
The End of Guitar Center - McKittrick
http://www.ericgarland.co/2015/02/03/end-guitar-center/
======
stolio
I don't feel that bad since Guitar Center put almost all their competitors out
of business. I remember being _furious_ on the days I had to go to Guitar
Center because I needed something _that afternoon_ and there was nowhere else
to go.

As companies like this are grabbing market share the story is always that if
they fail the market can just go back to what it was. It rarely does.

Interesting is that some of the businesses that GC put under might have been
able to compete in markets where GC can't, where customer loyalty is
important. There's no reason to buy something from Guitar Center that you
could order online unless you need it immediately. But a locally owned music
shop where you've known the owner for 10 years and always go play guitars on
your days off? It feels _good_ spending money there.

~~~
soylentcola
My main issue is that they've become the only place (locally) to shop for a
lot of music gear. With things like musical instruments or sound gear, I don't
want to order from Amazon, not get to play/hear it in person first, then pay
for shipping a large item where I need to be home to accept delivery.

If I want a guitar I've actually got some OK options with a handful of pawn
shops (the thrift store solution where you have to hunt but can get a deal)
and maybe one or two smaller music shops with limited inventory. Then there's
craigslist where I can look around and hope someone's selling what I want but
at least I can go check it out in person.

But for stuff like PA systems and amp cabinets I don't want to just read
reviews and order some massive shipment from Amazon or hope someone is selling
the thing I need on Craigslist. New, current model audio gear isn't always
easy to find that way and it's just too big and expensive to ship
conveniently. I want to drive to a shop, listen to the different options, feel
their build quality, and ultimately load something into the car.

For the past several years, GC has been the only place in my area where I can
get that stuff. Granted it's not a problem I run into often since I don't go
buying PAs with subwoofers every year but when I do need that stuff, I hate
only having one store with any chance of carrying what I want.

~~~
dfxm12
Does showrooming not affect the music industry? Amazon does sell plenty of
sound/music gear, most with prime shipping.

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Lazare
A large bricks and mortar chain coming to grief isn't an enormous surprise.
It's happening throughout retail. Radio Shack, Best Buy, Office Depot, Borders
Books; everywhere you look chains of brick and mortar retailers are
collapsing, closing, or merging.

But of course, selling musical instruments is different, for unspecified
reasons. Guitar Center's problems aren't just because of a changing retail
environment but a searing indictment of modern capitalism that is somehow
linked to the housing crisis (what?), and somehow to the declaration of
martial law (huh?) and the destruction of the US dollar (uh...) that
apparently happened over the last few years.

Fine, the author thinks Guitar Center is about to declare bankruptcy. He's not
alone; rating agencies have deemed their bonds to be junk. But neither is
Guitar Center; there's a lot of failing companies around. Unless you're
unlucky enough to own some of their debt (or, worse, the company itself), I
have no idea why you'd care.

(...which kind of makes me wonder why the author cares. If he ownd a bunch of
Guitar Center bonds, I'd assume he'd just sell them. What's his angle here?)

~~~
robotresearcher
> What's his angle here?

Maybe he is short on GC stock.

~~~
mathattack
That's what I assumed. It was written like such an amateur that I assume he's
day trading.

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tdees40
> "Second, it did so just as the housing fraud and financial insanity which
> characterized the late 1990s and early 2000s nearly destroyed the U.S.
> dollar and left us with martial law."

Er, what? Martial law? I guess I wasn't around for that one.

~~~
jstalin
His writing is a bit melodramatic.

~~~
coldcode
I couldn't finish the article. Terrible writing. Melodramatic would be an
improvement.

------
mathattack
By the time it gets to this, it's hard to view the writer as anything other
than a quack.

 _Second, it did so just as the housing fraud and financial insanity which
characterized the late 1990s and early 2000s nearly destroyed the U.S. dollar
and left us with martial law._

~~~
anonbanker
Martial law was declared in 2007 in the midst of the banking crisis.

~~~
anonbanker
Here's a house rep stating it being declared by the speaker of the house:

[http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=YMK-
Ix5Ue24](http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=YMK-Ix5Ue24)

Either me and c-span are wrong, or the guys detracting me are. You decide.

~~~
Lazare
You're completely confused.

What you're discussing is that the House (which under the constitution can set
their own rules) decided to create a rule XIII(6)(a) that said that bills
couldn't be passed by the House without a day to consider them except by a 2/3
vote. Later, the House changed that rule to waive the requirement to wait a
day. Later still, they reinstated it.

Colloquially, the waiver of the rule is sometimes referred to as "martial
law", in much the way that proposals to repeal or reform the filibuster rules
in the senate are called the "nuclear option". The nuclear option does not
involve nuclear weapons, and the so-called "martial law" rule in the senate
does not involve martial law. It's not even related _to_ martial law.

Martial law would be a suspension of civil liberties and an injection of
military personnel over civilian authorities; it would also necessitate a
repeal of habeas corpus and the posse comitatus act. What you're discussing is
a minor (and long since reverted) rule change governing when and in what
circumstances draft bills could be brought to a floor vote in the house.

The bottom line is this: The minority party in the house wanted to delay and
debate the bailout bill. The house—which is charged with setting rules about
delays and debate by majority vote-set rules which didn't allow the minority
party to delay and debate as much as they wanted. Some members of the minority
party, in a fit of hyperbole, analogized the rule change to martial law. It
wasn't. It wasn't even sort of LIKE martial law.

TL;DR: You're so wrong, you didn't even understand c-span.

------
jmsdnns
I can't stand the way I get asked, "how much are you looking to pay?" every
time I go in there...

Seeing Guitar Center flail is like seeing McDonald's flail... I don't feel bad
at all and hope for a speedy decimation.

~~~
yesiamyourdad
Haven't had that experience. They might ask about price range which only makes
sense, no point showing you a $1500 axe when you won't spend more than $300.
But I was in GC about a month ago and spent an hour fooling around with
different guitars and got no pressure from the salesman at all. He knew I was
looking at the $300 stuff but he was fine with me trying out the $1500 too.

Back in the 80's, Guitar Center was AWFUL. I'd go in to buy a pack of strings
and the salesman would want to negotiate the price. Hated the place and would
never go. I rediscovered GC a few years ago and was pleasantly surprised at
the changes.

------
cpenner461
Funny, I just got a flier from them in the mail today. They recently (not
quite 1 year ago) opened a second store in my area, about 20m down the road
from another bigger Guitar Center. I thought it was a bit strange that they'd
put them so close together.

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tootie
Maybe they'll just get bought by Amazon.

