Costco. Music stores will at least set it up and tune it.
