Direct Channel Woes!

When the direct channel, was opened shops it was purely as a brand marketing exercise, now days its a major stream of income. I personally don't have too much of an issue with that. What i do have an issue is with the crazy offerings they offer the customers, making our lives a lot harder. Then the networks have the cheek and say the independent dealer market is very important to us! Bollocks it is! The worst offenders have to be 3 and T-Mobile, crazy deals silly line rentals discounts it makes one wonder why we don't have that flexibility. I pop into various phone stores now and then and have a chin wag with them get a kind of low down but also to network with them. A retailer in West London gets a huge amount of their unlocking referrals from the direct channel stores and even the CPW guys. Is the Independent Dealer soon going to be extinct? Well i see it happening in the next few years. Reading on the Mobile News website about a B2B dealer pulling the plug sent shivers down my spine. There he is, a well established dealer who has pulled the plug and there is me new to the game, struggling to get the connections, struggling to find a site for my shop, struggling full stop. Do i carry on or shall i call it quits and look at something else?