Posted on 11/22/2020 12:06:38 PM PST by wastedyears
The filing by the nation’s largest retailer of musical instruments highlights the growing gap between the strongest and weakest companies in the pandemic.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
It’s only chapter 11, but still sucks to see, even if their “deals” are garbage.
Meh, I buy all my stuff from Sweetwater these days.
That was a company who treated their employees like s**t.
You would think business would be brisk with all the stay at homes looking for a new hobby / develop skill??
"The company was acquired by Bain Capital, the private equity firm, in 2007 for $1.9 billion. But, like many such deals, the buyout left Guitar Center heavily indebted just as online rivals began to emerge. To reduce the debt load, some of Guitar Center’s debt was converted to equity, making Ares Management the majority shareholder in 2014."
As a guitar player myself, I remember when you could barely walk through a Guitar Center without tripping over a guitar. These days, there's ample vacant space on the shelves (where guitars used to hang). The change happened, oh, around a decade or so ago.
I got my first real six string at the five and dime.
Ditto. Or Reverb, 'cause I'll shop for a deal.
A non-NY Slimes source:
https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/us-retailer-guitar-center-files-for-bankruptcy
Ping to the Guitar List! (Finally!)
All post-pandemic articles:
Fender Posts Record-Breaking Sales in 2020
Guitar sales on the rise for American guitar makers and local guitar shops
That said, Reverb.com has destroyed Guitar Center. It's cheaper with much better variety and the photos are waaaay better than the silhouettes you get on Guitar Center's site. For a while I was running a guitar shop on Reverb and I was doing pretty well. They added sales tax and then raised their fees and there's no money in it for me anymore but I made enough to totally pay for the two sort of high end guitars I own (I only own two). Worked out okay for me!
“Forget about all that macho s..t and learn how to play guitar!”
GET WOKE>>>>GO BROKE!!
Weird considering Gibson and Fender are having one of their best years in decades, forestalling BK.
You would think business would be brisk with all the stay at homes looking for a new hobby / develop skill??
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In 2017 two of us offered to teach high school students guitar. No one was interested. They actually perceived the notion that they would ever want to as strange. They are LISTENERS and consumers, they don’t see a need for them to learn to play when you can download or stream everything.
That was a small school so there’s that. But it was as if the “need” to sing or play music has atrophied.
I go to the Guitar Center here in Hollywood. NSometimes it’s Nadine’s and they have almost the same history as GC. It’s like going to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Signed pictures from Metallica’s Hetfield etc line the walls and every clerk know their stuff. If I need something quick and money’s not an option I go there first before Nadine’s.
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