Guitar center is going under!

[mbasile]

Look at Gibson. The CEO had the nerve to blame retailers like Guitar Center, even though several former retailers pointed out how it's just not worth the hassle of being a Gibson retailer.

What is weird, is that our GC just got renovated (I think the floorpan just changed, it is still the same dark, amorphous hole when you walk in) and they pretty much made a Gibson shrine taking up 90% of the guitar area. It looks reminiscent of a car showroom with white platforms, colorful guitars, and spot lighting. Maybe both large brands are hoping they'll clog the drain if they go down together? I'll take a picture next time I'm there.

 

[edro]

The fact of the matter is, Guitar Center just sucks at what they do.

This.

I have been in a couple that were ok, one pretty damn sporty, but the rest has been like walking into a mental ward....

Last couple of years, inventory in many has progressed all the way to a bad joke....

One I visit when in that particular city has a young sales(??????) guy in guitar that will cover about every single point of ******** about why certain guitars sound like they do to anyone that will listen to his dumb ass.... Always a hoot to hear him babbling about the reason a Tele sounds like it does is because of how the sound waves bounce around in the pickup cavities hidden under the pickguard.... He covers the pickguard on/off tone too.... If you hang out long enough, he will cover everything, including binding tone, pickguard layers killing tone, etc.... He should have his own tube channel called The Ultimate Corkerazi.... I think he 'might' be twenty or so years old...and an imbecile...

 

[Jeff Scott]

This afternoon a guy was visiting at the house who looked familiar. Turns out he was the manger [sic] of my local GC, He agreed that Fender and GC are jointly working on taking each other out.

 

[lpbfender]

Boutique, direct sales and some local music stores are doing well or better perhaps.

The whole Bain Capital deal dealt a blow imho to Guitar Center as did declining demand.

 

[Laurent]

Guitar Center is back in the news. The Coronavirus and associated store closures did not improve this company's financials.
Hope the company's owners decide to restructure the debt instead of going the bankruptcy route.
Sadly this also means that many of Guitar Center suppliers might not have been paid for Holidays deliveries.
This could have a bad ripple effect throughout music instruments companies.

Bloomberg: Guitar Center misses interest payments as it looks to restructure debt

 

[hrodbert696]

Guitar Center is back in the news. The Coronavirus and associated store closures did not improve this company's financials.
Hope the company's owners decide to restructure the debt instead of going the bankruptcy route.
Sadly this also means that many of Guitar Center suppliers might not have been paid for Holidays deliveries.
This could have a bad ripple effect throughout music instruments companies.

Bloomberg: Guitar Center misses interest payments as it looks to restructure debt

There was also an article in the Washington Post recently about brands and stores that are likely to be put out of business by the pandemic. Guitar Center was on the list - I think in the third category of four (second-worst category, that is).

I do shop at the local GC from time to time and don't bear them ill will, but I'm much more friendly to locally-owned mom and pop stores and won't feel too much of a gap if GC goes under.

 

[Jeff Scott]

There was also an article in the Washington Post recently about brands and stores that are likely to be put out of business by the pandemic. Guitar Center was on the list - I think in the third category of four (second-worst category, that is).

I do shop at the local GC from time to time and don't bear them ill will, but I'm much more friendly to locally-owned mom and pop stores and won't feel too much of a gap if GC goes under.

Sadly, the M-n-Ps won't be coming back, either. I have a feeling that B-n-M shops are dead in the water. So much for the music instrument industry, so far as walk-ins go.

Good thing I have everything I really need, and whatever else I would want can be found on-line.

R.I.P. real (not, on-line) music shops.

 

[Berniez40]

Been an on and off GC guy for a long time. Sometmes they have great deals on quality equipment if you know how to shop the used market, but God save you if you want to make a trade with them. You are better off trading with Music Go Round if you have one in your area.
The really smart people don't last there; so it really bites when you walk in to talk turkey and you get some slacker kid who doesn't know poopie from shinola try to impress you with his knowledge ( or lack thereof.) I have a few mom and pop shops that i do business with in addition to GC, and I have a private luthier for my uprights and bows, as well as a private guitar tech for my electrics. I would miss them if they did go belly up, but it wouldn't be a total loss by any stretch. I have too much gear as it is.

 

[hrodbert696]

Sadly, the M-n-Ps won't be coming back, either. I have a feeling that B-n-M shops are dead in the water. So much for the music instrument industry, so far as walk-ins go.

Good thing I have everything I really need, and whatever else I would want can be found on-line.

R.I.P. real (not, on-line) music shops.

In general, yes, but the main local one seems to be in a pretty strong position. I don't know the details of their balance sheet or anything, but they seem to have done well as others around have died.

 

[Jeff Scott]

In general, yes, but the main local one seems to be in a pretty strong position. I don't know the details of their balance sheet or anything, but they seem to have done well as others around have died.

Unfortunately, around these here parts (The Home of Rock and Roll), with one or two exceptions, virtually all the small M'n'P shops were run out of town years ago by GC; what's left is esentially just the "band instrument" types of stores (not many of those, either), or, used instrument shops with not much beyond cheap stuff, for the most part.

 

[40Hz]

Can't say I am too sad to see them go, maybe now we will see more local music stores again.

I wouldn’t hold your breath waiting for that.

 

[40Hz]

I kind of hope GC dies off and we see more local music shops pop back up, I saw some jokes about this being karma for all the mom and pop shops GC ran out of business.

Can’t speak for everywhere. But where I live, nobody missed hardly any of the mom & pop local shops that GC allegedly put out of business. In fact GC was greeted with open arms after having to deal with the snooty condescension, intractable pricing, and general thinly veiled animosity you encountered going into most of our local music stores - unless you were: a lesson taker at the store, a band director, a local music teacher, a recognized area pro, or one of the owner’s musical cronies. And it was even worse if you were female. Because the feeling you always got was “boys club.” As for the rest of us, the only thing missing as far as the store vibe went was a sign on the door that said “members only.”

There were one or two pro shops I was sorry to see go like G Guitars in New Haven and Select Guitars in Norwalk, CT. But as for the rest of the shops, the overall feeling was: good riddance.

 

[Gustopher]

Around here, we have no guitar center within 75 miles or so and the few local stores we have are extremely overpriced and under stocked. I was looking at a used G&L tribute 2500 which sells brand new for $799 and they were asking $899 for it used. They sell strings that cost $25 online for $40-45. I know local stores can’t compete with the internet and I know they aren’t all the same. In my area, it’s slim pickings. I wish they could compete. I would pay a little more for local service and support, but they have to ask soooo much more just to keep afloat.

 

[gln1955]

Around here, we have no guitar center within 75 miles or so and the few local stores we have are extremely overpriced and under stocked. I was looking at a used G&L tribute 2500 which sells brand new for $799 and they were asking $899 for it used. They sell strings that cost $25 online for $40-45. I know local stores can’t compete with the internet and I know they aren’t all the same. In my area, it’s slim pickings. I wish they could compete. I would pay a little more for local service and support, but they have to ask soooo much more just to keep afloat.

That describes my experience growing up in a smaller city. The local shop had three stores and a monopoly on everything musical instrument-related. Everything bad that accompanies a total lack of competition was there.

 

[Jeff Scott]

Long BGC, our area did have quite a few great small shops that had good pricing, and a wonderful selection of desireable stock. Notables included DiFiore's Music, Sodja Music, Lentine's Music, Cleveland Music, Ohio Guitar Center (not Guitar Center), Mayfield Music/Sounds Good Music, Dick Lurie, Heights Guitars, and a shop that had moved to a couple different locations in my neighborhood over the years (the name escapes me, at the moment) that was owned and run by Bill De Arango (very interesting guy ).

 

[Berniez40]

Can’t speak for everywhere. But where I live, nobody missed hardly any of the mom & pop local shops that GC allegedly put out of business. In fact GC was greeted with open arms after having to deal with the snooty condescension, intractable pricing, and general thinly veiled animosity you encountered going into most of our local music stores - unless you were: a lesson taker at the store, a band director, a local music teacher, a recognized area pro, or one of the owner’s musical cronies. And it was even worse if you were female. Because the feeling you always got was “boys club.” As for the rest of us, the only thing missing as far as the store vibe went was a sign on the door that said “members only.”

There were one or two pro shops I was sorry to see go like G Guitars in New Haven and Select Guitars in Norwalk, CT. But as for the rest of the shops, the overall feeling was: good riddance.

[/QUOTE

I don't know if Daddy's Junky Music was ever big in CT., but I sure liked them when I lived in Taxachusetts during the eighties and early 90's. I was sad to see them go, as I still bought on line frome them now and then even after moving back to DFW. Two recessions (2003-2005) and (2008-2010) wiped out Daddy's and a slew of mom and pop shops down here. We still have a couple of good M&P's left, but it was recessions that did it--not GC. GC got creamed by those recessions as well. People have been forecasting their demise ever since.

 

[40Hz]

@Berniez40 - I knew of two DJMs in CT. They did ok but weren’t that big a presence IIRC. Banko’s in Ansonia, which I forgot to mention earlier, was one of the big hangs back in my heavy band playing days. Place had great stuff. The original owners retired and new owners tried to keep it going. They did a major renovation of the store and company image. Doubled their sales. But as the new owner put it, they needed a sevenfold sales increase to keep it going as an instrument retail store. And that just wasn’t happening with the area economy. They finally were forced to end instrument sales in 2018 and now just offer lessons. End of an era.

 

[sears]

@40Hz your description of local places is spot-on. I don't see why those places wouldn't come back. They had a business model that worked until someone with an MBA figured out a 20-year plan to put them all out of business before going out of business themselves. There's a local place, formerly as you described, which is now all on the internet and is an almost empty showroom. The guy still ignores you when you walk in.

 

[Laurent]

I do shop at the local GC from time to time and don't bear them ill will, but I'm much more friendly to locally-owned mom and pop stores and won't feel too much of a gap if GC goes under.

I am afraid that the Coronavirus is an equal opportunity killer of businesses. It might take down locally owned mom and pop stores as well as Guitar Center. Most local stores are struggling in Northern California in normal circumstances. After six weeks of closures and maybe an other two weeks before they can reopen, their cash flow and financials have to be ugly. These stores have lost 16% of their business by just being closed two months. Add to that an economy that is slowing down and you have a toxic mix.

 

[dramatwist]

...as far as I'm concerned, they can go away... don't really care... for a long time, they've tried to be the "Costco" of musical supplies... lousy approach, to my mind... things have changed... the original San Francisco store was OK in the early 1980s, until they became a corporate entity...