Bwahahahah!
something i know about!!!
Sincei am new here, I guess nobody knows that i work at a L&M, as a repair tech. I also ran the stores guitar dept for some time and have close friends at the head office level.
There is no head of Ontario purchasing, that purchaser orders for the whole chain.
Here is the skinny with Rics in Canada. specifically with L&M
Last time i looked at a ric order sheet, they had guitars up to 3 year lead times, and pickup changes or colour of the year added 1 year to order time... that is the info sheets direct from rickenbacker. was a year or more back, but long enough. My store has a few regular customers who really like the product and pre-order them, and in most cases get stuck waiting 18-30 months. Occasionally another order get canceled, and the whole line moves up a space. Ric only lets companies have a certain amount of back order as well. THey don't want on big retailer tying up their back orders, so as a compnay L&M are limited to how much CAN be ordered... if there is too much already on order, new orders are simply not accepted.
Rickenbacker seems to have realized they are popular, and have both raised their prices, and not increased production because of it. it means that they have a 2-3 year backlog at most times, but they would never be sitting on unsold stock... I guess it keeps the recession resistant, as they have prepaid orders waiting in cue!
Staff member purchases aren't incredibly often at L&M, cause the staff gets sick of waiting for gear! but should a ric arrive at head office and have no-home pre-determined, it gets snatched up fast either by staff for themselves, or staff mebers who have customers waiting, who don't care if it is a different color.
I am not a fan of their guitars (small necks) and find their basses a little flakey... give me a 70's ric any day!
(side note...I can't find a ric for ANYONE... i don't work in sales anymore)
