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Rivian stores, showroom and direct sales?

ACDC

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Tesla just announced that it's going to close down most store locations while retaining a some gallery and showcase locations. So you won't be able to order a Tesla in store anymore and can only do it online.

Has Rivian said what its stores / sales model will be? No way I'd buy a car without having been able to crawl in and out of it along with a test drive. And being able to order in a store with a representative to answer question is definitely helpful. I order everything online but not sure I'm ready to order a car online yet. And if you order online where do you actually take delivery?
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Revelation

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Tesla just announced that it's going to close down most store locations while retaining a some gallery and showcase locations. So you won't be able to order a Tesla in store anymore and can only do it online.

Has Rivian said what its stores / sales model will be? No way I'd buy a car without having been able to crawl in and out of it along with a test drive. And being able to order in a store with a representative to answer question is definitely helpful. I order everything online but not sure I'm ready to order a car online yet. And if you order online where do you actually take delivery?
Most "salesman" (yes in quotes) don't know a thing about the cars they are selling. I've worked in the car industry, years ago, and I know first hand. I'm a technical person so I knew all of the details and very few customers cared about the details; other salesman cared even less.

In the early days there probably won't be a location to go to to climb in the vehicles. That's just going to be a fact of life. Whether Rivian opens up "shops" throughout the country or not has not been disclosed as far as I am aware. A way for Rivian to avoid concerns over this is to have a 7 day / X number of miles to return the vehicle. I think the biggest thing is demonstrating a way to make long-distance trips in an electric vehicle. I envision deliveries happening at your house. Depending on what kind of deals they can work out they can deliver the vehicle directly to you.

I know Electrify America is rolling out locations; Rivian has to demonstrate that it can be done without fear of running out of juice on the side of the highway. That is going to be the "hill" to get everyone over.
 
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A Hawk

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Rivian has said they will sell directly to customers and also place display galleries/shops around the US. Never seen it mentioned if you'll be able to order right from the galleries/shops though. Might end up being online only.
 

Hydro

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If they could just have some pop up store type things like you see in malls so you can at least touch/sit in one I'd be good with that. The details about ride, driving experience I'm ok relying on the media reviews. It's just a lot of $$ to drop without even seeing it in person. And just learning that these are still concepts even seeing it in auto shows might not be what the production version is like.
 

EyeOnRivian

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No way I'd buy a car without having been able to crawl in and out of it along with a test drive. ... And if you order online where do you actually take delivery?
I second that! Something as textile (and cost!) as one of these vehicles needs to be experienced in person. What a bummer, not to mention a BIG waste of time, to have had gone thru the purchase process (paper work, securing the money/loan) and time waiting for the vehicle, to find out, say, the driver seat is totally uncomfortable, or your expectation of the display is not intuitive or poorly placed, or ... you get the picture. But that's just it - we should not have to get "the picture" - we should be able to meet this beast ... errr ... EAV in person!
 

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Ricky35

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Tesla had to close all its retail stores to cut enough costs to deliver a $35k Model 3. And thousands of retail employees will lose their jobs now. That’s poor planning and overpromising but Musk had no choice but fulfill this promise by such drastic moves. Cautionary tale for Rivian and Scaringe. But they already seem smart enough to underpromise and overdeliver.
 

Electronaut

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Tesla had to close all its retail stores to cut enough costs to deliver a $35k Model 3. And thousands of retail employees will lose their jobs now. That’s poor planning and overpromising but Musk had no choice but fulfill this promise by such drastic moves. Cautionary tale for Rivian and Scaringe. But they already seem smart enough to underpromise and overdeliver.
And these cuts come after Tesla already cut 7% (3,000) of its employee at the start of 2019. Also if you remember, Tesla announced a decision 3-4 months ago to actually increase the number of Tesla stores by a significant amount. All this flip flopping and deep cuts signal dark clouds are gathering for Tesla on the financial front and they're trying all they can to deal with it.
 

Electric Rivilution

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And these cuts come after Tesla already cut 7% (3,000) of its employee at the start of 2019. Also if you remember, Tesla announced a decision 3-4 months ago to actually increase the number of Tesla stores by a significant amount. All this flip flopping and deep cuts signal dark clouds are gathering for Tesla on the financial front and they're trying all they can to deal with it.
As a Tesla owner I'm concerned about what the complete 180 decision signals. If the company is really expecting financial hard times ahead it could also affect service (wait times, quality of service, etc.). I'm hoping to add the R1T Pickup once it's available and hope that Rivian scales up properly and doesn't get ahead of itself like this.
 

EyeOnRivian

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I saw the Tesla's reversal too. Apparently enough negative public reaction to the store closings made Elon/Tesla rethink that decision? What's more interesting, will this have any influence (the public's reaction) on what will Rivian does with regard on how they handle direct sales when the time comes. Whatever Rivian does, as long as there is a convenient place for me to go and check out the vehicle ahead of the purchase, otherwise they'll have one less customer ... and I suspect unfortunately many others.
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