[Harp-L] RE: Hohner Price Increase

["Bill Kumpe" <bkumpe@xxxxxxx>]

WARNING, RANT FOLLOWS .....

"Also Hohner is has decided to market their products in blister card  
packs now to have them out on a rack rather then behind glass in a case.
They want product visibility.  Word from the rep is vendors aren't  
happy with that move."

Packaging is not cheap.  They had to re-tool to do all of that crap and
added another totally unnecessary layer of packaging to their product.  That
move gave zero consideration to environmental concerns and shows a level of
environmental insensitivity that is disturbing. IMHO the cost of tooling up
for that new second level of packaging and the the new display units it
required is what has to recovered and the rest of the explanation is just so
much marketing BS.  I do not care for the new packaging.  I just don't like
buying thirty and forty dollar units in a blister pack.  It devalues them in
my estimation.  Makes what it supposed to be a quality instrument look like
a cheap toy.  And, I like to test my new harps with the squeeze box before I
buy them.  I want to hear the harp and choose the one with the sweet tone
that Hans the good tech who has been there thirty years tuned on a good day
... same way I would choose any other instrument.  I certainly wouldn't buy
a guitar in a blister pack.  Why should I have to buy a harp that way,
especially if we are talking about an increasingly expensive product?  Also,
we already have retailers charging nearly forty bucks for mid line Hohner
harps.  With this price increase, that will soon be fifty.  That's just too
much money to justify, especially in a depressed economy.  Other brands
provide very good harps for less money.    


Bill Kumpe
Tulsa, OK