Guitar Center To File For Bankruptcy

Maybe Sam Ash will be able to take advantage of the instability. 4th generation family owned business from my hometown.
 
@Dave Merrill Maybe you have an ad blocker turned on. I can read the whole article, don't have a subscription either.
Nope. I could see much more initially than I can now. Might be I already read however many articles you get for free this month, by happenstance of followed links. It's ok, I get the point.
 
The GC in VT is sad.
The store didn’t have squat for inventory. It’s not surprising at all. I give Sweetwater most all of my business. The ONLY thing nice about having MF and GC around , is it helps to keep SW honest about their prices. And , like @lqdsnddist said , it’s something to do while the wife is shopping at the strip mall. I Feel bad for many of the employees.
 
I worked for GC briefly. The store was originally a Musician's Friend. MF hired people based on a comprehensive test that assessed their knowledge of music gear, customer service, personality, music in general, etc. They paid their employees a decent wage and were interested in the employees input as to what might make that particular store better in regards to the specific region/city/neighborhood. It was a family-owned business that was a pleasure to work for. Our main instruction was to engage the customer in meaningful conversation and develop a report. The premise was that such communication would lead to sales. High-pressure tactics were prohibited. It was a sound business model that worked.

When CG bought the store, the first thing they did was radically cut everyone's pay. They then fired over half of the staff (the longest-serving employees) and hired kids off the street who didn't know a bridge from a nut (not an exaggeration; a true anecdote). They fired the manager (a local musician with managment experience) and replaced him with a corporate tool. He approached me one day on the sales floor and pointed out a customer. He then proceeded to instruct me to follow a script with him to manipulate the customer into a sale, with most of the script being a complete lie. I'd had enough and quit that week. Within four months, not one of the original crew (who had been there since the store first opened) were still employed. GC also helped destroy many of the local music stores. Some deserved to go; others couldn't compete with GC's advertising budget, even though their prices were compable and their service was far superior.

I'm happy to see GC disappear, and hope that customers will increase their support for local stores.
 
I once heard a GC employee tell a customer to run his DSL in “stereo” by running both outputs into both inputs of a single 1960A cabinet (without using the proper impedence outputs, of course). Then he said to close mic the baffle of the cabinet with a single mic pointed between the speakers to pick up the “stereo” sound. WTF???!!!
 
I will not be sad to see them go.

But I do want to run in there and get turn in replacements for my Monster cables before they shutter.
 
Never had anything on sale that was worth buying.
Even now at the cusp of bankruptcy.. nothing on sale.
When you go into bankruptcy... isn't there a clearance sale? Kmart went bankrupt and sold everything at over 50% off
 
True I am sure. But Sweetwater is a much better run company. Been my store for a long time. In the last 20 years I have bought 1 guitar and 2 speakers from GC, period! I also feel for the employees................

I've never bought anything from GC in my life, only used them to sell gear I couldn't offload anywhere else.
Sweetwater made a seriously smart move providing pics of their individual instruments in stock. That's how they landed me as a lifetime customer.
 
Agreed completely however I have bought a few guitars from Sweetwater that were first rate from a quality perspective as well as a transactional perspective.

I was really leery about not being able to physically play one first but I'm pretty comfortable with them now.
As a musician, I'd rather shop locally and be able to browse instruments by playing them. There is nothing like the thrill of just wandering around a cool music store. Guitar Center had its purpose for me, but shopping there felt purely functional. The sales staff had "specialities" in terms of where they were assigned, but I rarely found someone who had deep knowledge or interest in what they sold. One notable exception in my general experience: the GC in Hollywood is amazing. They have a killer vintage / high end selection, and everything there is both a great musician, and they know their stuff.

GC edged out a lot of mom-and-pop music stores, and the ones that remained had to be pretty scrappy. I make a point of shopping local music stores whenever I am on tour or just traveling. At this point, a lot of the gear I buy would be a special order for any music store. Very few stores would have a reason to stock esoteric / boutique gear. That led me to shopping online.

I initially found it a little unnerving to buy a guitar sight unseen. However, over the past several years I have purchased a number of instruments from Sweetwater, including a Strandberg Boden that cost me $3K. Before shipping, they send several high resolution photos of the specific instrument that I am purchasing, showing that it is in pristine condition. My guitars and basses have arrived double boxed with a layer of padding between them, having gone through a full inspection and setup by Sweetwater. They are perfectly in tune, and there isn't so much as a fingerprint on them. My sales rep is professional and knowledgable, and he alerts me when something new or cool arrives in stock. And they do have a return policy if you're unhappy.

I will also add this: I bought my Fractal gear sight unseen. When I bought my AxeFX II, I had never plugged into one. But I knew from the artist comments, and the general reputation that it was a good product. Same for my AX8, AxeFX III, and FM3.

I don't have much of a reaction to the possibility of GC's demise, other than regret for the employees who might lose their jobs. I never felt GC as a company added any value to transaction, and they really didn't differentiate themselves from any other music retailer - except for just being huge and generally well stocked.

Reputation, customer service, and integrity are everything. I will gladly pay a premium to businesses who differentiate themselves. Low price alone is just a race to the bottom, and that always comes at the cost of quality.
 
I dont know maybe I lucked out the GC (Commack NY) has always been pretty decent to me and good with trade ins also.

Make me a offer and tell me what they will list it for, it was always fair.

Also had a good experiance with GC (Greensboro NC) about 7 years ago while visiting a friend in NC.

I still prefer mom and pop, but not all GC's are bad.
 
I called the local Guitar Center today and said I'd heard they'd filed for bankruptcy and asked if they were still open, and when they'd be closing down. They said they weren't closing down and that they had just been bought by a new company.
 
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