What's up with GC?

[anotherfreak2]

I don't hit ebay very often, so maybe I'll missing something but,

IS Guitar Center trying to corner the market on used Hamers on ebay?

I have to admit, I am still looking for a fretless Cruise IV and when some body posts their guitar for sale and I would like to look at, I might get to looking around on ebay just to see what else is out there. So today almost everything I look at is a GC seller.

Are they taking over the free market?

[serial]

The whole world, I fear.

[killertone]

Pure Evil.

[kurtsstuff]

Oh man...Don't even get me started.....

[thecajunboy]

The whole world, I fear.

SO they're moving in on WalMart's turf?

[MCChris]

Pure Evil.

I worked there from 9/91 to 2/93 (back then there were 15 stores; now how many are there, a thousand?). I've been to the headquarters in Cali. I've met many members of upper management, and it's uncanny how similar their personalities are.

killertone's assessment is very close if not right on the money.

[anotherfreak2]

Why are they so BIG if everyone feels this way?

I hear stories ALL the time with people complaining about how the guitars are dirty, out of tune, or unaccessable. They complain about how the sales people are generally clueless about most products. They keep going BACK!

Are there some stores that are great and keeping the others afloat?

How do they keep buying up all those collectable guitars?

Why do people keep going back.

I'm really not trying to be sarcastic, I just want to figure out what they are doing right.

[Lockbody]

McDonalds is worlds number one burger. Does that make it the best?

[jettster]

Why are they so BIG if everyone feels this way?

I hear stories ALL the time with people complaining about how the guitars are dirty, out of tune, or unaccessable. They complain about how the sales people are generally clueless about most products. They keep going BACK!

Are there some stores that are great and keeping the others afloat?

How do they keep buying up all those collectable guitars?

Why do people keep going back.

I'm really not trying to be sarcastic, I just want to figure out what they are doing right.

Cheap price and product availability?

[MCChris]

Why are they so BIG if everyone feels this way?

I hear stories ALL the time with people complaining about how the guitars are dirty, out of tune, or unaccessable. They complain about how the sales people are generally clueless about most products. They keep going BACK!

Are there some stores that are great and keeping the others afloat?

How do they keep buying up all those collectable guitars?

Why do people keep going back.

I'm really not trying to be sarcastic, I just want to figure out what they are doing right.

Even with the insight I have, I ask the same questions.

I just think it comes down to advertising blitzes, economies of scale which enable them to pay rock bottom from the manufacturers, and a whole lot of beginning and intermediate players in the market for gear at what they perceive to be very low prices.

GC is also very crafty when it comes to choosing its locations. Often they're quite close to a known competitor. When I worked at GC there was a store called Guitar Plus two blocks south from us. Management made it very clear that it was top priority to drive them out of business. We were NEVER to walk a deal in which the customer was quoted a price from Guitar Plus and was looking to pay less. These were the only times when managers approved sales for below cost (which of course meant us sales drones made zilch on those time-consuming transactions). Six months into my stint, Guitar Plus was gone.

[silentman]

My biggest beef with GC, besides the retarded sales force, out of tune/broken/poorly set up equipment, and cramped feel I get when I walk in there is their lack of product availabilty for stuff they are dealers on like Ernie ball (where are the USA stuff?), Tech 21, etc. Sure they can special order, but you gotta pay up front and there are no returns. BULL SHIT!

Edited to add: I just had the best experience I ever had there a feww weeks ago. I tried out a Taylor T5 and the guy went out of his way to set me up with a 2 amp set up and an AB/Y to try out the acoustic and electric sides of the guitar. Even gave me a handout that explained the switch positions for the pickups. Never had that happen before. I've sometimes stepped in on the sales guy to explain things better to people that they were trying to sell to cuz I felt bad for them (the buyer).

[frank_c]

Why are they so BIG if everyone feels this way?

dumb kids and their even dumber parents.

[killertone]

Why are they so BIG if everyone feels this way?

I have been in the MI business on and off for 12+ years and I used to work for a large corporate music chain as well. You'll always have exceptions to the rule like silentman has shown. I felt that I was the only guy who knew what I was doing when I worked at the large corporate chain. I went out of my way to show customers stuff that they most definitely didn't get from other guys at most music stores. However, since leaving that store and joining a smaller (but still big) local shop, it is amazing how much easier it is to take care of customers needs. At GC and the like, it is all about sales. They have meetings every morning about things such as items per transaction and add-on sales. That's the kind of stuff that furniture stores and such are concerned about. Their marketing and advertising plans are on par with any large corporate chain no matter what they sell. They do a hell of a job getting people into their stores and that is what they want to do. They want their staff to take it from there and watch people leave with tons of merchandise. I think GC is great for getting stuff really cheap. If you have any skills at negotiating, you can walk out of there and pay close to cost on a lot of stuff. GC will be the first to tell you that their business is not from pros. It is all about getting Mom and Dad in their with Jr. to buy his first guitar and then sell as much stuff to them as they can. There's nothing wrong with that, I guess, but it doesn't work for me.

[m chops]

Cheap price and product availability?

or at least reasonable prices and reasonable availability. Virtually all of the stuff I have bought there are "accessory" items that are not carried by my favorite mom & pop shop. I just need to remember to bring my earplugs if I am going during a popular hour.

I have never bought and amp or a guitar there.

[serial]

Location IS a big part of it, but it isn't limited to just the spots where they can drive someone out of business. Our local GC isn't ANYWHERE near any guitar shops (the closest is 4 miles or so down the road and a hard to get to hole in the wall with an even more hard to get along with owner with zero stock of anything but parts and sheet music). It IS however in one of the busier strip malls/plazas right across the road from the busiest one in the area. Smart.

[Jeff R]

A good friend was working at the one that opened here in Battin Rooj last year at Christmas. I went in there a couple of days after X-mas to see if there were any post-holiday sales I might come across. The big guitar wall was gutted of Gibsons and Fenders.

My friend told me throughout November and December (during a subsequent GC advertising blitz on local radio), Moms and Pops would come in wanting the cheapest thing in the store that said "Gibson" or "Les Paul," and "Fender" and "Telecaster" or "Stratocaster." When the store ran out of Squires and Epis, the parents bit for the Mexican stuff and the entry-level Gibson stuff. When they ran out of that stuff, they went up the financial ladder of U.S. stuff, and as that ran out, they were getting the much more expensive stuff, just to satisfy Junior's Yuletide wishes.

Imagine that, there are a handful of little Cajuns running around this town with Custom Shop Strats and Historic Reissue Pauls because deep-pocketed parents waited until Dec. 23 to go guitar shopping.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if that's a GC holiday season strategy

[darc]

When I worked at GC there was a store called Guitar Plus two blocks south from us. Management made it very clear that it was top priority to drive them out of business. We were NEVER to walk a deal in which the customer was quoted a price from Guitar Plus and was looking to pay less. These were the only times when managers approved sales for below cost (which of course meant us sales drones made zilch on those time-consuming transactions). Six months into my stint, Guitar Plus was gone.

Exactly the same scenario in San Fran in 91, though I no longer remember the name of the store they had on their target. We'd get a pep talk every morning about how close they were to going out of business. The extent of the managers' zeal over this was downright creepy. That they expected the sales peons to get excited right along with them, for all the money it was (not) putting in our pockets, was downright silly.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if that's a GC holiday season strategy

LOL if it were they'd hide the Squires, Epi's, MIM's etc in the storeroom until all the custom shop gear sold out.

[Schlep]

I'm not a fan of guitar supersotres, but I must say that I do like our Cincinnati Guitar Center. Even though there are a number of egg-head sales people, there are a few good ones, you just have to know who. One of their guitar sales guys comes to mind - Ron Lucas. He seems like a genuine guitar enthusiast - he's pulled some stuff out of the back room that he's bought just to let me check out.

Hamer content - I know Ron owns a few Hamers including a low serial number standard he's told me about.

Outside of my commentary above, yes, they are trying to take over the world. They seem to price all the used/vintage stuff a bit high. Luckliy, I'm all set with Blackface amps

Craig

[kurtsstuff]

Why are they so BIG if everyone feels this way?

dumb kids and their even dumber parents.

Yep......so sad but...so true...dumb kids and dumber parents

[MCChris]

LOL if it were they'd hide the Squires, Epi's, MIM's etc in the storeroom until all the custom shop gear sold out.

At the Chicago store it wasn't possible to hide all those canoe paddles. It was insane how much inventory we got for the holidays. Huge shipments every day beginning the first week of November. The storeroom was way too small to accommodate all of it. We had boxes of back stock on the sales floor, in the manager's and bookkeeper's offices, in the case room, even in the bathrooms! It truly was a turkey shoot. Starting Dec. 26 the guitar wall was totally decimated, which didn't really matter because we spent most of our time during those last weeks of the year dealing with returns and exchanges.

[killertone]

That's the way it was at Mars as well. We had a 35,000 sq ft store which roughly half was covered with shitty guitars at Christmas. I remember the first year I worked there I thought there was no way we would sell all of it. But damned if we didn't sell all of it before Christmas...and there were still late shoppers trying to get what we had left! I do not miss those days at all!!

[Ethan]

I've been with GC over a year and I've been on the fence about quitting almost the entire time on and off because of many of the same reasons you guys have cited. But, I need the money and don't have much time to look for another job. A large part of the reason that there are so many dumbasses working there is because of the pay scale...I'm one of the top 8 or so writers in the store every month, and my commission plus wage checks give me about $10-$12 an hour if I am consistent. But a good 3/4 of the store is underneath that. My current living situation (working part time, going to college, living in a cheap apt. with 3 other people) allows me to do that, but some of these people have houses and kids to feed. This is also a reason of the high rate of turnover. At any rate, when you get down to it, GC is not about music, or gear, its about making as much money as possible out of people who walk thru the door. The people who do well there either embrace that ideal or somehow manage to overlook it. I haven't quite figured out how to do that for myself yet.

[Willie G. Moseley]

I've been in GCs very infrequently, and at my age (55) I'm probably looked at differently compared to other customers. And as a marketing major in college, I pay attention to how someone conducts himself/herself, but I've never seen boorish, buffoon-like or clueless behavior...yet I'm sure it occurs, as is the case in any retail mega-store environment; i.e. all too often in such places, a "salesperson" is in reality an "order-taker" because of selection and/or price. It can be an experience where I get bemused and/or amused.

That being said, I always like to check out Tower Records if I'm in a city that has one, because of the selection, and I can ignore the "sales" help's indifference, etc. In fact, I even have fun with 'em. Usually I get a bored-sounding "Findin' everything okay, sir?" from a twenty-something with multiple piercings and or a tattoo or two, and my retort is "Naw, where's the beatnik/hootenanny music?", which results in a look from the 20-something that's as blank as Bill Clinton's combat record.

And as for the "This Machine Kills Facists" thread being moved: AuH2O '64!!!

[Steve Haynie]

In your heart, you know he's right.

[hardheartedbill]

I can't let the combat record comment stand, c'mon, dude, many many well known bigmouths have the same record as Clinton, yer buddy Ted comes to mind, but A+ on injecting the comment!