Guitar Center Going out of Business ?

[guitup too]

The only GC I will miss would be the Nashville store. That's a killer store whether it's GC or not. I worked in Nashville for a few months back in '09 and frequented the store while there. Sure you still got the hard sale from some of the staff, but they had a great selection of new and used (huge selection) gear with fair prices on most of their used stuff. Their platinum room also rocked with Bogner, Soldano, etc... In '08 I wanted to try out one of the new EVH Wolfgang's. I went to my local GC (Birmingham) and asked. They told me they wouldn't be getting any and if I wanted to try one I would have to go to Atlanta or Nashville. A few month later when I was in Nashville sure enough they had a brand new one hanging on the wall. I asked to play it and the response was "Sure man, here you go. Which amp do you want to plug in to?" Nice, especially considering it's a $3k guitar and they didn't know me from Adam.

 

[Loudness250]

Back in the day, around 87' or 88' the guitar center in La Mesa CA was awesome! So much killler inventory. It was right near my dad's house and I was in heaven when I saw all those guitars on the wall. One of my friends worked there too. They closed that store and opened another one in the area, it sucked, the staff was sooo weak. The gear was weak, the store just looked like nobody really gave a crap.

 

[steve_k]

Financing musicians and selling gear on revolving credit is a losing proposition, especially with deep discounting and giving credit to anyone coming in the door. It had to happen.

 

[Heritage Softail]

People want stores to stock gear so they can go play it and then buy it online for a few bucks less.

I am no gear expert, but sometimes the GC staff leaves a bit to be desired. In no way do I wish a huge company to go under and all those people to be out of work.

On that note, I may swing by the two GC joints in town today to kick the tires on used guitars.

Kemper.... The Axe II Kemper debate is strong.

Hmmm....

 

[blackba]

If GC goes under, who will we have to complain about?

 

[Gainfreak]

If GC goes under, who will we have to complain about?

Sam ash......

 

[squank]

...
But his is typical, successful publicly held companies try to expand crush the completion and earn the shareholders money. As long as the money comes in, the share holders don't care about the debit, they want the profits to be paid to them, not pay down the debt. But them money stops coming in when the economy slumps, or the business model fails. Then the credit companies, and debt holders want their cash, and bankruptcy happens...

Guitar Center is not publicly held. They don't answer to shareholders. In their 42 year history, they were only publicly held for 10 years, from 1997 to 2007. Ironically, these were their most successful years, from a financial perspective.

 

[Spaceboy]

Good riddance.

 

[WizardSouth-JP]

I live in Houston and there are probably 5 GC Stores withing a 100 mile radius around the city, pretty stupid. The one closets to me has their "Platinum" room with boutique amps and guitars (pretty nice stuff actually). But most of the inventory is pretty sloppy, Fender with poor setups, wall hangers beat to hell and lots of crappy combo amps. Nothing wrong with having stuff for beginners, but they probably should try to do a little better market research to where and how many stores they need, especially when buying online is so easy. Especially from King Guitar (free plug)

 

[marvcus]

If and when GC tanks, I predict there will not be a surge of local/mom n pop stores opening to compensate. The brick-and-mortar store will eventually go by the wayside. The trend to buy online has been increasing for some time and I think it will only get more mainstream. Whether it's places like Sweetwater,etc for new or forums/craigslist for used.

Going to a guitar store to "try before you buy" is now the exception, not the rule, especially with online companies having return policies.

Actually, I think it's a matter of time before we are just buying straight from the manufacturers. Look at these boutique builders that sell direct -- they don't seem (at least publicly) to have to haggle on their prices. Even if they do, they aren't cutting it so low that they aren't making anything; they are getting a better profit margin. You can bet the big manufacturers are going to take note.

 

[fluff191]

I too would say good riddance to Guitar Center.

Here in the Northwest, there was a small music store chain called American Music. I bought my first distortion pedal there, my first set of strings there and my first guitar stand there. I would literally show up a broke, 15 year old kid and if I was a few bucks short of the asking price, those guys would just call it good. I miss that.

Guitar Center never helped me out like that. Hell, none of the employees even know what I am talking about most of the time when I have a question!

 

[squank]

If and when GC tanks, I predict there will not be a surge of local/mom n pop stores opening to compensate. The brick-and-mortar store will eventually go by the wayside. The trend to buy online has been increasing for some time and I think it will only get more mainstream. Whether it's places like Sweetwater,etc for new or forums/craigslist for used.

Going to a guitar store to "try before you buy" is now the exception, not the rule, especially with online companies having return policies.

Actually, I think it's a matter of time before we are just buying straight from the manufacturers. Look at these boutique builders that sell direct -- they don't seem (at least publicly) to have to haggle on their prices. Even if they do, they aren't cutting it so low that they aren't making anything; they are getting a better profit margin. You can bet the big manufacturers are going to take note.

There's a lot of truth to this. With forums where you can get recommendations on gear, and youtube videos of how the gear sounds, it's really easy (or so it would seem) to make gear decisions without playing. But there's nothing like trying it out first.

I realize that online retailers often have lenient return policies. But after buying, waiting on shipping, figuring out it's not for you, and return shipping gear back to MF a few times, that gets old FAST. I seriously prefer to drive to my local pro shop (Motor City Guitar, a real pro's store) and try out the gear in person. It's more than an hour's drive away, and gas sure ain't cheap. But they have people there that actually know most of the gear really well, and can give practical, usable advice regarding the amps, pedals, or other gear I want to try out.

 

[WizardSouth-JP]

sales personnel can make a big difference, most mega music stores just have morons that don't know a guitar from a bass. but on rare occasion when there's a good rep, that makes the difference in buying something or walking out pissed off. there is 1 guy at the GC local store that helps me when I am in the market for something they have, get a decent discount too which is nice. I wonder with them struggling if I can get a nice Les Paul Custom in 2013 for $2500?

 

[paulyc]

Screw GC. They did it to themselves.

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

Personally, I feel it almost my life's mission to understand what the hell the toneking does for a living that he can afford all that gear while STILL having such consistently SHIT tone!

 

[toddmogle]

Might explain the sudden flush off low priced Gibsons.

blowing out the older model Gibsons to make room for the 2013 models.

 

[Shark Diver]

People want stores to stock gear so they can go play it and then buy it online for a few bucks less.

Dealt with this all the time at Tone Merchants. People would sit there and play things for hours and then go online and buy it from out of state to save tax. On big purchases it adds up. It was very frustrating. Hard to match that "tax" discount with MAP pricing.

 

[Superunknown]

Might explain the sudden flush off low priced Gibsons.

blowing out the older model Gibsons to make room for the 2013 models.

Gibson has had a hard time selling 2013 LP's with the two-piece laminated boards. Looks like Gibson will be switching back to one-piece boards in 2013....

 

[skoora]

But will GC actually pay for those 2013's?

 

[Snowblind56]

I live in Houston and there are probably 5 GC Stores withing a 100 mile radius around the city, pretty stupid. The one closets to me has their "Platinum" room with boutique amps and guitars (pretty nice stuff actually). But most of the inventory is pretty sloppy, Fender with poor setups, wall hangers beat to hell and lots of crappy combo amps. Nothing wrong with having stuff for beginners, but they probably should try to do a little better market research to where and how many stores they need, especially when buying online is so easy. Especially from King Guitar (free plug)

I used to tech at a "mom & pop" store that usually had about 50 guitars in stock. Even with that few guitars, it was hard to keep them setup decently. Whenever I had down time, I was restringing and cleaning them. With the quantity of guitars that each GC has in stock, they would probably have to employ 2 full time people just to restring and setup their inventory. I understand that it sucks to grab a guitar with crusty strings off the wall, but it is not financially feasible for a store like that to constantly change strings. Stores like that are better of waiting for the customers to point out guitars that need to be restrung. I'm not making excuses for GC, but it's really the way that it is.