Guitar Center Struggling

[the federalist]

I've had far more positive experiences with Guitar Center than negative. I don't expect the same customer experience at GC as in Nordstrom or a Lexus dealer. I don't find the GC customer experience any different than at most every other chain store. If someone or something rubs me the wrong way at any store, 99 percent of the time I shrug it off. Getting upset yields very little return.

Like several others, I've bought used items from GC for good and sometimes great prices, both in the store and online. GC shipping rates are low. Their return policy is extraordinary.

Presumably people working at GC--especially now--need a paycheck. I'll continue to patronize them when I see an item I want to buy.

 

[Bent77]

Folks at the local GC are pretty cool. I hope they still have jobs

 

[Nebadon2000]

We're learning more everyday about how this virus, while deadly to some, is NOT to MOST.
OPEN UP !!

Guitar Center in my area is open for Business. Hopefully the 'Most' are not careless and pass on the Virus to the 'Some' [100k and counting] so I am guessing you can get your strings soon, Paint has been available for awhile at multiple places. Kinda of obvious why Grocery Stores have been open, Weed can be Medical and in these times so can Alcohol

 

[howardf]

I went to my local Guitar Center when I was going to buy my first bass. I went in and browsed all of the basses, took a few off the wall and tried them on for size, but couldn't reach the third tier instruments, so went looking for help. I couldn't get anyone to help me at all. The store seemed really busy, but I couldn't tell why, just chaos in every department. On top of that, out of the dozens of basses on the wall, not a single lefty. They had 2-3 left-handed guitars, zero basses. Bass amp selection was pretty limited too, just not much to look at, no help to be found, and a ton of people there wanking.

Went home and ordered from Sweetwater, and have been happy ever since. I'd bought a bunch of streaming gear from SW already, so I knew what to expect customer service wise, plus they're 2 hours away, so next day delivery is pretty normal. I don't wish failure on anyone, but if you tell me they're struggling, I'm not surprised.

 

[The Bass Clef]

I guess I’ll say it... You know how many mom & pop music stores GC put out of business over the last few decades? Thousands. Those people who spent everything they had to open their own small music shops to cater to local musicians were swallowed up like schools of fish by a GC whale over the years. Almost a dozen shops within an hour of me closed since the mid ‘90s because they simply couldn’t compete with GC (because GC bought in mass bulk and got special deals from manufacturers that smaller shops just couldn’t get). I understand capitalism, and it is what it is, but I’d much rather spend my money right now at one of the few locally owned music stores that managed to still somehow stay open up until the virus hit, rather than a big ugly corporation like GC who has never cared for a community or anything but profits. My $.02. Spend your money wherever you like.

 

[MordBass]

I think the problem with GC staff is that they probably lack senior employees who teach the newbies how things work.

When I went there long ago, there was also a mix of age groups working the floor.

Now, in my observation, it is mostly young guys in bands.

After working there I can tell you that a lot of the reason for the situation is that they offer abysmal pay and use district management/corporate to force middle managers to lean on the sales staff as hard as possible. All of this causes people to be burnt out and grumpy. But... there are still employees there that are total enthusiasts and truly excited about the products so yea, you can have a good experience there if you find the right guy.

I ordered a used guitar from them last week and it arrived in bad shape. They were super cool about it and very accommodating. On the other side though, I have had some terrible people there that sold me something that didnt work and then didnt want to make it right afterwards.

 

[40Hz]

A real and unspoken danger to their dilemma is IF they were to go down, how on Earth would the major players who stock their stores (the Fenders, Gibson, Yamahas, Rolands, and on down the line) be affected? It would keep me up at nights in Corona or Nashville and elsewhere trying to figure out how to make that volume elsewhere

They could go back to an earlier business model and go more high end.

You can make a lot of money selling fewer high priced models as well as you can a lot of low priced instruments. The trick is to scale your manufacturing operations to meet the demand and your sales and support departments to provide top notch and uber responsive customer service.

Companies like Alembic and Fedora don’t worry about large and continually increasing sales numbers. Wal doesn’t worry about the players who aren’t willing to drop $7K+ and wait two years on average to get one. They’ve scaled their operations (a practice called “right sizing”) to accommodate serious customers. And such businesses cry all the way to the bank.

For a business producing a highly personal and luxury item such as a musical instrument, SFH (small, fat, and happy) is the way you want to operate. Last thing you ever want to be known as is: “the low cost provider.” Competing primarily on price is the surest way to join what’s called “the race to the bottom.” SFH companies measure success by shrewdly managing the number of backorders rather than their sales. Whereas many low cost/high volume companies celebrate theit “best ever“ sales year by going out of business shortly afterwards.

And worst of of all is falling into Gibson’s current quagmire of wanting to be a high priced as well as high volume business. Because that’s never going to happen unless you have a unique, patent protected monopoly on a very necessary product. And the only businesses I know that have that advantage are the drug companies.

Worst case scenario for the instrument industry is it will need to scale back on volume and rapidly scale up on quality and service. Not an insurmountable hurdle. Many businesses have done it already. And many more, of necessity, will do so in the future. Because relying on endlessly increasing demand is not a sustainable business model.

It will, of course, create job losses. But that will (as always) be a burden borne by the former employees, not the businesses doing the layoffs. After the initial pain that comes with any major restructuring, the companies themselves (those that can pull it off) will emerge leaner and ultimately stronger for it provided they can boost quality and maintain a missile lock on the needs of their core customers.

For the unwashed masses, they’ll have the used market. New instruments will become the province of working professionals, the monied collectors, the well to do hobbyist musicians and semi pros.

 

[MordBass]

They could go back to an earlier business model and go more high end.

You can make a lot of money selling fewer high priced models as well as you can a lot of low priced instruments. The trick is to scale your manufacturing operations to meet the demand and your sales and support departments to provide top notch and uber responsive customer service.

Companies like Alembic and Fedora don’t worry about large and continually increasing sales numbers. Wal doesn’t worry about the players who aren’t willing to drop $7K+ and wait two years on average to get one. They’ve scaled their operations (a practice called “right sizing”) to accommodate serious customers. And such businesses cry all the way to the bank.

For a business producing a highly personal and luxury item such as a musical instrument, SFH (small, fat, and happy) is the way you want to operate. Last thing you ever want to be known as is: “the low cost provider.” Competing primarily on price is the surest way to join what’s called “the race to the bottom.”

And worst of of all is falling into Gibson’s current quagmire of wanting to be a high priced as well as high volume business. Because that’s never going to happen unless you have a unique, patent protected monopoly on a very necessary product. And the only businesses I know that have that advantage are the drug companies.

Worst case scenario for the instrument industry is it will need to scale back on volume and rapidly scale up on quality and service. Not an insurmountable hurdle. Many businesses have done it already. And many more, of necessity, will do so in the future. Because relying on endlessly increasing demand is not a sustainable business model.

It will, of course, create job losses. But that will (as always) be a burden borne by the former employees, not the businesses doing the layoffs. After the initial pain that comes with any major restructuring, the companies themselves (those that can pull it off) will emerge leaner and ultimately stronger for it provided they can boost quality and maintain a missile lock on the needs of their core customers.

For the unwashed masses, they’ll have the used market. New instruments will become the province of working professionals, the monied collectors, the well to do hobbyist musicians and semi pros.

Very well put. I've discussed the relativity of pricing with bandmates and friends over the years and we've always enjoyed the debate of it. Other instruments like brass, woodwinds, bowed instruments etc are so expensive and they've always been that way. I remember starting the clarinet in 4th grade and it was $425 for my instrument in 1990. Yet now, I know guys in their 40's that don't want to spend that on a new guitar. Just seems crazy to me to put in 10,000 hours of practice and playing but not be willing to put in more than 30 hours of work to buy your instrument.

 

[bherman]

I'm very fortunate, we have a great local store here in my town in Western Colorado. I asked them how they do it - we're 4 hrs away from Denver and 4 hrs from Salt Lake City - so no Guitar Center! JB Hart Music, our local store, is better than anything in Denver. Third generation running the store. They do online sales also (they match Sweetwater, etc prices), here's their FB page:

J.B. Hart Music Co., Inc.

 

[40Hz]

Very well put. I've discussed the relativity of pricing with bandmates and friends over the years and we've always enjoyed the debate of it. Other instruments like brass, woodwinds, bowed instruments etc are so expensive and they've always been that way. I remember starting the clarinet in 4th grade and it was $425 for my instrument in 1990. Yet now, I know guys in their 40's that don't want to spend that on a new guitar. Just seems crazy to me to put in 10,000 hours of practice and playing but not be willing to put in more than 30 hours of work to buy your instrument.

Agree. If anybody needs a top notch instrument, it’s the beginner. A seasoned player can get almost anything to work. A beginner needs all the help they can get. And not having to fight with your instrument goes a long way to avoiding the all too common problem of a beginner quitting out of frustration because their instrument doesn’t play well or sound good.

Back when I used to teach bass lessons I always encouraged parents and adult students to purchase the best instrument they could responsibly afford. Which meant buying good quality name brand mid-tier used instruments and amps. Sometimes I’d even loan them a bass for free if I knew money was a real issue for them and they seemed exceptionally earnest.

The ones that took my advice (and offer) almost all ended up staying with it. The ones that didn’t and fell for the “beginner instrument” line of argument not only dropped out, they also lost money on their investment. Because crappy instruments have no resale value whereas a mainstream good quality used instrument tends to retain most if not all of its resale value.

 

[JW56789]

Agree. If anybody needs a top notch instrument, it’s the beginner. A seasoned player can get almost anything to work. A beginner needs all the help they can get. And not having to fight with your instrument goes a long way to avoiding the all too common problem of a beginner quitting out of frustration because their instrument doesn’t play well or sound good.

Back when I used to teach bass lessons I always encouraged parents and adult students to purchase the best instrument they could responsibly afford. Which meant buying good quality name brand mid-tier used instruments and amps. Sometimes I’d even loan them a bass for free if I knew money was a real issue for them and they seemed exceptionally earnest.

The ones that took my advice (and offer) almost all ended up staying with it. The ones that didn’t and fell for the “beginner instrument” line of argument not only dropped out, they also lost money on their investment. Because crappy instruments have no resale value whereas a mainstream good quality used instrument tends to retain most if not all of its resale value.

I really appreciate your outlook on this, and prompted me to think about in different ways. Thanks.

I also have always given the same advice about 'beginner instruments', and truly think those god-awful 'Bass Packs!' they sell in the big box stores with a plywood bass and an amp that wouldn't even keep up with a Pignose have run off far more student musicians than they ever encouraged, and are marketed by the majors, who then have lost any step-up sales on better instruments when they survive that box of crap. That's sure a 'race to the bottom' with no pit stops.

How do you view that the majors like FMIC, Gibson, Peavey, and whoever ended up with the former Kaman properties have positioned themselves owning so many brands under one roof ?

 

[frankie5string]

They could go back to an earlier business model and go more high end.

How? Isn't that what got them to change their product mix in the first place: People stopped buying "high-end" stuff and wanted more entry level stuff so their kids could take music lessons?

Market-wise, GC just assumes that there will be another person coming in to buy a cheap guitar and amp.

Eddie Lampert tried upscaling some merchandise with Sears - it was a disaster... Kept the same old tired stores, but then threw in some merchandise that a typical Sears shopper couldn't afford - meanwhile the target market for that more expensive merchandise would never walk into a Sears store, anyway.

This was all before COVID-19.

As long as the accountants, boards, and fund-management companies want to, they'll keep throwing money at GC. When they decide to stop, that's when GC will cease to be a going concern.

 

[lucas303]

Nearly every time I've been to a Guitar Center I've been met with indifference. It might be going out of business? Who cares.

 

[JohnnyChatter]

At one point in time I spent a bunch of money in that store... I don’t know about locations other than the Denver ones but the customer service went down the drain hard... I don’t care if you don’t greet me when I come in or ask if I need help, but if it takes me 20-30 minutes to check out because no one ever is around or in any hurry I get irritated. Also... every time I have asked for an opinion or had a legit question I never got a strait answer or they lied to me. So sorry to the good guitar centers everyone talks about but let the ones in Denver fade away. We got a few local music stores that are much better anyhow.

 

[jonesn4bass]

good riddance. I hope this is the final nail in their coffin.

 

[Jerammono]

I tell you right now GC is struggling (in my opinion) because they do not treat there customs right. I just bought a pedal, some Chromes, and an SR505 online. I bought a new bass not a floor model. When I received it at my door two weeks ago the box was smashed open and I could see the unprotected head stock. Ok UPS is not taking care of their packages was my first thought. When I opened the box the bass was wrapped with one layer of bubble wrap in an oversized box with absolutely no protection. When I took the bubble wrap off the bass had at least 50 pick marks and the finish was chipped in several places on the front And around the jack hole. This was an extremely abused demo. Not sellable as new by any means whatsoever. The truss rod was completely loose and became really tight after about a Quarter turn. I could not adjust it enough to get even close to the proper relief. I received no invoice, packing slip, or new tags on the bass. I waited on hold for an hour to try to return it. I finally called my local store and talked to the manager. His only remedy was for me to call the return number and wait. He told me that he had to wait on hold for hours as the store manager to get return slips right now. He told me he could not do anything for me. I called and waited on hold again another hour. I finally got in touch with someone who told me he would send me an email for the return. He waited until I received it and gave me his direct line so I didn’t have to wait on hold if I needed to call again. My faith in GC was returning. I replied to the email requesting a full refund. Several days I waited and no reply. I called the direct number and left a message. A week later and still no response. So I paid $700 dollar for a new bass and received a demo model that is unplayable with finish damage that was extreme. No paperwork. No protective packaging whatsoever. And Now I cant even get in touch with anyone. Needless to say I will be purchasing my gear somewhere else from now on. And the saddest part is I know when I do get it returned they are going to turn around and try to burn the next customer who orders that bass by just throwing it in a box calling it new. That (in my opinion)is why GC is struggling. They do not care because someone else will replace me as a customer. Not a satisfied customer for sure.

 

[Killing Floor]

I disagree with this. I have 2 GCs I use. Both stores have salesmen there that know me by name. They are LOCAL people working in a guitar shop. They care about their customers. They are not the stereotyped GC dumbass employee. One of them is a vary accomplished luthier with his own brand sold nationally. So while GC is a corporate entity, the employees that make it up are far from foreign faceless, nameless order processors. They're people doing a very difficult job for sometimes little or no reward other than a minimal pay check. I respect them for doing what they do. I couldn't do it.

While they may employ some good folks you know, many of those folks worked at a real local music store until it closed. Shop where you want. But chains are 100% not local businesses. They may employ your pal but they sure as heck don’t employ the musician who poured his/her life into your community.

 

[Gibson Victory]

I have bought a fair amount of used gear from various GC locations this last year. Everything worked out well, some really great deals as far as I'm concerned. Got a few fairly heavy SVT cabs for like 30 some dollars shipping all the way across the country, are you kidding me? Once again, I'll stand in their corner if no one else is willing to do so.

 

[MordBass]

I tell you right now GC is struggling (in my opinion) because they do not treat there customs right. I just bought a pedal, some Chromes, and an SR505 online. I bought a new bass not a floor model. When I received it at my door two weeks ago the box was smashed open and I could see the unprotected head stock. Ok UPS is not taking care of their packages was my first thought. When I opened the box the bass was wrapped with one layer of bubble wrap in an oversized box with absolutely no protection. When I took the bubble wrap off the bass had at least 50 pick marks and the finish was chipped in several places on the front And around the jack hole. This was an extremely abused demo. Not sellable as new by any means whatsoever. The truss rod was completely loose and became really tight after about a Quarter turn. I could not adjust it enough to get even close to the proper relief. I received no invoice, packing slip, or new tags on the bass. I waited on hold for an hour to try to return it. I finally called my local store and talked to the manager. His only remedy was for me to call the return number and wait. He told me that he had to wait on hold for hours as the store manager to get return slips right now. He told me he could not do anything for me. I called and waited on hold again another hour. I finally got in touch with someone who told me he would send me an email for the return. He waited until I received it and gave me his direct line so I didn’t have to wait on hold if I needed to call again. My faith in GC was returning. I replied to the email requesting a full refund. Several days I waited and no reply. I called the direct number and left a message. A week later and still no response. So I paid $700 dollar for a new bass and received a demo model that is unplayable with finish damage that was extreme. No paperwork. No protective packaging whatsoever. And Now I cant even get in touch with anyone. Needless to say I will be purchasing my gear somewhere else from now on. And the saddest part is I know when I do get it returned they are going to turn around and try to burn the next customer who orders that bass by just throwing it in a box calling it new. That (in my opinion)is why GC is struggling. They do not care because someone else will replace me as a customer. Not a satisfied customer for sure.

I have definitely seen that type of thing there. I still believe the root is that they don't place any value on their workers. You can bust your butt there and still not make anything at all. Eventually the good ones either burn out or wise up.

 

[Realmongo]

I like the group who staffed our GC and hope they return. My only complaint is the inventory caters to the lower end of the spectrum.