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The End of Guitar Center

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Post by jim Thu Feb 05, 2015 10:16 am

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/02/end-guitar-center.html

"Here’s what this really means: it’s the end of big box retail, an irrational addiction to growth, and the scourge of unregulated structured finance. For a few years, unwise urban planning and unregulated banks created a new bubble in the American suburbs. People bought homes they could not afford and turned their houses into lines of credit. This swindle eventually brought the economy to its knees and has taken most a decade to regain some state of uneasy equilibrium. Still, it was particularly stimulating to a certain type of retail that also depended on constant growth and financial trickery. The objective truth is that the growth of the last decade was financed by banking fraud, and that financial trickery of this sort only fools people in the short-term. Eventually, you must have a product people demand, sold by competent people who care about the business, financed in a way that makes sense.

This unforgiving reality will work great for local stores and entrepreneurs with a classic, cautious approach to business management. For a while, suspending our disbelief in reality allowed standard-issue corporate financiers to run a pump-and-dump scheme on all kinds of retail, selling risky ventures to “dumb money” and reaping the rewards for a select few. We are all wiser now, and the market conditions simply will not support that behavior.


This is not a moral judgment, merely an assessment of market engineering. Small and smart will carry the future while big, dumb, complex, and dishonest will bite the dust."
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Post by BriGuy1968 Sat Mar 21, 2015 10:04 am

Interesting article.  I've had my ups and downs with Guitar Center... their people/training seems to be a bit sketchy (although sometimes you find someone helpful... it's a crapshoot!)  Their selection of parts and such is barely adequate, but I gotta admit that they have a TON of guitars in that place!
Happy Birthday 2

Also, I always feel like a bit of an outcast in there because I'm older and because I'm not into today's metal!   Metal Head
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Post by mortarman120gang11c Sat Mar 21, 2015 10:50 am

The only thing I can say about Guitar Center is that maybe because I am an old guy they would always allow me to handle and play even the expensive PRS/Gibson/Fender models which always reminded me how much better our brand is and how much craftsmanship has gone out the window now days unless you drop major $$$ for a custom shop Gibson/Fender etc. I will not miss them I prefer the mom and pop local music stores.
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Post by The Chad Thu Mar 26, 2015 10:56 am

I like GC.   I prefer Mom and Pop stores, YES, but I do support GC.  They allow you to handle all sorts of gear, like Arthur said.  And they have great pricing on used gear.  Not to mention great deals on strings and things.
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Post by Hippieway Thu Apr 09, 2015 6:20 pm

I've pulled a couple of guitars out of GC, but I would like to support the small guy and mostly I do. However GC has an inventory that the small guy can't compete with.
Squires, Epiphones and Ibanez is what you see a ton of at Mom & Pops Place. At GC it's always fun to sit down and play a nice Martin or Guild if you can stand the noise from all those great lead guitar players in the other room.
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