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Guitar Center closes very first store ever

#42
I hate to hear this, and am sorry for your recent unemployment. Unfortunately, in the world of business, it is a sad fact that too many layoffs happen like this. A restaurant I worked at 20 years ago did the same thing. My boss told me we would be closed Monday for inventory and asked me to come in to assist at minimum wage (wage for bartenders and servers was $2.13). When I showed up I was informed the place was effectively closed. I was offered a job at another location, but it would have been a 90 minute commute, so I declined.
I really don't blame GC corporate either. A friend who owns a local venue had his rent jacked up three fold by the new property owner. The new property owner also refused to accept provisions to fix the plumbing and roof in the terms of the new lease. My friend gave notice and closed the doors. It was too bad because the venue had the second best stage in town.
 
#47
Yep! It sucks the big one, but sadly, there is no loyalty between corporate america and their employees anymore. I saw the exact same moves happen in the golf retail business, and Sports Authority is probably going to do this more than once or twice as they shut down their operations. Sadly, Sears Holdings, meaning Sears and KMart are also going to be very guilty of this shortly as even the once optimistic CEO of Sears Holdings has finally given up on his phony optimism. Retail is in a very sad state of affairs right now. I know it is of little comfort, but at least you are not alone.
 
#49
Berniez40 said:
Yep! It sucks the big one, but sadly, there is no loyalty between corporate america and their employees anymore. I saw the exact same moves happen in the golf retail business, and Sports Authority is probably going to do this more than once or twice as they shut down their operations. Sadly, Sears Holdings, meaning Sears and KMart are also going to be very guilty of this shortly as even the once optimistic CEO of Sears Holdings has finally given up on his phony optimism. Retail is in a very sad state of affairs right now. I know it is of little comfort, but at least you are not alone.
Click to expand...

Anymore? Corporations look out for shareholders, not employees.
 
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#50
Sorry to hear you lost your job, but this thread has become the "I've never run a business in my life but I'll tell you what's wrong with corporate America" thread, and it always makes me laugh. I've known people who ran businesses that were completely loyal to their employees but they still had to close them because they were unsustainable. Also, while I'm sure GC wasn't huge into fostering close relationships with employees, most of their employees were never all that loyal, either. Every time I go into our local GC, there are new people working there. And you bet your ass that if you had a business that had 7 or 8 figures worth of desirable inventory, you wouldn't let employees linger for a month, either, and if you did, I would call you "stupid."

I've always believed that if you put your average Talkbasser in charge of a successful MI business, it would be bankrupt within a year. Thanks for confirming it once again :D
 
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#51
I like to hang out in guitar stores and book stores but am also part of the problem in that I prefer to buy a lot of things online because the stores typically don't stock what I want. It's a vicious cycle that will end with only a handful of boutique shops and everything else done online.
 
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#53
Doner Designs said:
I like to hang out in guitar stores and book stores but am also part of the problem in that I prefer to buy a lot of things online
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I'm the same way, especially about books. First I'll check if my library has it, and if not, I'll look on Amazon. Books-A-Million & B&N charge WAY too much IMHO, but it's nice to hang out in their stores sometimes.
Especially so if you're waiting on someone else. GC or Sam Ash would be better, but that's not always an option.
 
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#54
Killed_by_Death said:
I'm the same way, especially about books. First I'll check if my library has it, and if not, I'll look on Amazon. Books-A-Million & B&N charge WAY too much IMHO, but it's nice to hang out in their stores sometimes.
Especially so if you're waiting on someone else. GC or Sam Ash would be better, but that's not always an option.
Click to expand...

Having a Starbucks inside a bookstore helps bring and keep people in. Maybe GC and Sam Ash need to have concession stands. :-)
 
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#58
On one hand, the short notice sucks a fat one. But on the other hand, I worked at GC and know how many of those employees would start walking merchandise to their car if they had advance notice that their job would be gone in a month or two. There's no right solution to this, unfortunately, and it's the people on the sales floor who get hit the hardest. Sorry for the tough day OP.
 
#59
The longest dismissal notice I ever got was two weeks. I did worse than nothing for those two weeks. The boss was being nice, so I at least tried to disguise my attempts at finding a new job by eMail & telephone.
I was also ripping my entire CD collection to MP3s on the company computer, because I was preparing to move.
At the time I was in Chiang Mai, Northernmost Thailand, and was heading back to the SouthEastern Seaboard.

Anyway, it all came to a head one day when I was just being facetious.
The boss was explaining that over the weekend all the staff should have their phones on, as if they were on call.
He also instructed that they should be able to give him answers.
Me being a knob, raised my hand.
I said, "What if the answer is NO!?"

That went down like a lead balloon, but people were snickering about it after the meeting.
It was my last day there.

I wouldn't have been such a knob, but the reason I was being let go is because the boss was hiring one of his college buddies to replace me.
My mother still uses the Lenovo laptop that I got on that company's discount agreement with IBM.
 

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