Guitar stores wiggle room on pricing?

[LemonOswald]

Originally Posted by Jwills57

I tend these days to deal with the guitar shops we probably all know, like The Music Emporium, Acoustic Music Works, Down Home Guitars, to name a few prominent examples. My thinking is that running a brick and mortar shop in the current economic climate is really, really hard. I want these shops to be around for the foreseeable future. They mostly have knowledgable, helpful employees, take good care of the guitars in the shop, make high-quality demo videos, and are on point with custom orders. Maybe I could get a couple hundred bucks off the price of a $5 K guitar if I went wild internet shopping, but, again, to my mind, the financial upside to me is not worth the possible financial downside to the shop, including the very real possibility that that shop might have to close its doors permanently when the owner realizes he just can't cut $200 off the price of a $5 K for everyone who calls in. Word tends to get around. On a smaller scale, too, I would feel pretty crappy if for me and a couple hundred other customers to save $200, the owner had to lay off a couple of long-time employees. I don't want to be a part of that. Of course, this is just me talking, and I know a lot folks kind of enjoy the chase--nothing wrong with that.

Wise words, in my opinion. My guess is that most folks on this forum want these kinds of stores to do well. I certainly do.

[Dwight]

Ask them if they can take 15% off, they will then likely tell you what they can do. They will appreciate that more then if you test guitars in their shop and then buy it on line.