Guitar Center's Finances Getting Worse

[shreddermon]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-24/guitar-center-debt-hits-sour-note-as-bonds-hover-near-new-lows

I'm not a doom and gloomer saying they're going to go out of business. But those credit ratings and finances are shite. And absent a major restructuring - including their creditors taking a haircut on the existing debt - it's not going to get any better.

[xenophobe]

Yeah, not sure if they'll survive the next couple of years without serious help.

[bombtek]

Maybe FMIC will come to their rescue as well lol

[lefty]

The GC in my city--admittedly a musical ghost town--is so sad. Big ass store and
eerily empty. Mostly imports, and cheap ones at that. Absolutely no high-end amps
to speak of. Given the bad economy in this area, I'm surprised it's able to stay open
at all...

I wonder if the next domino to fall is Musician's Friend? Aren't they the parent company
to GC, or is it the other way around?

[PowerTube]

Big ass store and eerily empty. Mostly imports, and cheap ones at that. Absolutely no high-end amps
to speak of.

That actually seems to be the norm. Every GC within a 200 mile radius of me is the same. They just don't like to stock anything high-end, and part of the reason may be their policy of letting anyone handle anything in the store.

[Rich#6]

My closesst GC seems to never move the stock they have and the used wall has less guitars on it then I own.

[Nightbat]

They just don't like to stock anything high-end

If people would be interested in high end, they would have them in stock, no half decent businessman will want to miss out on things that sell
Whenever I see high end gear, it's usually been warming the shelves for quite some time, that's a lot of stock value not moving into the cash register

[PowerTube]

If people would be interested in high end, they would have them in stock, no half decent businessman will want to miss out on things that sell
Whenever I see high end gear, it's usually been warming the shelves for quite some time, that's a lot of stock value not moving into the cash register

I can see that side of it, also. However..... when an item is expensive, people tend to get more picky about buying it sight unseen. For example, a few years ago I got interested in the Marshall JVM410H head. I REALLY wanted to try one out before buying, but I never found one anywhere. Yes, I know about GC's return policy, blah blah blah. But I wanted to try it first. I asked a GC salesman why they don't stock them and he looked at me like I was crazy and said, "That's a $2500.00 amp!" I was like, "No shit, Sherlock. And who is going to buy a $2500.00 amp without trying it out first?!"

Anyway, I wound up getting a used one through their Used Gear site, but you would think they could at least have a store demo of some of the nicer stuff.

[TKEblue]

Ah, GC. The place used to be a wonderland, now you wonder around until you're like, "I guess I'll try this out".

Probably not all their fault either. With pretty much all tiers of instrument moving up in price, they don't stock what was mid range because it's too pricey, and the $5-800 upper low end/lower mid end guitars aren't that compelling.

[Snoogans]

Ah, GC. The place used to be a wonderland....

It's very sad. Back in about '89 or '90, I got to visit L.A. For a guitars and metal obsessed kid from deepest darkest rural England, the GC on Sunset Blvd was just that, a wonderland!

[eakinj]

Back in 92 when I bought my Rhoads LTD the GC I went to in (I want to say santa clara, ca) had a few Jacksons on the wall and Les Paul Customers all over the place. I remember very specifically there was an air brushed Jackson Rhoads with a lizard of some kind or Iguana sitting on desert sand or something along those lines. if I had the money then that I have now, holy gawdz I'd have a room full of nice stuff, lol.

[Jayster]

The one closest to me is in a pretty decent area, not economically depressed at all(solid upper middle class). However it is also a ghost town, the walls are half empty. What they do have is low end, most of the floor space is empty(you could easily get a game of touch football in the main area because their's nothing in the way). Maybe 10 amps in the store, all combos, maybe 2 4x12's, even the amount of accessories is less than half of what they used to carry. The same thing with drums, and hell, everything... I was shocked last time I went there, and I don't foresee them being open much longer.

Without at least moving, 2/3 of the store was empty...

[DRM]

Jayster,

Sounds like the GC in Fayetteville, GA.

[Jayster]

So, you've been there!?!! I pass by it twice a day, I have bought some nicer stuff in the past from them but was absolutely shocked the last time I was in there....

[DRM]

Sho have. I live in Atlanta, I've been to all of the local GCs and the one in Marietta is the only one really worth a fuck here.