"Guitar" Center rant

Guitargodgt said:
Yep, and according to the local business both Gibson and Fender have made it near impossible to carry their line if your not big box because the min order has gone up through the years.

Plus all the "crap" that everyone refers to is easier to sell. Easier to blow out cheap shit like strings, sub $200 amps and guitars than it is a $4k les paul that might sit for a year or more before it walks out the door. Especially if your a small store.
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And not only that, huge companies like Gibson and Fender will dictate how many other brands and which models you can carry before they let you sell their stuff. For example, if you carry more Ibanezes or ESP's than Gibson is comfortable with...then too bad for you. cut back on your non-Gibson inventory or you don't get to sell any new Gibsons. Good luck with that. Better stock up on used stuff.
 
Victory Pete said:
I can beat their prices and not lose money. Guitar Center pays the same dealer costs as anyone else. That is the way distributors keep all their dealers treated fairly. Guitar Center can sell for less because they do sell alot.

VP
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That's not true and I have a lotta years in retail music stores.

There are different discount shedules depending on how much you buy. The last music store I tuned pianos for was a fairly largish independent store and I got dealers cost on anything I bought.
VERY frequently their cost would be more than GC sold the item for. GC's not selling at a loss ..... they could do that because their cost was lower than the independent's cost.
 
Lt. Bob said:
That's not true and I have a lotta years in retail music stores.

There are different discount shedules depending on how much you buy. The last music store I tuned pianos for was a fairly largish independent store and I got dealers cost on anything I bought.
VERY frequently their cost would be more than GC sold the item for. GC's not selling at a loss ..... they could do that because their cost was lower than the independent's cost.
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I get discounts also from my suppliers depending on how much I order. GC does sell under cost sometimes, a lot of what I bought 3 years ago was under cost. The Manager I was dealing with showed me. I guess that is why he is not around anymore.

VP
 
Victory Pete said:
I get discounts also from my suppliers depending on how much I order. GC does sell under cost sometimes, a lot of what I bought 3 years ago was under cost. The Manager I was dealing with showed me. I guess that is why he is not around anymore.

VP
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I'm not disputing whatever deals you may have gotten.
But that's a individual, specific to you, occurance.
In general they don't sell stuff at a loss. They'll have loss leaders but they'll tend to be things like strings and such where they don't lose much.

But overall, like any business, G.C. has to make a profit even if it's small.

Ultimately though, my point was that they don't pay the exact same dealer's cost as any mom and pop store ...... they almost always pay less.
You have A , B and C discounts and then with quantity buys the discount can go up quite a bit.

You'll get stuff like 45, 10 and 5 where if you buy a certain quantity you get 45% off ... and then 10% off that and then another 5% off THAT.

Those quantities are usually larger than would make sense for a mom and pop to stock.
 
Lt. Bob said:
I'm not disputing whatever deals you may have gotten.
But that's a individual, specific to you, occurance.
In general they don't sell stuff at a loss. They'll have loss leaders but they'll tend to be things like strings and such where they don't lose much.

But overall, like any business, G.C. has to make a profit even if it's small.

Ultimately though, my point was that they don't pay the exact same dealer's cost as any mom and pop store ...... they almost always pay less.
You have A , B and C discounts and then with quantity buys the discount can go up quite a bit.

You'll get stuff like 45, 10 and 5 where if you buy a certain quantity you get 45% off ... and then 10% off that and then another 5% off THAT.

Those quantities are usually larger than would make sense for a mom and pop to stock.
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Do you have a Sales Tax Number?
VP
 
Victory Pete said:
Do you have a Sales Tax Number?
VP
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I do. I've had one for 12 years. That has nothing to do with small-time buying power vs big national chain. If you have one, you can buy at wholesale prices, which makes your arguments irrelevant to the discussion at hand and completely useless. Try again, you trollfraud.
 
Greg_L said:
And not only that, huge companies like Gibson and Fender will dictate how many other brands and which models you can carry before they let you sell their stuff. For example, if you carry more Ibanezes or ESP's than Gibson is comfortable with...then too bad for you. cut back on your non-Gibson inventory or you don't get to sell any new Gibsons. Good luck with that. Better stock up on used stuff.
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I know the markup on shit like cable is absolutely insane. My brother used to get cable at cost when he worked at best buy. 3 monster cables, $140 sold to him for $12.

That is the shit that keep the doors open, why people are surprised the employees push that shit is beyond me. That and the "do you want extra smurf coverage in case smurfs invade your gear?"

I'm willing to bet that only 40% if that ever comes to call on that worthless extra coverage.
 
Guitargodgt said:
I know the markup on shit like cable is absolutely insane. My brother used to get cable at cost when he worked at best buy. 3 monster cables, $140 sold to him for $12.

That is the shit that keep the doors open, why people are surprised the employees push that shit is beyond me. That and the "do you want extra smurf coverage in case smurfs invade your gear?"

I'm willing to bet that only 40% if that ever comes to call on that worthless extra coverage.
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That's any retail place. You can buy a toaster oven from Best Buy and they'll push the 2 year insurance on you. It's a fucking toaster oven.
 
Guitargodgt said:
I know the markup on shit like cable is absolutely insane. My brother used to get cable at cost when he worked at best buy. 3 monster cables, $140 sold to him for $12.

That is the shit that keep the doors open, why people are surprised the employees push that shit is beyond me. That and the "do you want extra smurf coverage in case smurfs invade your gear?"

I'm willing to bet that only 40% if that ever comes to call on that worthless extra coverage.
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Cable markup is usually more like 50%. Still crazy, but not THAT crazy. But yeah. As for coverage, some people hate them, but the GC ones, at least, are pretty comprehensive (commercial use, damage that's your fault, blah blah). I am told (by the company that provides those, of course) that about 2/3 (60% or so) of the people who purchase a plan end up using it. It wouldn't surprise me if a lot of those are people who "broke" an item and just want the money to buy something else. I frequently tell people they can do that as long as the company thinks it's an accident. Hell, I've done that. It's great. The main reason we have to push them is they are a necessary part of buying back the company after having sold our souls to Bain Capitol.
 
I went to a different GC today - Natick, MA (usual one is Nashua, NH) because they had a used Martin acoustic listed at $450 and a Takamine at $300 that I wanted to look at.

After visiting this store, I can see why some people have nothing but disdain for GC. The tuner on the Martin's electronics only showed the up and down arrows for all the strings but low E and A. The lowest Martin model, I guess they felt it wasn't doing anything with? So I pulled the Tak off the wall. High E string 7th fret - WTF? All the strings are bottoming out on the frets from 7 up to about 13 or 14. I look at the neck and can see a bulge in it.
Those were the only used acoustics I was interested in (my price range), so I went to try a few of the new guitars out - none of them were set up right, most had dull old strings, too! I asked a guy who trying out some guitars in the high end acoustic room about this particular store and he told me that they just don't seem to care!
 
mjbphotos said:
I went to a different GC today - Natick, MA (usual one is Nashua, NH) because they had a used Martin acoustic listed at $450 and a Takamine at $300 that I wanted to look at.

After visiting this store, I can see why some people have nothing but disdain for GC. The tuner on the Martin's electronics only showed the up and down arrows for all the strings but low E and A. The lowest Martin model, I guess they felt it wasn't doing anything with? So I pulled the Tak off the wall. High E string 7th fret - WTF? All the strings are bottoming out on the frets from 7 up to about 13 or 14. I look at the neck and can see a bulge in it.
Those were the only used acoustics I was interested in (my price range), so I went to try a few of the new guitars out - none of them were set up right, most had dull old strings, too! I asked a guy who trying out some guitars in the high end acoustic room about this particular store and he told me that they just don't seem to care!
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Imagine running a guitar shop, where most of the punters want to come in and try but not buy, wearing out your strings, scratching up your new instruments so they're virtually second-hand before your actual customer hands over their money. Playing the same shite, day in, day out...
 
Bubba po said:
Imagine running a guitar shop, where most of the punters want to come in and try but not buy, wearing out your strings, scratching up your new instruments so they're virtually second-hand before your actual customer hands over their money. Playing the same shite, day in, day out...
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I understand that part, but who is going to buy a guitar that frets out over half the fingerboard? During my time in the acoustic rooms, there was the other guy I talked to and one other guy earlier - on a Saturday afternoon at 1pm. Price tag-wise, they had $100K of guitars in those 2 rooms. Cost-wise maybe $30-40K. That's a lot of money in inventory that you are not taking care of and won't sell in its current condition.
 
mjbphotos said:
I understand that part, but who is going to buy a guitar that frets out over half the fingerboard? During my time in the acoustic rooms, there was the other guy I talked to and one other guy earlier - on a Saturday afternoon at 1pm. Price tag-wise, they had $100K of guitars in those 2 rooms. Cost-wise maybe $30-40K. That's a lot of money in inventory that you are not taking care of and won't sell in its current condition.
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I went to a guitar center today with a problem from a previous purchase. They are going way above and beyond to remedy the situation, and I couldn't be happier. I can't say I've ever had a bad experience with GC that wasn't easily fixed.
 
Perhaps the Guitar Center outlets are variable in quality? I assume they're a franchise, with different qualities of staff and management? I do agree that the better an instrument plays, the more the likelihood of a sale. It's basic presentation of your goods, isn't it?
 
mjbphotos said:
I went to a different GC today - Natick, MA (usual one is Nashua, NH) because they had a used Martin acoustic listed at $450 and a Takamine at $300 that I wanted to look at.

After visiting this store, I can see why some people have nothing but disdain for GC. The tuner on the Martin's electronics only showed the up and down arrows for all the strings but low E and A. The lowest Martin model, I guess they felt it wasn't doing anything with? So I pulled the Tak off the wall. High E string 7th fret - WTF? All the strings are bottoming out on the frets from 7 up to about 13 or 14. I look at the neck and can see a bulge in it.
Those were the only used acoustics I was interested in (my price range), so I went to try a few of the new guitars out - none of them were set up right, most had dull old strings, too! I asked a guy who trying out some guitars in the high end acoustic room about this particular store and he told me that they just don't seem to care!
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Yeah ..... it's gotten kinda bad at Nashua GC.



Goodbye Jon. :(
 
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