Mom & Pops > Guitar Center??

[InRodweTruss]

....On the other hand, Mit is bassist, and if I'm not completely crazy, he's not a bad one.....

NO WAIT....that's Mike Huckabee. I get the right wing confused with each other...

 

[69nites]

Thanks, I try not to be.. I have to be honest though, with certain customers, It gets really hard not to be a jerk (especially if they come into my store, insulting everything, copping an attitude, and THEN asking for a discount..... little hint to my fellow TB'ers: If you want a discount, please ask nicely and don't demand anything).
We had one guy in my area that just astounded me on a weekly basis with his business practices. I think the only reason he stayed in business was he has a pretty decent selection of vintage gear (probibly cause he couldn't sell the stuff for the prices he was asking). Here's one story. My guitar player goes into the shop looking for a nice 70's strat. He's the type of guy that will not hesitate to drop the $$ if the piece is right. He walks into this guy's shop and spots a nice '78 strat that he falls in love with. He asks the guy if he could play the guitar. The guy behind the counter looks at him and says "Are you going to buy it?" My guitar player looks the guy dead in the eye and says"Yeah, I probibly will. I just want to try it to make sure there are no issues and that the neck feels alright. If it feels good, I'm buying it." The store owner looks at him for a couple seconds and just says "NO" and walks away!

I wouldn't expect anything differant from you.

I generally don't even ask for a discount when given a price that I can't/won't pay I normally just say that's out of the budget and see if they'll come down for me. I don't presume to be owed a discount.

the only thing that I will say is almost every mom and pop has strings that are $1-2 higher than any online retailer or guitar center and I will forever refuse to buy strings from small stores.

 

[()smoke()]

didn't want to start another similar thread but i had a bizarre experience at GC today

i don't ordinarily use a pick to play, but there are 2 songs that i want to try with a pick tonite, so i went during my lunch break to find some that might work, thinking i'd find a few different sizes/materials/rigidities

is it really odd to ask to feel a pick before deciding which ones to buy in a 10 pack? employees looked at me like i was speaking an alien dialect

i didn't think i was being unreasonable, but another employee came from out of nowhere up beside my left ear and told me the lady behind the counter 'WILL SHOW YOU WHATEVER ONES YOU WANT TO SEE" --and when I said yes, but i'd like to feel them, she yanked a customer demo pick out of a holder on the cash register and held it saying "you want to FEEL one? here's one"

...i just wanted to find 3 or 4 to try, like i can get at other stores, before i bought 10 at once...apparently not an option at my GC

...and i've bought 2 sets of strings and a strobe tuner in the last 5 days at the same store from 2 of the employees staring at me today

wasn't expecting that one


edit: i wasn't asking to open the packages, just asking if they had any loose examples to check out

 

[69nites]

didn't want to start another similar thread but i had a bizarre experience at GC today

i don't ordinarily use a pick to play, but there are 2 songs that i want to try with a pick tonite, so i went during my lunch break to find some that might work, thinking i'd find a few different sizes/materials/rigidities

is it really odd to ask to feel a pick before deciding which ones to buy in a 10 pack? employees looked at me like i was speaking an alien dialect

i didn't think i was being unreasonable, but another employee came from out of nowhere up beside my left ear and told me the lady behind the counter 'WILL SHOW YOU WHATEVER ONES YOU WANT TO SEE" --and when I said yes, but i'd like to feel them, she yanked a customer demo pick out of a holder on the cash register and held it saying "you want to FEEL one? here's one"

...i just wanted to find 3 or 4 to try, like i can get at other stores, before i bought 10 at once...apparently not an option at my GC

...and i've bought 2 sets of strings and a strobe tuner in the last 5 days at the same store from 2 of the employees staring at me today

wasn't expecting that one


edit: i wasn't asking to open the packages, just asking if they had any loose examples to check out

yeah they don't sell singles in gc in the little bins like small guitar shops.

 

[()smoke()]

yeah they don't sell singles in gc in the little bins like small guitar shops.

i thought they'd have a wall of the little bins that i'd need a ladder to access

wishful thinking on my part

 

[69nites]

i thought they'd have a wall of the little bins that i'd need a ladder to access

wishful thinking on my part

one time I went to guitar center and forgot my pick at home.

I asked a salesperson for a pick and he told me I could buy a pack. Just stupidity on the part of the salesman not to find a way to get me a free/cheap pick to test out some expensive equipment.

I've never had an issue getting a single pick at a mom and pop

 

[()smoke()]

that's unfortunate

i've never had trouble getting a pick to try a guitar before

at the very least, they could thread a steel cable through the 'demo' picks and attach to a cmu block like roadside gas stations do with the bathroom key so they don't walk off

it would probably cut down on the amount of solos being played at any given time in the store as well, it's a win-win

 

[Bassic83]

Geez, all this drama over a PICK? I saw an old-timer back in the day walk into a small shop, he was raggedy and dirty, wanted to see a Martin they had there. The guy running the place was hesitant, but handed it to him. He finger-picked for a couple minutes, then asked for a pick. When his polite request was ignored, he reached into his pockets, dug around a bit, and pulled out a couple coins, some bits of paper, and a roofing nail. He used the roofing nail as his pick. The shopkeeper about had a heart attack! A pick magically appeared in about two seconds! They old guy ignored the shop owner, and continued playing. He was pretty good, too! After about 5 minutes, he handed it to the shopkeeper without a word. The shopkeeper grabbed it out of his hands, and inspected it carefully for scratches (there were none) and quickly polished it off, then started hanging it back up on the wall behind the register. The old man asked him why he was putting it up.

"Well, I'm not wanting to take any more chances on this guitar, it's over $1000, and you just played it with a roofing nail!"

"I handed it to you because I wanted to BUY it, not play it with a roofing nail! You didn't even give me a pick when I asked for one..."

The old man then reached into his pocket again and pulled out a tremendous wad of cash, which he proceeded to count out on the counter...all $1075 of it! The shopkeeper was amazed, here's this guy who looks one step away from a common street bum pulling out the biggest wad of cash he's seen in a while...

"Well, how much ARE your picks here anyway?" the old man asked...

They gave him a free pack. And a case for his new treasure. And a strap...

When I asked the shopowner why he didn't give the guy a pick, he told me the guy had been in at least once a week for the past couple months playing that same guitar, and he was just trying to "keep the mileage off it", and thought that not giving him a pick would hasten his departure!

Apparently the old man had been saving up for it, and came by to "check up" on the guitar, making sure it was "the one", and not sold.

I though it was pretty interesting anyway.

 

[GreggBummer]

Good Story

 

[Baryonyx]

Man, I'm glad I don't play with a pick! But in all the guitar shops here you can buy them individually. Mind you, you might not escape having to deal with the shocking customer service and ridiculous prices of somewhere like Guitar Guitar Newcastle while you're there!

 

[Fnord Explorer]

I try to shop local, but some of the local stores around here have staff that try to act smarter than you about what you're looking at. I'm not a gear nut, so I generally know exactly what I'm after, want to pick it off the shelf, pay for it, and walk out. I don't want to be talked into getting the "better model", I don't want to try out a bunch of other things, and I don't need an amp to go with my pack of strings.

And, unfortunately, the cooler places with the nicer staff generally don't have what I'm looking for and have offered to procure it for me. I've waited weeks just to get a pack of strings, or a feedback buster, or something like that only to find out they couldn't get it after all. So, unfortunately, I end up just buying it from Musician's Friend where they have it in stock and it's at my front door the following day.

 

[funkalicious101]

Over here in Canada I suppose our GCs would be Long and McQuade and maybe Gordon Price. Long and McQuade actually has pretty good gear for guitars, especially with their amps, and okay bass equipment. But the service has been god aweful every time I have been in there. Last time there must have been three people behind the counter and two on the floor (about six customers inside the store, none at the counter). And Gordon Price is just crap for instruments unless you are looking for a mid-range accoustic or beginner electric, great for sheet-music though.

But a store that is constantly berated in Edmonton is Avenue Guitars. The only problem I have with the store is that they are trying to fit hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gear into a 30X30 feet room, its almost impossible to try out anything except at two strategic locations. Lots of people complain about the staff too, I can kind of see why, as it does have a fairly laid-back atmosphere. I have always been treated like royalty there though, and I'm not someone who buys something every time I go there either, often I will talk effects with the employees for hours on end. I find they have better prices than everywhere else too, and I'm probably buying a Gretsch Syncromatic from them sometime next week.

 

[steve66]

In 9 cases out of 10 my local Mom and Pop Store will price match the advertised prices of GC and Musicians Friend.....I don't mind paying taxes or a few extra bucks because they take care of me....

I always buy my picks, cables, patch cords etc.......from my local Mom and Pop store ....not to mention thay always have the skinny on local shows, and bands and what not.....no comparison IMHO between Mom and Pop stores and megastores like GC.....
My money stays local 90% of the time....

+1

 

[baalroo]

...when I got there no one even acknowledged my presence. The real lame part was there were more employees there than customers!...

I've always found that phenomenon strange, at GC there always seems to be at least 2 or 3 employees in every department... but the only customers are a few annoyed looking guys in their 20s or 30s buying guitar chords or drumsticks and about ten 15 yr old guitards detuning epiphone les pauls in tandem. This assumption leads me to believe that the GC in my town is on the crappy end of the GC spectrum.

Here, all of the m&p are small little numbers with a specific niche... one has a great drum selection, one has higher-end guitars and basses, another has a lot of good used gear, one has a bunch of stuff for keys, etc etc. However, if you know where to go for what items then you can almost always get better deals, better service, and better gear than going to GC.

The ONE REASON I ever end up in GC (aside from the random whim of "hey GC is right there and I'm bored, I think I'll go in") is because they're open at time when the m&ps are not, like after 6pm and on sundays.

... Almost all beginner stuff, and virtually no used gear anymore...

You wouldn't go to the walmart electronics department for high-end audio/video gear, so why would you go to GC for nice music gear?