I came into the industry in the mid-80's in the Midwest, moved to LA in 1987. One of my managers went into the store managers meetings once and was asked by the owner why he wasn't selling more NEC VCR's (with a digital chip). Jeff, the manager, then said, "What's the incentive? You have it on the floor marked below cost". The owner said, "Oops", went to the NEC VCR screen and gave a $100 cost adjustment. Jeff found it highly amusing.
In any case, depending on where one worked, the costs always "varied", especially if salespeople were on the "net profit" system. In any case, the early 90's real margins were about 25%-27% on the medium priced TV (26"-27" under $1,000), 30%-35% on the upscale models like Proton. Rear projection TV were 27%-30%, the higher one went on the sale price but there was a lot of temptation to drop your pants and make a deal. I once had a prominent entertainment agent call in asking if we could match Beverly Hills Stereo pricing. On a 50" Pioneer Elite (the best RPTV at the time), they were about $1,500 above the market but the agent was just coming off his client making millions from selling a syndicated sitcom and was seeking the best.
In audio, a high end receiver or amp was 50% but a salesperson might not always see it. Some sales managers would place a sizeable spiff on top of the commission, however. Speakers were 50% to 70% (American Acoustics was 80% on the their floor standing towers). CD players 20%-25%. Tape decks up to 40% on the mid-to-high end (but far below Nakamichi). The record cartridges were 75% profit.
Car stereos were 40%-50% and 70% on labor (back then, billed at about $35/hr). If you had a store brand, you were pushing that like crazy because commissions could hit 10% of the floor price without even knowing the real cost.
I never sold photo but one had to sell lenses and accessories to make a living there. Camcorders were ~ 22%-27%, rising along with the price, as usual.
Furniture, which I never sold either, was up to 70%. White goods were slim at 10%-15% but the retailers got the rebates from the manufacturers and mostly pocketed them. The salespeople often got spiffs.
A top salesperson in a hot store in the late 80's-early 90's could make above $60,000. An average for an experienced salesperson was around $30,000. The turnover in personnel was pretty high in LA though, much lower in the Midwest. The earning kept declining into the late-90's and a lot of pros exited the business. That was followed by the exits of the businesses themselves. AFAIK, of the retailers where I had worked in the 80's and the 90's, there is only one chain left standing and even they were sold to an outside investor.
