Posted on 02/05/2015 1:26:44 PM PST by Itaintwhy
This is an obituary for Guitar Center, a chain of big box musical instrument stores that was captured and infected by private equity during a national trend of greed and reckless expansionism in the late-1990s and early-2000s. The company started as a Los Angeles organ store, became a successful purveyor of guitars after the Beatles arrived in the United States, evolved into a national competitor over a period of decades, and shall finish, with sad poetry, as the symbol of everything dysfunctional about American corporate finance, management, and retail in the modern age.
(Excerpt) Read more at ericgarland.co ...
Modern music ping
He might be right. I know when I visit GC I see lots of inventory and few real buyers except an assortment of teenage “wankers” who use the store for practice. However the article also said they have 28% market share. Did I read that right? Seems they could sell off some stores and live to fight another day
I think the larger point is larger than guitars. Big box brick and mortar stores will continue to be under assault by internet based stores. In this case musicians friend does well and could continue without GC.
I do like to go to stores to touch the merchandise so I find this trend to be sad.
And, like the occasional good shot in golf, it's the occasional breakthroughs that keep you on your seat playing.
Happy picking. I use to play continuously, but haven't played 30 minutes in the past 10 years. To my detriment.
Just be glad there’s no DRUM CENTER nearby..............
my friend owns the local music store. i buy all of my gear from him.
but its nice to go gc on a sunday and handle any number of instruments, listen to amps, or whatever. i will miss them if they close even though i dont buy much if anything from them.
The nature of the product in this case argues for local retail instead of internet/mail order. Everyone in the family but me plays all sorts of instruments (guitars, electric guitars, banjos, ukuleles, etc. ad infinitum), and they wouldn’t buy one without trying it, even electric guitars.
The Mexican made Martin parlor guitar is actually pretty good after set up. Old timey Robert Johnson kinda sound. BIL bought one and I set it up/broke it in. You have
to like the OLD sound though.
“This just means they will have to close the brick and mortar stores.”
Then where will lame white guys congregate to butcher classic rock solos? Did you even think about that?!?
Yeah, I have a friend interested in learning guitar, but he has no interest in playing acoustic stuff. I told him “Go start on acoustic anyways”. It doesn’t hide your flaws and sloppy playing like an electric does.
So, if you learn to play on an acoustic, then playing on an electric is a walk in the park. If you learn on an electric, playing on an acoustic is a nightmare.
GC is closing?? I guess retailing is dieing... Radio Shack and now GC...
LOVE my Martin. Been playing it for at least 8 years now, all broken in, every scratch (and there are a LOT) is MINE. Wouldn’t give it up for anything. Electric...meh....
Probably. I know the main GC here in Jacksonville has about 1/2 the inventory it had a couple of years ago. Lot's of empty space. The second store that opened seems to be much smaller. Also, a couple big names like PRS and Mesa pulled their stuff. Fender is selling direct now. Gibson may follow suit.
Well this stinks.
The problem, once you read though all of the hyperbole, is the leveraged buy out, LBO, was really messed up.
Where do you find investors this dumb? Really, I want to know, I am in the capitol market now.
The private equity firms violated THE golden rule of financial leverage, e.g trade a appreciating asset for an deprecating asset. They did the reverse.
The trade they made was to trade high interest rate bonds, an (appreciating asset) for a deprecating asset (a static asset like Guitar Center).
That’s a shame. I bought my Danelectro at the one in Sherman Oaks.
operative wphrase....... California company
California kills businesses
So, if you learn to play on an acoustic, then playing on an electric is a walk in the park. If you learn on an electric, playing on an acoustic is a nightmare.
I tell everyone the opposite for the same reason. Start on electric. It's easier to play. Too many people start playing acoustic thinking they'll get an electric if they pick it up (when they really wanted an electric guitar in the first place). They get discouraged, throw in the towel, the instrument sits in their closet or winds up on Craig's List and they never pick up a guitar again.
Plus, electric guitars are infinitely more cool than acoustic guitars are.
BTW
This works for governments too.
The Greeks for example, took out loans in an appreciating asset, the Euro, for a deprecating asset, Greek debt.
In effect they got themselves into a situation that they could not repay when the Euro went up 140% in the 2000’s
“They get discouraged, throw in the towel, the instrument sits in their closet or winds up on Craig’s List and they never pick up a guitar again.”
Good. If they get discouraged that quick, then they’ll never get any good, even if they play electric. They might get mediocre, perhaps, but not good, and we already have a surplus of mediocre guitar players :)
Oh, so true! (Guitar Center sells drums, too, though. Unnngh.)
Non-working stage gear, and they would not make good on it. Had to go through credit card means and gain a charge back.
They won’t be around much longer either except as the liquidator perhaps by design of Ares.
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