Dealer Profile

with Charley Gonzalez
President, Stereotypes

How did Stereotypes get its start?
It was always the love of music. Before opening my own store I was a professional skateboarder and DJ. After being on the road for years I returned to Daytona Beach and worked for two different stereo stores before starting “Car Stereotypes”. I sold home equipment as well and after a short time evolved to “Stereotypes” and the car audio went away. My parents Carlos and Clara retired and originally were a part of the business. They added the family touch, often made Cuban coffee for our clients, and enjoyed watching the business take off. We definitely have a reputation of being a family-owned business.

How many people are on the Stereotypes team?
We are running with the smallest team in years. There are four of us and business couldn’t be better!

Thoughts on the importance of training?
Without training and keeping up to date there is no progression to new advances and technologies. It’s so important to understand the past and respecting the needs of each individual client, but along the way helping them progress with the new technology is exciting. Most of our clients get as excited as we do. Whenever we are offered education, our sales team takes advantage of training and comes out refreshed and inspired. Having a personal relationship with our clients, training leads to a call and brings in more sales.

What do you like most about HARMAN Luxury Audio products and which lines do you feature?
We are proud to say that HARMAN is our #1 vendor. We love the HARMAN line and sell it with confidence. Another asset to HARMAN is our great sales Representative Chris Trojnar. We are very proud to represent and sell Revel, JBL, JBL Synthesis, Mark Levinson, Crown and ARCAM.

How do you think the luxury audio industry is currently doing?
Since the economic crash of 2008, 2021 was our best year. However, this year, 2022 is surpassing last year by a landslide.

What is Stereotypes' mission?
We offer very personal individual care to our clients. We spend any amount of time with the clients needed to help them create the sound they want in their homes. Our closing percentage is very high. And having nine showrooms helps.

You have the floor. Anything else you want to share with us about Stereotypes that you would like the world to know?
I am so thankful to have such a great team. We may be small but all are very passionate about music and this industry. We aren’t looking back, after 40 years we are still looking forward for many more years with our favorite vendor HARMAN.