What's going on at Taylor Guitars?

[TennesseeWalker]

So many companies these days want to have and/or maintain their presence in the marketplace and cut out
personnel expenses by using the Amazon/Walmart marketing model.

Order online to cut down expenses for the sellers, returns to specific locations to again, cut down on costs.

Taylor as well as many other retailers appear to be well on their path to this or similar business models.
Wait until AI kicks in, that may be a whole 'nuther level of ways to shop, buy and return goods (i.e. guitars)

[Goat Mick]

My local Mom & Pop has been a Taylor dealer since the early 1990's and this year they decided to drop the line. I used to work there in the 80's and I'm close friends with the owner and staff, they told me that Taylor's dealer policy changed this year and the purchase requirement increased quite a bit. It's been a couple of months since I talked to them about this but I think they said it was about a $40k required inventory purchase to remain a dealer. This is a relatively high volume store for a Mom & Pop in a small town and they usually kept about 20 Taylors in stock.

[CharlieBman]

Originally Posted by Goat Mick

My local Mom & Pop has been a Taylor dealer since the early 1990's and this year they decided to drop the line. I used to work there in the 80's and I'm close friends with the owner and staff, they told me that Taylor's dealer policy changed this year and the purchase requirement increased quite a bit. It's been a couple of months since I talked to them about this but I think they said it was about a $40k required inventory purchase to remain a dealer. This is a relatively high volume store for a Mom & Pop in a small town and they usually kept about 20 Taylors in stock.

This kind of thing really rubs me the wrong way. I know it happens all the time, but I despise any kind of corporate profit over people business model that puts the squeeze on small business. This makes me less likely to buy or recommend the Taylor brand.

[Goat Mick]

Originally Posted by CharlieBman

This kind of thing really rubs me the wrong way. I know it happens all the time, but I despise any kind of corporate profit over people business model that puts the squeeze on small business. This makes me less likely to buy or recommend the Taylor brand.

Unfortunately all of the major manufacturers are moving to this model. Taylor is just the latest. Gibson did it several years ago, and I suspect Martin is going to head in this direction before long. The others did it as a push to move customers to the big box stores like Guitar Center, Taylor is going towards a buy direct platform.

[Tnfiddler]

Glad I’m not looking for another guitar!

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by Guitars44me

In order to be a Taylor dealer you Must order a LOT of guitars. This effectively eliminates almost all mom and pop stores…

Not sure of the $ amount or how many, but I understand it is a LOT.

Fortunately for the small guys there are LOTS of used instruments out there.

Especially now the pandemic is “over” and lots of aspiring guitarists have realized the 10,000 hour rule is a real thing…

Much faster to get to the top at guitar hero. Hahahah

Cheers

Paul

Our local brick and mortar is a Taylor dealer and I can assure you they DO NOT order a LOT of Taylor guitars. I'm not sure exactly how the Taylor dealer network operates, but moving a LOT of guitars isn't a prerequisite, at least in our town of 130,000.

A Guitar Center opened here maybe 6 years ago and it hasn't effected their Taylor availability or selection either.

[29er]

I'm guessing this is happening in most of the retail world. High end bicycle brands have been doing it for a while now. A customer can order the bike direct from the web site and have the bike delivered to the local dealer, who must assemble the bike before it's delivered to the customer. For their effort the dealer makes far less profit than if the customer bought the bike from dealer stock.

The dealers are not happy with fewer dollars in their pocket and quite often the customer is not happy when they buy a bike that doesn't fit them, or the color isn't what it looked like on their computer screen. Unfortunately, yelling at the internet won't make this go away.

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by 29er

I'm guessing this is happening in most of the retail world. High end bicycle brands have been doing it for a while now. A customer can order the bike direct from the web site and have the bike delivered to the local dealer, who must assemble the bike before it's delivered to the customer. For their effort the dealer makes far less profit than if the customer bought the bike from dealer stock.

The dealers are not happy with fewer dollars in their pocket and quite often the customer is not happy when they buy a bike that doesn't fit them, or the color isn't what it looked like on their computer screen. Unfortunately, yelling at the internet won't make this go away.

That's the gamble that's taken, along with what the consumer agrees is an "acceptable level of risk" to, as they say at Menard's, "Save Big Money".

[Brent Hutto]

With rare exceptions, the trade-off is you can buy Guitar locally after demoing it in the store but you better be sure you like it because they ain’t taking it back. Or you can order one site unseen online and if you don’t like it, send it back and possibly try again. For the moment, both modes are available in most areas to potential Taylor buyers. sounds like a win-win to me.

[Carolina Blues]

Originally Posted by Sarhog

There are 3 Taylor dealers in Upstate South Carolina, is there a reason to avoid them?

Two of them are Guitar Centers, so yes.

The third is is in Rock Hill, 2.5 hours from me.

[Brent Nelson]

The classified section here is regularly recommended as a "go to" option for buying instruments -- of course used. And there are any number of other forums that are similar (i.e. Reverb). I would bet the majority of Taylor sales are online now. Me? I love my local brick and mortar stores. But....I get it.

[tstrahle]

This might explain why, other than an unmanned desk, they weren't at the NAMM Show.

[Sarhog]

Originally Posted by Carolina Blues

Two of them are Guitar Centers, so yes.

The third is is in Rock Hill, 2.5 hours from me.

Roper Music in Spartanburg is a Taylor dealer and has a nice selection of them.

[dnf777]

Originally Posted by CharlieBman

This kind of thing really rubs me the wrong way. I know it happens all the time, but I despise any kind of corporate profit over people business model that puts the squeeze on small business. This makes me less likely to buy or recommend the Taylor brand.

Me too, Charlie. But on-line marketing and those doggone horseless buggys are gonna be the end of days!

The pendulum may swing back (like vinyl records) but likely only a small niche of brick-n-mortar shops will endure….or large shops with an equally large on-line presence. ie Carters, Gruhns, etc…

I remember not long ago emphatically drawing a line short of on-line shoe sales. (How can you try on shoes on a screen?). Yet here we are, not having bought shoes in a shoestore for a good 7-10 years!

[Br1ck]

Perhaps they don't want you comparing Taylors to other brands. Just saying. Don't like the guitar we sent you? Return it for another Taylor.

Why wouldn't they want to pocket the dealer profit along with the manufacturer margins? And this comparison shopping the OP says has led him to other brands is a problem. I suspect a shop I know who stocks Eastman arch tops and mandolins has no Eastman flat tops because they have to sell a lot of Taylors to meet quotas. IMHO Taylor is better at marketing than building. Playing to strengths is good business. Yes, not a Taylor fan for all the reasons Taylor fans are. But I want to compare them side by side. That is how I arrived at my opinion. I don't like the brightness, the necks or the aesthetics. I could overlook aesthetics, but not tone or playability. It is long past the time to replace the ES2 pickup system too. Played a Cole Clark?


Beware premium online dealer. Taylor will cut you out as soon as they can.

Lest you think I'm ganging up on Taylor, any of the manufacturers will do what works for the bottom line. Do you think any of them want to do what it takes to make Sweetwater happy? And they sort of need dealers for people to get their hands on product. There are still some of us left. Buying from forum opinion, specs, and marketing, both direct and from online influencers, seems the very worst way to buy a guitar. It is only the very overall good quality of the product that makes it work at all. But every business is going the same direction. Insurance, Real Estate, you name it. We are killing the middle class. Willingly.