We REALLY need to stop supporting this company.

[fjadams]

Yeah, let's say ethics and legality don't go hand to hand. I would know.
Thanks for the new word I now know btw.

Ethics and legality work for those who can afford to pay for them.

 

[DigitalMan]

$10 and hour is plenty of money to live on if you can add, subtract, multiply, and divide. These things can be done on what we call a calculator.

According to a news report last night the average rent for an apartment in the Bay Area is around $2200 per month. GC has three stores in the area. You must have one seriously awesome calculator.

 

[GretschWretch]

While I feel for workers being put into a spot like that by their employer, have any of you dealt with many employees of GC? These people are generally as friendly as a bail bondsman and knowledgeable as a Wal-Mart door greeter. I've come across a couple decent folks in the stores but generally I leave wondering how they have any job, let alone one in a music store.

Read what has been said on TB about employee morale at Gibson. Badly run companies usually have low morale. I know unions can be Jekyll and Hyde and certainly, as a type, could be improved.
But having read about the history of Homestead Steel and Henry Clay Frick, I believe they are, at worst, a necessary evil. Otherwise, workers everywhere would get Fricked continuously.

 

[OOD]

Not around here it isn't. Unless you want to be under the expressway in a cardboard box.

I should have mentioned I'm in south Carolina. I have no idea what the cost of living is in Chicago, but I'm sure it's crazy high. I guess it really doesn't even make sense to talk about it since we all live in different areas of the world. Out of curiosity, what's the cheapest you can pay for a gallon of milk?

 

[Anachronism]

"How dare they treat their employees this way!"
--People with 5 basses made in China

 

[OOD]

Those of us who had a real education can do it without a calculator. We also can read the display of an analog clock face and read and write cursive.

Now get out there and mow my lawn, you young 'uns.

You paper waster!

 

[alaskaleftybass]

I think they're part of American Musical Supply, and SameDayMusic.com.

You're right. One time I bought a Bugera bass cab from them and talked with staff extensively. More than one guy informed me that the company is small and mostly made up of musicians. They seemed pretty happy with their jobs.

I've had questions over the years with MF. I get their glossy wishbooks every Christmas and big annual catalogs and use their reviews for reference. But when I call up, for the last couple dozen calls, I've never gotten a rep that sounded happy. Monotone, not offering information, more interested in getting me off the phone. So what do I do? I call the guys at zZounds. After my question, they ask, "so, is there anything else you have questions on?"

Well, if I order from a big box online retailer, guess who's going to get my dollar....

 

[Charlzm]

I used to work at GC when Bain owned them. I was happy at that time I wasn't a customer. Occasionally, I'll pop in to buy something I need immediately, and I notice things have declined even more in terms of selection and service.

Their days have been numbered for a long time and I'm honestly surprised they're still in business.

 

[OOD]

According to a news report last night the average rent for an apartment in the Bay Area is around $2200 per month. GC has three stores in the area. You must have one seriously awesome calculator.

If you mean San Francisco, minimum wage is also higher than $10. Also, if you are poor you can't get the average apartment and not be hungry and why rent if you make $10 and hour anyway?? Renting is for the rich.

 

[Yango]

But they won't, taken individually people are pretty spineless, especially when facing the loss of income. That is why GC can get away with this.

...United we stand, divided we fall...

 

[DigitalMan]

If you mean San Francisco, minimum wage is also higher than $10. Also, if you are poor you can't get the average apartment and not be hungry and why rent if you make $10 and hour anyway?? Renting is for the rich.

No, I mean the Bay Area. Most people who work in San Francisco have to commute in because the rents there are even higher than the regional average. The solution to not renting has already been mentioned. It's living in a cardboard box under the highway overpass. Buying in the Bay Area is more expensive than renting.

The point is that $10 an hour is not a realistic wage in many of the markets where GC is located.

 

[OOD]

No, I mean the Bay Area. Most people who work in San Francisco have to commute in because the rents there are even higher than the regional average. The solution to not renting has already been mentioned. It's living in a cardboard box under the highway overpass. Buying in the Bay Area is more expensive than renting.

The point is that $10 an hour is not a realistic wage in many of the markets where GC is located.

The bay area of San Francisco? You're not making yourself clear. Loads of places have a bay.

 

[FenderJazz1989]

I am not defending them as a whole, but don't most jobs now require you to sign an arbitration agreement before starting work?

I think I have signed them at my last 2-3 jobs, but they're "corporate" jobs and we don't have those pesky union employees.

 

[Geekydad]

Yep, I pointed this out earlier. Plus they're in service contracts for customers.

Class action lawsuits may not give wronged customers all their money back, or abused employees adequate compensation, but they do encourage corporations to change their behavior. By privatizing the legal system with arbitration contracts, corporations have enabled themselves to continue getting away with abuse.

 

[JMacBass65]

I worked in the retail sector for 8 years at a similar pay rate and started my life that way. Moved on through hard work. Not making enough to be happy doesn't give you an excuse to be piss poor at your job. Suck it up

This!

Being a crappy employee because you are paid a low (yet reasonable for retail) wage is complete BS, and self defeating for the employee.

I was hired at a bicycle shop at a crap wage as I needed supplemental income (I was trying to make a living as an audio engineer) and was passionate about bikes. It only took six months before I was an assistant manager, and about nine more months later I was a manager. I was making $38,000/year with benefits at the age of 23, 1988, BTW.

I having reached a plateau there, and not wanting to get into being a sales rep for a national company, I jumped ship to the telecoms biz. Was able to utilize the skills I learned in retail management to help me work my way into a management position in telecom. (Side note - I eventually left telecom and run my own business now.)

All this after being a solid C-/D student/stoner in high school, and never even applying to college.

We write our own ticket people, period.

 

[yakmastermax]

Please someone correct me if I'm wrong but renting is not for the rich, renting is for the poor. People with enough means will very often buy their house so that their money can grow as an investment in the property.

Poor people don't have good credit, and poor people don't have enough for a down payment.

 

[lowfreqgeek]

I am not defending them as a whole, but don't most jobs now require you to sign an arbitration agreement before starting work?

I think I have signed them at my last 2-3 jobs, but they're "corporate" jobs and we don't have those pesky union employees.

I'm doing contract electronics design work and most of my contracts have arbitration clauses. If I take issue with it, I don't get the job and I don't get paid.

 

[DigitalMan]

The bay area of San Francisco? You're not making yourself clear. Loads of places have a bay.

No, I mean the San Francisco Bay Area. Would I also need to disambiguate "West Coast" or "East Coast"? The point is that we are talking about a region where GC has stores and the absurdity that $10 per hour is a living wage if one simply employs a calculator.

 

[Mystic Michael]

As well as Musician's Friend.

Guitar Center Tells Employees To Sign Arbitration Agreements Or Lose Their Jobs

IANAL, but I suspect that this kind of company coercion is illegal on its face. If so, and it's then implemented, it can't be legally enforced - the key word being "legally". Of course in that situation, it would take a test case lawsuit in order to successfully challenge it. And there's a big part of the rub. Full circle. And a strangely familiar narrative these days.

Any Guitar Center employee who hasn't see the multiple red flags that have been smacking him in the face for the past several years, simply hasn't been paying attention. My sympathy is with those who remain there because they don't have any better options at the moment. It's not a question of IF they lose their jobs. Only of when and under what circumstances.

MM

 

[bassfran]

I should have mentioned I'm in south Carolina. I have no idea what the cost of living is in Chicago, but I'm sure it's crazy high. I guess it really doesn't even make sense to talk about it since we all live in different areas of the world. Out of curiosity, what's the cheapest you can pay for a gallon of milk?

I hear you- I've never been to SC but hear it's nice out there. Everything's relative.

Our cost of living has climbed a lot in the last 5-10 years. I have no idea what a gal. of milk costs (don't drink it) but rents have jumped a lot on my side of town. I understand it's getting tougher to find a one bedroom out in the neighborhoods for under a grand. And a new 'luxury studio' I recently read about was $1400/month.