I don’t think you need to pout. Jake remarked that he tried the P-series and is wearing the older one and didn’t see enough difference to change. Seeing that he gets his aids free, that really points out how close they are. My guess is Signa only had so long to quit using the Siemens name. The Primax was brought out quickly and likely due to the forced brand renaming more than having the major upgrade that they strive for with new models.
Kennj… search Signia or Siemens gets you to the same place Signia has an agreement with Siemens for I thi k 3 years to co-brand during the transition. I stayed with the bx bcause they worked just fine, they had the hp receivers, size 13 battery. Plus I wanted to in position this spring for new Signias that wont use an intermediate device for bt.
How did the Kirkland 7.0 work for you? we have similar hearing loss and was about to buy a pair thanks:confused:
Bought a set of KS 7.0 and can confirm that they are almost the same as the Rexton 42c, but they have more channels. I saw her spec book too, but I cannot recall exactly how many, I want to say 64 but I might be off. She was reading from the spec book. Other than that she did confirm that these were Rexton and that they use all the same accessories.
It was an option that you have to pay 80 for. I do not have mine yet but I paid for them and they should arrive on OCT 9
I think people are saying they are a variant of the Signia Primax Pure px7. Which I believe is a newer addition to the Siemens/Rexton/Signia line.
Yes. Costco can happen to be generous. Some years ago I bought a pair of KS for $2800. A 14 month later the price drop to $1800. As a joke I told the HA fitter “I should have waited to by these”. “would you like to have a reimbursement?” she asked and off she took me to customer service that issued for me a check for $1000.01 just like that…
Signia, Siemens, Rexton, etc… Sounds confusing and it is because they are all the same owner Sivantos… https://www.sivantos.com/en/about-us/our-brands/
I think it’s that there are some small cosmetic differences, different terminology for same features and some small feature differences that really differentiate the hearing aids. To reduce cost, the circuit boards and IC’s are likely common between the lines for improved margins. When you look at the remote application for the three separate product lines, you see the programmatic layouts are nearly identical. Why does the Easytek, Smart Connect pendants look so identical? Why do so many of the program features match?
Like different style/packages available from a car manufacturers for a new make/model, so are the hearing aids from Sivantos… But it’s fun to argue that they are Rexton and not Signia or Siemens or vice versa, so I digress.
Take a look at the Signia accessory line here: Signia Hearing Aid Accessories - Signia Hearing Aids Compare the exact shape and function to the accessory line of the KS 7.0 at Costco, forget the name, look at the exact design shape, you can see the Costco guides for each accessory for comparison here: http://www.ks7userportal.com/userguides/.
Next take a look at the Rexton accessory line here: Accessories for Hearing Aids - Rexton Hearing Aids - We are talking about the same exact shape and function…
In any event, like many other Kirkland products made by great brands for the Costco Kirkland brand, you are getting top notch high quality hearing aids at a very reasonable price. I know I enjoy mine!
This is somehow news?
What was the other joke? That Costco ‘only’ made 15% mark-up or something similar…with their buying power? Funny that too…
Actually, that gross profit is an average. Things like meat and produce would have a higher gross and dry/canned would be lower. It has to be cost center based because overhead can vary greatly – personal cost, refrigeration etc. Costco’s net runs at 2-3% which isn’t that far from a decent super market. However supermarkets get greater turn on their 6-8000 items as opposed to Costco’s greater number of SKUs. Turns are really the key to understanding such operations. Supermarkets get around 26 turns a year – meaning the entire inventory is sold every two weeks.
I appreciate that there are other factors at work here, but presumably a very decent margin still exists on the lower amount. It’s mathematically impossible to claim the same margin on the same products with circa 35% reduction in price. Unless you also showed a step change in the demand that amortized the capital/store cost at the same point.
Costco could look at hearing aid sales in a lot of ways and I have no idea how they do it. One way they could look at (although I doubt they do) is to look at it as marketing. They encourage to bring your hearing aids in every 2 months for a change of domes, filters, etc. That encourages a lot of traffic. They could run very small profits or even lose a little money and still come out fine. Their hearing aid section takes up such a small portion of the store that it’s inconsequential to impacting what the store could carry.
I appreciate that it’s small fry for them. The point stands against those who argued vociferously on here that Costco ‘only’ made 15% on all sales and the same would apply to the hearing aid market. It’s not a general argument against Costco. I have no beef with how their product mix works at any location. My point is just to illustrate the fallacy in the way that posters on this forum assumed they derived their price.
Totally agree that there’s no way an independent practice could run the same margins as Costco. The practices that are really a mystery to me of why people go there are the big names like Miracle Ear and Beltone. Outrageous prices, middle of the road hearing aids and I’m guessing so-so service. Seems like that’s a market segment that it would be much easier for the independent audi to compete with.