There are a lot of polarizing opinions of Guitar Center amongst musicians and those here on Talkbass. Here is an in-store interview with the CEO discussing some of his thoughts on the shopping experience and process improvements they want to make. It's not a hard hitting depth piece at all, but I appreciate his vision, if he is being candid.
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GC CEO Interview
- Thread starter SpyderX
- Start date
It feels like there has been a change since the last interview, some of the things he says about metrics seem like run of the mill out of touch corporate type stuff. "Accountability" for floor management sounds like it's probably more about beating down plebes than creating healthy work environments where people can learn, but I hope I'm wrong about that. Empty buzzwords like employees being "empowered" do nothing for me.
All in all he stills sounds motivated and hopeful about the future of GC, which is a good thing. I'm still not convinced the new house brand is a great idea, but I'm curious now to see what they come up with.
All in all he stills sounds motivated and hopeful about the future of GC, which is a good thing. I'm still not convinced the new house brand is a great idea, but I'm curious now to see what they come up with.
It’s remarkable how neglected technology upgrades can hobble the retail purchase experience. I really appreciate his attention to details and how he approaches certain management metrics, but the proof will be in the pudding. Accountability is a two-way street and I hope the retail locations and the management teams have the support they need to make the right decisions and be recognized for doing so. It will be a Herculean effort to implement all of these tactics simultaneously with a cultural shift among employees - but I wish him well throughout the process!
I think the best thing they could do is to give employees some incentive (like decent pay and even minimal benefits) to stay longer than three months. I go to my nearest GC maybe 3-4 times a year and have NEVER seen the same employees twice. The Disposable Employee attitude just encourages a complete "no effs given" attitude, similar to what you see in other big box stores like Walmart and Home Depot, and I can't say I blame them. Anybody who has even a little bit of ambition or work ethic doesn't last long. I can't remember the last time a GC employee even acknowledged my existence in the Bass section, it's the red-headed stepchild of the store. I'm actually OK with that in the bass section, I do my own research and go in mainly to check out the state of the art, , buy some strings, etc. and nobody bothers me. Since they do no setup on a bass until you commit to buy, you can't even judge how a particular bass will play with a bit of prep before slapping it up on the wall. The one bright spot seems to be their Used depatment, but that's largely an online experience.
Guitarist needs are covered at GC , I play bass and I want more bass gear when I walk into the store . The Hollywood and NYC stores are great , but the bass area in most always seems like ........"let's just stick that stuff over there " .
The bass section in my local GC has less floor space than my walk in closet. You can get any brand of amp you want, as long as it's MarkBass.
Honestly they just need to act like they give a damn with their used listing. The picture quality is dreadful and there is ZERO info on the basses they list. It's a painful shopping experience to put it nicely.
I think the big issue is understaffing and poor training. And as stated above, poor employee retention. If they would pay a decent wage and keep enough people around to actually handle the business, a lot of issues would go away.
Through all the pop words and corporate jargon, his comments on culture are very valid and basically drive a large portion of the issues.
The portion on 100% promoted from within and career building through the ranks (potential for a much higher ceiling) could in and of itself raise the bar for culture. An employee is certainly going to provide a better experience when they don’t feel expendable and or motionless.
Coupled with overhauling the technology and it could amount to more than just $’s and .01’s
End user interface experience is paramount.
Now if they would just carry more bass strings.
The portion on 100% promoted from within and career building through the ranks (potential for a much higher ceiling) could in and of itself raise the bar for culture. An employee is certainly going to provide a better experience when they don’t feel expendable and or motionless.
Coupled with overhauling the technology and it could amount to more than just $’s and .01’s
End user interface experience is paramount.
Now if they would just carry more bass strings.
Mine in my town just shut down. If I want to try any instrument or get strings in person it'll have to be a 30 minute drive to the nearest music shop. I don't know when and how guitar center went from being something exciting to something people roll their eyes at but it's crazy to me how back in like 2004 we use to whisper around excitingly at the rumor that a guitar center was going to be coming to our town.
Most of the people at my local GC have been there for a long time. The manager has been there at least 20 years. The woman in the guitar department, probably 12-15. The drum guy has been around a while.
They are friendly enough, but I do miss the feeling of going to smaller shops where they knew your name and which stings you use. I REALLY miss Bass Specialties. Glenn always had some Foderas, MTDs, Roscoes, etc hanging on the walls.
GC does seem to be understaffed though. And aside from the acoustic room and maybe the pro audio department, I probably wouldn't buy new off the floor, unless something really blew me away.
They are friendly enough, but I do miss the feeling of going to smaller shops where they knew your name and which stings you use. I REALLY miss Bass Specialties. Glenn always had some Foderas, MTDs, Roscoes, etc hanging on the walls.
GC does seem to be understaffed though. And aside from the acoustic room and maybe the pro audio department, I probably wouldn't buy new off the floor, unless something really blew me away.
I've noticed that in addition to the dreadful photos in their used listings (which, in all fairness are less dreadful than the blurry photos they used to do), the descriptions now appear to be AI generated. As a result they are typically vague, with very little useful information, and often contain blatant errors. It seems to me that Guitar Center has never made hiring (and paying) competent, knowledgable people a priority, and has instead looked for ways to cut corners on their labor costs. Like many companies, now they're leaning hard into AI, and the results are not great.
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I recall Phil McKnight saying in another video that Guitar Center is sitting on a goldmine with their used/preowned equipment yet aren't doing enough with it, instead focusing on various misguided "throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks" efforts.
Sometimes the key is to actually go into a GC and look at the preowned gear, because something might have come in that didn't make it onto the site yet. I'll bet some cool basses came into the nearest GC by me, but sold before they got onto the site because they were cool basses and the right buyer came in at the right time.
Sometimes the key is to actually go into a GC and look at the preowned gear, because something might have come in that didn't make it onto the site yet. I'll bet some cool basses came into the nearest GC by me, but sold before they got onto the site because they were cool basses and the right buyer came in at the right time.
If they actually cared, they could probably outclass reverb and ebay for used music gear
His most important metric is keeping customers in the store, playing instruments. He might try making sure those instruments are kept in playing condition. Way too many of their basses are so far out of setup that the strings are either a half inch off the fretboard or sitting on the frets. I've heard all the arguments about why it's not reasonable to expect a playable instruments in music store and call BS on them. If you actually care so much about the customer experience, this would be a priority.
I think most of that falls on the manufacturers. Instruments are supposed to leave the factory set up, aren't they?
I've yet to pick up an unplayable instrument in a store, but I'm also not picky about setup issues. I've never turned a trussrod or adjusted string height. The only screws I've turned on a bass are to fix intonation, look in the control cavity, and replace a strap button that came out.
I think most people are probably not super picky about setups. But a decent setup at the factory should last until well after a guitar is shipped to a distributor, shipped to a retail warehouse, shipped to a store, and put on display for a while. If instruments are shifting a lot between that first step and the last one, then I'd say that the factory is not using properly seasoned wood, or doesn't have sufficient climate control.
A typical shop should be checking setups before they put things on display, but if they're consistently getting items that have fallen out of spec, they should be sending them back and telling the manufacturer to fix the issue.
