Guitar Center - circling the drain?

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groundmeat
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Guitar Center - circling the drain?

Post by groundmeat » Tue Dec 08, 2020 12:10 pm

Saw this a while back on Youtube...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fbTqM0nMx8

I have... mixed feelings... about the possibility of Guitar Center going under. On one hand, I do most of my guitar gear shopping there. I like having the ability to see used pedals and gear from ALL OVER THE COUNTRY all in one place.

On the other hand, they are kinda like the Walmart of guitar stores. They've swallowed up almost everyone. The small local shops I loved to visit when I was a kid and guitar playing was new and magical to me are all gone now, because Guitar Center had a bigger store and fractionally cheaper prices, etc.

Boy_Narf
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Re: Guitar Center - circling the drain?

Post by Boy_Narf » Tue Dec 08, 2020 5:26 pm

Seems like you posted this thread twice?

I thought they filed for protections? Will probably be back up and running in a few months :)

bclaire
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Re: Guitar Center - circling the drain?

Post by bclaire » Wed Dec 09, 2020 1:13 am

They undercut the mom and pop's and put many of them out of business - now their stupid business practices are catching up with them.

More and more, I just get my stuff online mainly because I don't want to deal with them. I notice that Fender is doing a lot of online direct sales now, and I bet that is going to be the way things are going to go...

I bought a Zemaitis guitar earlier this year directly from Zemaitis which actually was a better deal than anywhere else online so there's that...

groundmeat
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Re: Guitar Center - circling the drain?

Post by groundmeat » Sun Dec 13, 2020 9:21 am

Boy_Narf wrote:
Tue Dec 08, 2020 5:26 pm
Seems like you posted this thread twice?
Possibly. Sometimes the boards run very slow for me, especially when I try to "preview" a post before submitting. Perhaps I hit the submit link more than once and it posted it twice or something, I dunno.

-------------

Went to a couple of music shops yesterday for the first time since covid hit back in Feb. Stopped by the Marietta GA Guitar Center early yesterday morning for a couple of mics from the Pro Audio department. The shelves in that department were more than half empty.

Then I headed into the acoustic guitar room. The walls were probably about 1/3 full of guitars. Used to, it was 2 and 3 rows high. They had the middle row filled up, and the top row on the one shortest wall had the higher priced ones. Not a lot to choose from. Most of the stock looked to be mostly cheaper non-US Martin's and Yamahas, a couple of cheaper Breedloves.

The big wall of electrics was about 1/2 empty as well.

I asked the guy checking me out if he heard anything about any possible store closings. His only reply was something like, "They filed for Chapter 11, they are restructuring, they're keeping everyone working, everything's going to be fine."

Rrrrrrrrrrrreally? :? I guess maybe they tell him to say that because they don't want to discourage people from shopping there during December possibly thinking they can't take something back after Xmas. Buuuuuuuuuut... based on what I saw, that seems to be an obvious indicator that things aren't going well.

I've noticed on their website since summer that many items have been out of stock. The selection of instrument cables is pretty sparse. And that kind of thing is really annoying. They have a huge variety of items posted and priced, but when you click them, they are... "out of stock, reserve yours today." So frustrating if you're actually shopping for that item. If you don't have it, don't list it among things. Maybe have a special "on order" section with estimated in-stock dates posted. When I was looking for patch cables the other month, damn near everything I tried to buy wasn't in stock. Hard to believe a store called "GUITAR CENTER" wouldn't have 6" Fender patch cables available AT ALL. :roll:

bclaire
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Re: Guitar Center - circling the drain?

Post by bclaire » Mon Dec 14, 2020 11:19 pm

Well, that's annoying...!

I haven't set foot in any of the local GC's around here for quite awhile. Didn't seem that empty when I did last though...

I wonder if they go under will they take Musician's Friend with them...?

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