Guitar Center in Trouble

[Christian Reno]

I personally don’t like the direction all of retail is heading, but…Online sales, no matter what the product, will eventually cause more and more brick and mortar stores to be closed. It’s just a fact of life. Some of these larger companies will start by closing some stores to start, and then simply go to strictly online sales, and some will close completely giving it up to Amazon.

There are enough buyers in the hunt for guitars who are willing to go online to buy a particular make and model based on general overall reputation rather than insisting on trying it out to make sure the instrument is to their liking. Add to that – they can get the guitar in two days (most places) at a reasonable price and even return it if they don’t like it.

Eastman, Martin, Taylor, Breedlove, Yamaha, etc. all ship a fairly standard level of quality and standard set up for their particular brand. Amazon will play middle-man for Taylor, Martin, Breedlove etc. They already have a huge portion of all online sales in just about any consumer product line.
I believe we will have a few mom and pop shops that will ultimately remain to serve the immediate needs of musicians such as needing a mic or cable for tonight’s show and can’t wait two days for an Amazon shipment, but Amazon is even going towards a model where their warehouses will be in so many areas that same day delivery is possible. And we’ve all heard about the drone delivery programs underway.

Those who live in less populated areas and had a GC within practical driving distance will miss GC the most.

[Athens]

Originally Posted by zombywoof

You would need a warehouse to store all the rumors of the pending demise of CG.

+ this. If I had a dollar for every tine I heard this......

[Jambi]

Seems like many of the the employees have been less smarmy and more amiable lately, coincidence?

[fazool]

Merchandising evolves with societal changes.

"Back in the day" a General Store had everything you could buy and shopping was an excursion if you were outside the town.

Roving wagon-laden traveling salesmen hit the remote rural spots, bringing the store to the folks in the boondocks.

Main street was a shopping center in every town with mom-and-pop shops lining both sides.

Department stores consolidated the wares of small shops into different departments all in the same store.

Sears & Roebuck created the catalog shopping phenomenon.

Malls popped up to centralize shopping in indoor settings.

Strip malls polluted the suburbs.

Walmart reinvented low-cost massive department store shopping.

Amazon defined online shopping.

Amazon is doing to Walmart what Walmart did to Sears, which Sears did to mom-and-pop shops, etc.

[AHill]

While I agree rumors of GC's impending demise are legion, one thing is a fact - they have a VERY POOR credit rating. Investors don't hang onto companies that bleed red ink for very long. Especially the kind of red ink GC is bleeding. It's only a matter of time before they get reorganized to be more efficient. What's happening to GC is what's happening to K-Mart and Sears. They need to close the redundant stores, consolidate inventory, reduce the scope of what they sell in-store, and focus on customer service.

My opinion, based on some pretty good experience in a multi-billion dollar company which was nearly bankrupt 30 years ago, and is now number one and quite profitable in it's market segment.

[JeffreyAK]

Originally Posted by justonwo

We also have some shops in our area that beat the pants off GC. Gryphon. Schoenberg. Guitar Showcase. Gelb.

I don’t go to Guitar Center anymore. They simply don’t have much that interests me. The other stores are much better, have more knowledgeable staff, and similar prices. They raced everyone to the bottom and then got caught by a shrinking market. If I wanted an electric, I’d go to Guitar Showcase or buy used online. For acoustics, Schoenberg or Gryphon.

Right, they don't have a lot in the guitar section. I might buy an amp there (I haven't), I'd buy effects there (I have), and I have bought misc. stuff like picks, guitar tuner, cables, stands, etc. I probably would not buy an electric guitar from them, I definitely would not buy an acoustic guitar from them, I'd go to Gryphon or buy online. So to me they don't really give me much reason to drive to any of their half-dozen local stores, and when I do it's for some specific thing when I happen to be nearby.

[Tony Burns]

From what ive read , Martin is having problems as well -I guess theirs no one unscathed .
Have always wondered how many guitars are out their , or on average how many the average guitarist has -or has but doesnt need .
Years ago I would say 2 guitars ( 1 electric and one acoustic ) -
Do you know anyone who has just two guitars today ?
As i get older i plan on thinning out the heard - guessing if I'm thinking that, I'm not the only one.

I know being flexible to change production which is determined by demand , like Mandolins -classical guitars etc. helps

[frankmcr]

Originally Posted by zombywoof

You would need a warehouse to store all the rumors of the pending demise of CG.

Unfortunately, all potential warehouse space is already bulging with stories about Gibson and Fender going out of business.

[Rmz76]

Originally Posted by fazool

Merchandising evolves with societal changes.

"Back in the day" a General Store had everything you could buy and shopping was an excursion if you were outside the town.

Roving wagon-laden traveling salesmen hit the remote rural spots, bringing the store to the folks in the boondocks.

Main street was a shopping center in every town with mom-and-pop shops lining both sides.

Department stores consolidated the wares of small shops into different departments all in the same store.

Sears & Roebuck created the catalog shopping phenomenon.

Malls popped up to centralize shopping in indoor settings.

Strip malls polluted the suburbs.

Walmart reinvented low-cost massive department store shopping.

Amazon defined online shopping.

Amazon is doing to Walmart what Walmart did to Sears, which Sears did to mom-and-pop shops, etc.

What you're describing is just natural selection. Innovation is the blood of Capitalism, it moves us forward... There are always winners and loosers and it sucks to be on the loosing end, but that's the way competition is. The consumer generally wins. It's not 5th grade where everyone gets a trophy at the end of the competition.

The reality is when Guitar Center first opened it doors in (pick any major city) in the 1980s and 1990s they forced the doors to close on a lot of mom and pop stores who couldn't compete. I actually felt something for those owners because some of them I knew and I saw what they went through.

But many of them are still around. They were forced to make some changes to stay competitive and the ones that did made it. The on-line retail revolution has brought opportunity. Opportunity seized well by retailers like Wildwood Guitars, Music Villa, Shoreline Music, Maury's Music, Sweetwater, Chicago Music Exchange the list goes on! The owners of these stores have put a lot of money into video content to showcase products and market themselves in the new age of retail... In any industry or market you have to be on your toes, look for waves on innovation and be willing to spend some money to jump on those waves. If you aren't clever and are set in your ways of doing business. You may hold on to loyal customers but you won't win enough new ones to stay in business long term.


Guitar Center brought the big selection, but never the same level of passion and customer service as the old mom and pop stores in the pre-GC days. They are and always have been (in my city) a corporate behemoth. So while I feel largely neutral about them there will be some satisfaction in watching them fall... Not because I hate Guitar Center, but because there is no excuse for a corporation their size... No excuse for them to NOT have hired the right minds to come up with a plan, to innovate and to compete.

I bet if they surveyed only AGF they could get dozens of ideas for ways to change and be more competitive. They won't. Others here know more about them than I do, but Bain Capital's actions are rather predictable. They've gone through this with several of their investments... Spoiler alert: it never ends well for the big retailer they own.

If Guitar Center faces demise, Guitar Center earned it and they deserve it. I'm not close friends with any GC employees at the moment, but I know many names and faces who I have seen working for decades and I do not want to see these people loose their jobs, but we've been talking about this for years and they can read these reports to... They know what's likely coming....

[aknow]

Originally Posted by justonwo

We also have some shops in our area that beat the pants off GC. Gryphon. Schoenberg. Guitar Showcase. Gelb.

I don’t go to Guitar Center anymore. They simply don’t have much that interests me. The other stores are much better, have more knowledgeable staff, and similar prices. They raced everyone to the bottom and then got caught by a shrinking market. If I wanted an electric, I’d go to Guitar Showcase or buy used online. For acoustics, Schoenberg or Gryphon.

Going to the GC is almost always a Grating, annoying, unpleasant experience. In the late '60's I didn't mind the bad players, cause you could buy a late '50s les paul or a 60's strat for less then $400. After EVH hit, you needed earplugs to enter their stores, especially Hollywood, but they would give Great deals. ALL of that changed except the noise.

[rickwaugh]

Most of the big box retailers don't cater to the top end market. They make their bread and butter off kids learning instruments, school bands, etc. At least, here in Canada, that's what they do, I'm assuming it's the same in the US. Not sure what's going on with that market, but there's less impetus from kids to learn guitar now, not like it was many years ago, and I think a lot less music education going on.

That being said, we have a few very nice smaller stores here in Vancouver. The big box stores, Long and McQuade and Tom Lee, both seem to be doing fine. No rumours of their demise. I have never heard the level of complaints about their service the way I hear Americans talk about GC, so maybe it is just a badly run business. And/Or, the business is changing.

For specialty items like guitars and guitar bits and pieces, I still tend to want to buy from a music store, online or local, rather than Amazon. And I still have always tried every single guitar I've bought.

[Mr. Paul]

Originally Posted by aknow

... After EVH hit, you needed earplugs to enter their stores, especially Hollywood...

I've noticed that a large % of cool vintage acoustics listed on the GC website are located at the Hollywood store and have wondered if their selection is as good as it seems by browsing the web listings.

[Chriscom]

I really enjoy the GC I regularly visit in the Northern Virginia/ DC area where I bought my top-end Martin. Lots of selection, basically three different playing rooms for acoustic, and I ended up with an exceptionally informed salesman.

There are probably too many GCs around here but economicly this is a bit of a Wonderland - - i think the top five counities in terms of US income are here.

I recently walked into a local guitar shop in Pittsburgh looking for some kind of DI for my acoustic guitar I was gonna play later that night. Helpful staff but they only had pedals for electric. Which I thought was odd because they have a large, amply stocked humidity controlled room full of Taylor's in the back, and other acoustics elsewhere.

[1neeto]

Ah yes the guitar center is dying thread. Yep it’s been years and I’m actually surprised they’re still in business. Also Fender and Gibson are heavily invested in GC, so if GC goes, it’s gonna hit them hard and it’s not like they’re doing great either. This could have a very bad snowball effect.

Big box guitar store is a terrible business model. Today in the age of the dying brick and mortar, music instruments are not disposable items, even cheap guitars can last decades. The model depends heavily in new customer acquisition, which means sub $500 guitars is what sells. And at that price range they need to sell tons of those Squiers to make a significant net profit.

[Orfeas]

Is it me or some people just brutally hate that store? Maybe I am wrong...