Guitar Center going bye-bye?

[pianoguyy]

How many of you would pay $50 more for a guitar just to have a more knowledgeable salesperson? You wouldn't. We'd rather do our own research online (including chatboards like JCF), then go to the stores to touch & feel before buying in-store or even at an online music retailer.

A $50 price difference for a guitar is nothing - unless you are talking about a JS model that's only $299. But when it comes to dropping $2k for a USA, I would gladly pay $2000 instead of $1950.

I'm not even sure I have ever bought anything at a GC.
But I am guilty of using MF in the 80's. Only for accessories. I am not an NYC or LA guy. I didn't have access to a lot of the stuff that I needed as a professional musician.

[Rich#6]

The problem with the mom and pop stores is the amount of gear they had to buy from the name brands to carry them. The only way they carried the big names was through the used stuff and ebay didn't help there.

[straycat]

I still shop the Mom and Pop stores that are still out there.

[Rich#6]

No mom & pops close to me that I know of, but I pretty much now go to sam ash. Same sales guy for years now, knows me by name, the guitar department manager knew me but is now gone, and the store manager at least knows my face. The sales guy has called me when they get something used in that he thinks I might like on several occasions. Can't ask for more.

[Carbuff]

I heard that they were joining forces with radio shack to become the largest sprint stores ever.

[roodyrocker]

I have never relied on GC for their staff's technical knowledge about the gear they carry. That's not to say they don't have some knowledgeable people, they do. However, the small local stores, whatever of them is left, can't even carry some of the brands I'm interested in. For example, the buy in for a brand like Gibson is so high and Gibson gets to dictate to them what models and how many they need to stock. Or so Ive been told. This makes it so that only the GC's, Sam Ash's, etc... can afford to carry them. The flip side is that these same big stores know its easier to sell a $299 beginer guitar to some kid's parent than a $2-3K USA Jackson. So you don't see much high end or even middle of the road guitars in there anymore. Still, Ive had great luck with their used gear and even new gear with excellent return policy as well as zero % financing on their GC card. Bottom line is I use GC as well as the mom and pop stores and the internet to get my gear. I hope they stick around.

[xenophobe]

No, you're not supposed to go to GC to ask for help or advice. Just like you don't go to Home Depot for advice. You go there knowing what you want and what you want to pay for it. I was a gear whore so every time I went to my local GC, if the store manager saw me, he'd come up and say hi and ask if I needed anything. If I ever needed anything, I'd walk past sales staff and I'd go straight to him, tell him what I want and tell him how much I'd like to pay. Since he was store manager, he could cut me any price he wanted without having to "talk to someone". I got so many great deals, but granted I spent a lot there back in the day.

[PowerTube]

I have never relied on GC for their staff's technical knowledge about the gear they carry. That's not to say they don't have some knowledgeable people, they do. However, the small local stores, whatever of them is left, can't even carry some of the brands I'm interested in. For example, the buy in for a brand like Gibson is so high and Gibson gets to dictate to them what models and how many they need to stock. Or so Ive been told. This makes it so that only the GC's, Sam Ash's, etc... can afford to carry them. The flip side is that these same big stores know its easier to sell a $299 beginer guitar to some kid's parent than a $2-3K USA Jackson. So you don't see much high end or even middle of the road guitars in there anymore. Still, Ive had great luck with their used gear and even new gear with excellent return policy as well as zero % financing on their GC card. Bottom line is I use GC as well as the mom and pop stores and the internet to get my gear. I hope they stick around.

I actually want GC to stay, too. I've bought a few things through their Used Gear section of the website, plus I like the fact that they're open on Sundays and later at night.

Honestly, I've dealt with a few assholes in mom-n-pop stores that I'm GLAD to see pushed out of business. They acted like I wasn't worthy to breathe their air or whatever. But I do miss the expertise that some of them had.

As for Gibson, I've heard the same thing; that they require a massive minimum stock at all times to remain a dealer. If GC were to actually go under, I hope the mom-n-pops tell them to fuck off.

[lefty]

[QUOTE=roodyrocker;1616677]I have never relied on GC for their staff's technical knowledge about the gear they carry. That's not to say they don't have some knowledgeable people, they do. However, the small local stores, whatever of them is left, can't even carry some of the brands I'm interested in. For example, the buy in for a brand like Gibson is so high and Gibson gets to dictate to them what models and how many they need to stock.

Yah, I've been told that in order to get Gibson, you have to agree to buy banjos and
mandolins and anything else they can't sell!

I've heard even worse horror stories about Mesa Boogie, firsthand from a
mom and pop store owner I actually know...

[Iceberg794]

Can you even barter at guitar centers nowadays?

i know in Sam ash you can... I'd rather go to Sam ash than guitar center any day.

[PowerTube]

Can you even barter at guitar centers nowadays?

i know in Sam ash you can... I'd rather go to Sam ash than guitar center any day.

If you're buying an item straight up, then no. They went to fixed pricing a few years ago. But on a trade you can usually find a tiny bit of wiggle room. But either way, they totally screw you on trades.

[Sephiroth]

Big box retailers have killed off mom & pops in nearly every vertical, from department stores (Wal-Mart, Target) to electronics (Best Buy) to bookstores (Barnes & Noble) to fabrics (Jo-Ann) to music instruments (GC), etc.

Its the same trade-off that American consumers have consistently chosen... large selection and low prices over mom & pop service. This consumer preference has been the driving force thats reshaped the American retail industry over the past 30 years. Their massive economies of scale allow big box retailers to purchase their inventory at huge volume discounts compared to mom & pops, and to stock 5-10x more SKUs in inventory. They then deliver this value (huge selection & lower prices) to consumers.

If consumers were willing to pay more for mom & pop service/expertise, guess what... the big box retailers wouldn't have won.

How many of you would pay $50 more for a guitar just to have a more knowledgeable salesperson? You wouldn't. We'd rather do our own research online (including chatboards like JCF), then go to the stores to touch & feel before buying in-store or even at an online music retailer.

Btw, online retailers have been slowly killing the big box retailers over the past 15 years. It's the Darwinian market forces at work. Businesses that deliver value to consumers will win and kill those that don't adapt.

Not all of us. I sure as shit didn't choose it. I remember when I was a teen in the 80's and there were no chain music instrument stores here where I live, and I liked it that way. Every store was different with a different vibe, and you knew which ones would give you a better deal than the others and which ones carried which brands.

I don't like this bullshit of "one size fits all" corporate homogenzation because it destroys all local flavor by making every cuty look like every other city with large retailers who make every store look alike for the sake of "retail-brand recognition."


And now where I love there's Guitar Center, ONE local shop that survived the purge (Alamo music), and some rat-hole hipster places that never have anything worth anything. All the good shops are long gone, and it sucks.


And once big-box retailers achieve market monopolization or near-monopolization, their prices go way the hell up because they know you're not going anywhere else. And that's what I am seeing now. Now that GC owns the local market their prices aren't always the best, but when you know no one else in town has Jacksons (except for a few scratch-and-dent ones at local pawn shops, and the tips are ALWAYS scratched and nicked), well they got you.


And it didn't help that before GC came to town, ESP went around getting retailers to NOT carry Jacksons and certain other brands, so for a couple of years there no one in town sold them (except pawn shops). So with no other choices you either eat shit and get a guitar today through GC, or you mail-order and hope for the best in shipping

[mattsmusiccenter]

If GC goes under they're going to take half the music industry with them. This is due to the amount of debt they owe manufacturers as well as a massive inventory liquidation that'll need to happen, which will hurt all their competition. As a store owner, I'd personally love to see them go but it would need to happen very slowly in order to not have a seriously negative impact on the whole industry.

[PowerTube]

If GC goes under they're going to take half the music industry with them. This is due to the amount of debt they owe manufacturers as well as a massive inventory liquidation that'll need to happen, which will hurt all their competition. As a store owner, I'd personally love to see them go but it would need to happen very slowly in order to not have a seriously negative impact on the whole industry.

I totally agree, but I'm still not sure how I feel about it. I don't give a shit about Gibson. Since they hitched their cart to GC, maybe it just serves them right. They cut out the little guy by demanding that they stock a huge amount of inventory at all times, in exchange for being with the largest retailer, GC. So now if GC goes belly up, the mom-n-pops that were made to drop Gibson may just tell them where to stick it.

I hope I love my Carvin when it arrives. The fact that I can get a custom USA-made guitar with exactly the specs I want really appeals to me. Remember my rant about how the Jackson Custom Shop considers a maple fretboard on an SL2H as a "woodworking change," even though the cuts would be exactly the same? I'm getting Birdseye Maple, stainless jumbo frets, a quilted top, original Floyd, abalone diamond inlays, abalone logo, neck-through-body, all for under $1900.00 and less than a 2-month wait, as opposed to $3000.00 and probably a 2-year wait through the Custom Shop.

So yeah, I really hope I love it. A lot of people seem to. If I do, I very well might sell off some other guitars to buy more Carvins/Kiesels.

[TKEblue]

I've never gotten good service from mom and pop places, could be a reason there's so few now. They're usually dicks, probably order the stuff from GC, mark it up, then it seems like they aren't interested at all in making any kind of sale.

More than just music stores. Went to a pop supply store for years to get my oxy acetylene tanks filled and they kept shorting me and denying it, finally when they sold me a nearly empty tank then argued with me about it I stopped going there.

Tried to buy a crybaby wah at a local shop not too long ago and idr what the original price was but he wouldn't take less than $80 more than what it cost online.

I called a gc once about a used pedal, guy said nope it sold and hung up, called another store, guy said it was in rough shape, looked at the other used inventory from other stores, found me one in good shape, took my payment, got it and a few days later trace emailed me to confirm that I got it and it was in good shape, then emailed me again with a 15% off coupon. So it really depends on who you get