Metex Audio Video: when the bottom fell out of electronic sales
on the border, Edward & Wayo Foster lifted the roof

By María Eugenia Guerra

If you're about to purchase audio and video electronics for your home and you've not toured Metex's lifestyle concept store at 4610 San Bernardo, make the time to visit with experienced electronics installation professionals and understand firsthand how home entertainment electronics work, how to build a system tailored to your specs, and how they will look and sound in your home.
Partners Edward Foster, Sr., Hector Hall, and Foster's son, Wayo, Jr., have built a 2,100 square foot home, replete with a theatre that seats seven before a 110-inch screen, inside the 10,000 square foot Metex complex to showcase cutting edge entertainment electronics in their final consumer destination -- your home. A Runco DLP (digital light processor) is the projector of choice for the Metex home theatre. The walls, cabinetry, and counters of the Metex den, kitchen, game room, and living room ably make the case for what works best where, what it will look like, and very importantly what it will sound like.
A visit to the state of the art switching room, accompanied by one of Metex's experienced technicians, allows you to audition speaker choice X with receiver choice Y. Among the brands for receivers, speakers, plasma screens, and other audio and video components are Yamaha, Sony, Mcintosh, Klipsch, Mitsubishi, Runco, Pioneer Elite, B&W, Definitive Technology, and Integra.
"The quality of our products, the mix of brands, extended warranties, and the quality of workmanship for installation, that is what we offer our customers," said Foster, Sr. "The biggest benefit is the workmanship. It's done right, and if it's not, the customer knows where to find us. Wayo and I, and Rene Castro, another of our installers, are CEDIA (Consumer Electronic Design & Installation Association) certified, which is to say we can design and install an entire electronic system for the home that encompasses home networking, home automation and communication systems, media rooms, single or multi-room entertainment systems, and integrated whole house subsystems that control lighting, security, and heating and cooling."
"It's done from here," Wayo said, walking up to a tiny Via wall panel adjacent to a door frame in the Metex house. He illustrated the plethora of choices presented to the touch by the panel, not the least of which was which cut on which CD to play in which room or being able to take a look at who had just rung the bell at the front door.
"It was Wayo who kept moving us in this direction. His input has allowed us to reinvent the business," Foster, Sr., said, crediting his son with the impetus to make the leap to abandon the traditional retailing of electronics that has worked for him over the decades he has been in the business both downtown and at the San Bernardo location.
The other impetus, Foster, Sr., said, was the state of business on the border. "NAFTA opened the border to our manufacturers who now supply the Mexican market that we had served for decades. We lost that market, and it had become difficult to compete with the big local retailers. But NAFTA also created enormous growth in Laredo and in home buying and building. That growth signaled the switch for us and defined the home entertainment market for us," he said.
"In September of 2002 we started talking seriously about the new store and hired Spencer Kalker, a Boston designer," Foster, Sr., said. Six months of construction began in April 2003, after six months of planning and design. All the while Metex staff sold from 1,900 square feet of store space cordoned off from the construction site.
"We sold from boxes. When we finished and were open once again, we realized it had been like holding our breath for six months," Foster, Sr., said.
"This lifestyle concept store is a first for Laredo," he continued. "We understand our customers want a little something more, like ambience, and a real idea of what the matching of one component with another will give them. Consumers want to see how it will look or turn out," he continued, adding, "The store is a wonderful means to show them that a whole house system adds quality of life and residual value to a home, and this setting certainly gives them an idea of the caliber of our work." According to Foster, the sparse, uncluttered layout of the store allows customers to stand back and take in the whole experience of a large screen TV and to visualize it in their home setting.
"We've installed hundreds of audio/video systems, both as retro-fits and as new construction installation," Wayo said. "Customers can save a lot of money if they call us in the framing stages, so we can wire for any possible combination and for future expansion. It's always less expensive this way, and even more so if they plan for it and build it into their mortgage," he said.
"We are designing innovative and interesting systems that produce exciting results," Wayo continued. "And we know about new products ahead of other local electronic dealers who are a little behind the curve. We know our inventory well and can help the customer who might be looking for a lot of TV and limited sound or the one who is looking for great sound and is less particular about the picture. At Metex, the customer can hear it and see it before buying Very soon we will have totally wireless audio/video products like Wi-Fi systems including completely wireless TVs that you can move around with you."
Foster, Sr., said he first learned how to design sound systems by working with engineers from JBL and Altec Lansing and by designing for nightclubs in Monterrey and Mexico City in the 70s and 80s. "After that, we started doing some home installations," Foster said. "The CEDIA courses have taught us the type of networking and programming that allow us to design and build simplified, one-touch, whole house systems that are cat-5 wired. We are also certified by CEDIA," he said.
"We want Laredoans to come into the store and to see our new products for lighting and custom cabinetry for electronics, as well as for custom seating for media and theatre rooms," Foster said. "Working with our sister store, Plaza Galleries, we can furnish an entire home. We also design electronics and lighting for business settings."
"We have home entertainment systems at all price points," Wayo said, "Everything from one-box Sony or Yamaha home theatre in a box solutions -- a DVD player with five speakers and a sub woofer for $299 -- and on up. A $4,500 investment buys a really good system that includes a 36-inch screen, a good set of Surround speakers like Klipsch or Definitive Technology, a Yamaha receiver and DVD. Obviously more money gets more system. This is an excellent time to buy because there is plenty of financing available through Mitsubishi Credit and Wells Fargo, and there is also a lot of zero interest financing available."
"We take pride in the brands that we carry, which are among the oldest, most established, and most innovative in electronics," Foster, Sr., said. "Defnitive Techonology is an American company that gets rave reviews. McIntosh was born when Hi-Fi was born. They grew up together and evolved into audio/video. Klipsch is among the oldest, and B&W is a global company on whose products 80 percent of classical music is referenced. B&W is part of the installation at the Skywalker Ranch Theatre," he said, referring to the creative headquarters of George Lucas of Star Wars fame. "And then there's Sony, simply the best in style, quality, and performance.
"We are offering Laredoans the same quality, value, and service that have been part of our business since 1963. Our methods of service are now amplified by this consumer friendly concept showroom," Foster, Sr., said.
For more information on Metex Audio Video, go to www.metexav.com or call (956) 725-1235.