Guitar Center Deathwatch update

[Larryz]

Doerfler, Thanks for the GC video....good info!

[Doerfler]

shit went down today : Guitar Center files for bankruptcy

 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-guitar-center-bankruptcy/guitar-center-files-for-bankruptcy-idUSKBN282058?il=0

[KuruPrionz]

I have a feeling our Bellingham store will be closing. It is small and has always underperformed by GC standards.

That's too bad, the manager is a great guy and a family man with 2 kids so he'll have to hustle something else to do or move if there is an opportunity.

 

On the other hand, it gives a new local store an opportunity to grow - although they don't have the space to display anything like the inventory that was at GC.

 

I guess I'll see what happens, 2020 sure has sucked big time!!!!

[Winston Psmith]

I've mentioned the small Guitar Center that opened in a nearby neighborhood mall a few years ago. I've found some good deals there, and I liked the folks who worked there, but sadly, I expected they'd be among the first stores to close, It's a very small location, on the 4th floor of an indoor mall. I suspect they'd opened this location to get a store as near to D.C. proper as possible, without paying D.C. commercial rents. The local mall was probably happy to have a big-name national chain, as opposed to all the bargain-basement & closeout stores that take up most of the retail space.

 

Looking this morning on GC's Used Gear list, I saw that the nearby store was blanked out, with no products available, so I did a quick search and found this - Silver Spring Guitar Center to close permanently.

 

In one sense, they were competing with themselves. The next nearest GC is only a few miles away, which isn't nearly as close to the city line, but accessible via public transport. It's also big enough that the entire Silver Spring store could fit inside the Rockville store's Guitar department.

 

I'm sorry to see them go; there were some good folks working there, and it was nice to have a Music store nearby, even if I haven't set foot inside a shopping mall since March. Indoor malls were closed for several months, which must have hurt them badly, because the Rockville store was able to stay open, even though it's the size of a small mall itself.

 

We'll see how many more small, or less profitable GC's shut down in the coming months. The article I posted says that the Silver Spring store is due to close by January, but it looks like they gave up without even trying for one last holiday sales season? More to follow, I'm sure . . .

[KuruPrionz]

Thanks Winston, you prompted me to check out the status of the Bellingham store. They have 3 items listed in the Used section. They are still open.

 

Despite the Canadian border being closed for the time being, perhaps corporate is not ready to give up on a location that is so close to our friendly neighbors to the North.

When the border was open, Canadians were 30-40% of the retail economy in Bellingham. Their money goes farther here.

 

Maybe they will hang on until the eventual vaccine event begins to turn the pandemic back. I hope so, good people work there and they get some interesting items in despite the smaller size.

There is really nobody ready to step up at this point, I would not be trying to start a business venture in this current situation either.

[Scott Fraser]

I've mentioned the small Guitar Center that opened in a nearby neighborhood mall a few years ago. I've found some good deals there, and I liked the folks who worked there, but sadly, I expected they'd be among the first stores to close, It's a very small location, on the 4th floor of an indoor mall .

 

Is that the shopping center which is across the street, or around the corner from the Whole Foods?

(Unfortunately, the administration of the performing arts center at U of M has changed, & the new person doesn't have Kronos on their radar, so our artists-in-residence deal with them is over. So, no stays in Silver Spring on the horizon, even if there were tours happening.)

[Mark Schmieder]

I hope the one I'm going to in Durham/Cary NC isn't on the hit list (I still haven't been to downtown Raleigh or the neighbouring Sam Ash store there), as the people are very friendly and knowledgeable and they have a good selection for a small store, with occasional surprises (such as the almost-half-price Sequential Prophet XL that I bought there a few days after I arrived from the west coast, jonesing for at least one instrument as I brought none).

[Winston Psmith]

I've mentioned the small Guitar Center that opened in a nearby neighborhood mall a few years ago. I've found some good deals there, and I liked the folks who worked there, but sadly, I expected they'd be among the first stores to close, It's a very small location, on the 4th floor of an indoor mall .

 

Is that the shopping center which is across the street, or around the corner from the Whole Foods?

(Unfortunately, the administration of the performing arts center at U of M has changed, & the new person doesn't have Kronos on their radar, so our artists-in-residence deal with them is over. So, no stays in Silver Spring on the horizon, even if there were tours happening.)

 

That's the one. Right in what they call the CBD!!! Central Business District, in this case, but still . . .

 

They're tucked away above a bunch of discount stores, so you have to cross a lot of enclosed mall space to get to them, and then you're in an enclosed space with no windows, and not much in the way of air circulation, as I recall. I feel bad for not supporting them in the last few months, but the risk is not worth the reward, just to get some strings or spare cables.

 

I'm also sorry your arrangement with U of M fell through, and I hope something else comes together for you, once it's safe to tour again. Anytime you come to D.C., we'll have a place at the table for you.

[KuruPrionz]

Weird.

In the summer of 2019 I applied for and got a job at our local Bellingham Guitar Center as a guitar tech.

It did not take long to realize that I wasn't going to be happy there. When expectations for the number of jobs you will get done are set by the minutes spent AND you have a work bench that is exposed to the general public, that is a bad combination.

 

2 different people came up to me while I was trying to work and wanted to talk about guitar repair jobs they might bring in someday, maybe.

 

I might have made it through that but then I saw the touch screen for entering work finished. A dazzling array of tiny code numbers on a small screen. I'm very nearsighted, this was impossible to navigate without looking closely and positioned for maximum awkwardness. Which is to say nothing of the memory game required. I found it astonishing that a company in 2019 was still using a computer system that reminded me of 1982 or so. Primitive!!

 

The manager is a nice guy, I like him and I appreciated the opportunity. So I went immediately to his office and thanked him for hiring me, then I quit and went home.

I guess I'm still on the books somewhere. Meh...