Wow, great to see Gary’s is still going. I remember when the shop first opened way back when. Portsmouth was guitar heaven back then with you guys, guitar warehouse, daddy’s, etc. Great job navigating a tough industry and outlasting pretty much everyone in Portsmouth from the late 80/early 90’s.
My biggest problems with GC is they don't seem to care about me as a customer. I used to go to the one in Boston, MA then the on in Peabody, MA , and then Portland, ME. All they want to do is sell me what they want/like. Trying real hard to sell me brands I already vocalized I do not like/want. Some folks can't be bothered to give you eye contact or even walk you to a product and just wave you in the general direction. I am at the point now I only go there to sell what I couldn't get to sell on Facebook Marketplace. Before I went to Guitar Center I used to go to Daddy's which was better IMO. It felt like musicians actually worked there. They would steer me in the right direction and it was okay if I didn't buy anything.
In short, what happened to Guitar Center is capitalism itself. Real people, as opposed to a corporate "person", go out open a music store as a means of earning a living doing something they love and along come the "capitalists" who see the existing business as something they can take over by borrowing "capital", take over the business, suck whatever profit there might be in it and skip town, leaving an empty building and unemployed workers. Mitt Romney's group took over Guitar Center with borrowed money, undercut local dealers because they had oodles of investor cash to burn, lined their pockets and left town with a pocket full of C Notes without bothering to learn even a C Scale.
In general not a good time to be a retail Goliath. They claim to have negotiated a path forward, maybe interesting to see if the judge sees it as a viable business plan.
Hi Mark, I hope all is well with you, and this guitar store rides the Covid waves safely ! I’m the guy in Edinburgh, Scotland who burned out my leslie motors, some years back, ha ha !! Gonna check out your youtube page (Gary’s Guitars) now. All the best !!! Richard
yes... nice to see you here again.. I also have a youtube where I talk about Hammond organs (although not as often) called Vintkey Thanks for watching!
Chapter 11 is EASY for them(they have the behemoth size to push their weight around and Get $$$)........Chapter 7 would be a Circuit City situation(game over)..........but Guitar Center has No real competition on the ground retail market(no one even comes close to their size on retail)......they DO make crazy profit.....but the pandemic screwed them, and proved they Cannot survive as a Online retailer, or need Major restructuring to adapt.......
When Guitar Center opened in my city the independent guitar stores closed because GC was selling the same guitars much cheaper. GC is still going strong here.
GC advertised that they were buying used instruments in my area. I sold them an old keyboard that I no longer use at a decent price. The wall of guitars was almost empty.
Went into a Guitar Center about an hour ago with the intention of buying a new guitar amp (Fender Twin Reverb) with $1100.00 cash in my pocket. I was there for at least 10 min and could not find a salesperson to help me, so I yelled Hello about 10 times finally a guy came out to replace a light bulb, I asked him for help and he told me he was just a maintenance man. I waited a few more minutes and finally left. This is a huge store, no wonder they are going out of business. I just ordered it from Reverb and saved a few bucks.
They are closing 250 stores. The one near me has no guitars on the walls anymore. You can tell they are going under. long live mom and pop music stores ! :-)
During all of this drama with GC, they opened a location maybe 10 miles from another location, inside of a mall that no one ever went into into the first place that had a terrible reputation in the area. Its not a bad store, its actually kinda nice inside but just a horrible location and decision. One of those locations would need to close I would imagine.
Guitar Center is the Chrysler of the guitar world. It's time to let 'em try to make it on their own or die. They have continually been bailed out and come back worse. GC has the worst customer service in the business,. compare them to Sweetwater or my local guitar store. I have had my own negative experiences with them, time and again, over 3 decades. I would not mourn their departure. Jeff in Oregon.
@@davedavid7061 Trash. I have owned a DODGE..No excuse for the junk they make. FY! I have owned 130 cars and trucks. I was in the car biz for 25 years. Those 130 cars had nothing to do with me in the car biz. Those were my personal cars. I went to my first Chrysler Corp Servi e Mgr training course in 1973. Chrysler has a contempt for their customers and treats their own employees badly. 11 years retail auto, 14 years as a District Mgr ( field rep ) for Mazda Motors of Am and Mercedes Benz of No America. I was a national training Mgr for BWM and later Volvo. I taught Biz management and customer service. Chrysler , without doubt, is the worst car manufacturer. They ruined M-B and Fiat and Now Alfa Romeo. And JEEP, is there anything worse and grossly overrated and obscenely priced. Aside from building trash, the resale is horrid.
why are live wire cables bad?? I have some, mostly use mogami now...they sound fine and have lifetime warranties...ive had to resolder a ground or two...ive had to fix mogami as well...rare but it happens...mogami DOES sound better...livewires sound better than monster/fender/boss cables
It would be better for customers if Guitar Center were replaced by 100 smaller entities. But you all are buying $3000 guitars based on an internet photo, so we are still f**ked.
Guitar Center will Survive a Re Structure The Biggest Creditor Likely Will Get Paid The Rest Will not ,and lots will go under & go to the wall Sadly with lots losing their Jobs
Regardless of your income/employment status You are keeping yourself occupied If you pick up and learn to play a musical instrument, you are doing something creative for yourself and society. You will not be harming yourself or society. Always remember: An idle mind is the devil’s workshop.
I was born so poor that if Cadillacs were only a dollar, all I could do is walk up and down the street saying "what a deal." So, I worked as a kid and it was not child abuse. It was me earning some dollars mowing lawns, allowance for doing chores around the house. I had started teaching myself guitar in 1974 with an old acoustic guitar my father (divorced by this time) had given to my mother. So, in 1982, I had saved up lawn money and chores money and bought my own guitar and amp and effects box. It took all of my money at the time but I got a Memphis Les Paul Standard copy (I still have that guitar,) a Marlboro 132 A 8 watt practice amp, and an MXR 10-band graphic equalizer. So, the disparity is not by some convenient magic. And poverty is curable if the worker, such as myself, is given free reign to pursue business opportunities. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, these guys started out on a coffee table. The Getty fortune in oil started from seeing a black substance out of the ground and finding a use for it. Getty was not a line of kings. The Rothschild legacy. That was not even the real name of the first investment banker to work this angle. But soon, they chose this name because it sounded good at the time and they got in the habit of dreaming big and loaning money to nations instead of just watchmakers trying to avoid foreclosure. Also, let me burst another bubble. The disparity of fortune in France didn't change from before. So, Robespierre got his serial killer jollies out but look at them today. There are places in Paris that even the police do not go.
@@GarysGuitarsUSA Yeah, selling Glarrys and Chibsons like hot cakes. Meanwhile see if you can find a mom and pop music store not utterly wiped out by the now bankrupt Guitar Center. Yeah great year
Guitar Center was never about passion for guitars or for good customer service. They didn’t even really seem to care about return business, just a quick buck and buyer beware.
You ever see Brad the Guitarlogist dumpster dive at guitar center? The crap Is Real just saying not like I would know or anything....... or would I? All I know is that I'm going to look into making an acoustic body for a very very nice acoustic neck. 😉
[Compliment] You look a bit like a grown-up Johnny Whitaker (from "Family Affair")..."turned his back on acting and said hello to the guitar business".
Guitar center bankruptcy will hurt cheap Chinese manufacturers of knock off guitars. You know, the kind of people who don’t pay for intellectual property. Good riddance guitar center.
March 2024 - This is very interesting to me, (non-musician), only now have become aware of the guitar industry’s turmoil; reminds me of what happened to the bicycle industry.
Wow, great to see Gary’s is still going. I remember when the shop first opened way back when. Portsmouth was guitar heaven back then with you guys, guitar warehouse, daddy’s, etc.
Great job navigating a tough industry and outlasting pretty much everyone in Portsmouth from the late 80/early 90’s.
I went to a GC 2 years ago and walked out after 15 minutes of being ignored. Spent $2,700 at Sam Ash that same day
Valid analysis of the Bain approach. The rise of the bean counters marks the beginning of the end of any great business (or institution or society).
I like to hear your thoughts. I'm glad to hear you are holding well during all this.
My biggest problems with GC is they don't seem to care about me as a customer. I used to go to the one in Boston, MA then the on in Peabody, MA , and then Portland, ME. All they want to do is sell me what they want/like. Trying real hard to sell me brands I already vocalized I do not like/want. Some folks can't be bothered to give you eye contact or even walk you to a product and just wave you in the general direction.
I am at the point now I only go there to sell what I couldn't get to sell on Facebook Marketplace. Before I went to Guitar Center I used to go to Daddy's which was better IMO. It felt like musicians actually worked there. They would steer me in the right direction and it was okay if I didn't buy anything.
In short, what happened to Guitar Center is capitalism itself. Real people, as opposed to a corporate "person", go out open a music store as a means of earning a living doing something they love and along come the "capitalists" who see the existing business as something they can take over by borrowing "capital", take over the business, suck whatever profit there might be in it and skip town, leaving an empty building and unemployed workers.
Mitt Romney's group took over Guitar Center with borrowed money, undercut local dealers because they had oodles of investor cash to burn, lined their pockets and left town with a pocket full of C Notes without bothering to learn even a C Scale.
In general not a good time to be a retail Goliath. They claim to have negotiated a path forward, maybe interesting to see if the judge sees it as a viable business plan.
Hi Mark,
I hope all is well with you, and this guitar store rides the Covid waves safely !
I’m the guy in Edinburgh, Scotland who burned out my leslie motors, some years back, ha ha !! Gonna check out your youtube page (Gary’s Guitars) now. All the best !!! Richard
yes... nice to see you here again.. I also have a youtube where I talk about Hammond organs (although not as often) called Vintkey Thanks for watching!
Chapter 11 is EASY for them(they have the behemoth size to push their weight around and Get $$$)........Chapter 7 would be a Circuit City situation(game over)..........but Guitar Center has No real competition on the ground retail market(no one even comes close to their size on retail)......they DO make crazy profit.....but the pandemic screwed them, and proved they Cannot survive as a Online retailer, or need Major restructuring to adapt.......
When Guitar Center opened in my city the independent guitar stores closed because GC was selling the same guitars much cheaper. GC is still going strong here.
GC advertised that they were buying used instruments in my area. I sold them an old keyboard that I no longer use at a decent price. The wall of guitars was almost empty.
Went into a Guitar Center about an hour ago with the intention of buying a new guitar amp (Fender Twin Reverb) with $1100.00 cash in my pocket. I was there for at least 10 min and could not find a salesperson to help me, so I yelled Hello about 10 times finally a guy came out to replace a light bulb, I asked him for help and he told me he was just a maintenance man. I waited a few more minutes and finally left. This is a huge store, no wonder they are going out of business. I just ordered it from Reverb and saved a few bucks.
They are closing 250 stores. The one near me has no guitars on the walls anymore.
You can tell they are going under. long live mom and pop music stores !
:-)
I cant feel sorry for GC. They come in and destroy mom and pop shops. Seems like karma to me, but I see you point.
Did your store have to compete with Mars Music back in the day?
During all of this drama with GC, they opened a location maybe 10 miles from another location, inside of a mall that no one ever went into into the first place that had a terrible reputation in the area. Its not a bad store, its actually kinda nice inside but just a horrible location and decision. One of those locations would need to close I would imagine.
The first time I walk no Guitar Center I hated it. The second time I walked into a Guitar Center I hated it even more.
So where is all the stock going ?
the turn it down rule is what put them out of business...no cables and disconnecting most of the equipment doesn't help either...
After Guitar Center came here it caused all the little stores to close. If they close we won't have a music store.
Guitar Center is the Chrysler of the guitar world. It's time to let 'em try to make it on their own or die. They have continually been bailed out and come back worse. GC has the worst customer service in the business,. compare them to Sweetwater or my local guitar store. I have had my own negative experiences with them, time and again, over 3 decades. I would not mourn their departure.
Jeff in Oregon.
I know your comment was 3 yrs ago, but look at what is going on with Dodge now
@@davedavid7061 Trash. I have owned a DODGE..No excuse for the junk they make.
FY! I have owned 130 cars and trucks. I was in the car biz for 25 years. Those 130 cars had nothing to do with me in the car biz.
Those were my personal cars.
I went to my first Chrysler Corp Servi e Mgr training course in 1973. Chrysler has a contempt for their customers and treats their own employees badly.
11 years retail auto, 14 years as a District Mgr ( field rep ) for Mazda Motors of Am and Mercedes Benz of No America. I was a national training Mgr
for BWM and later Volvo. I taught Biz management and customer service.
Chrysler , without doubt, is the worst car manufacturer. They ruined M-B and Fiat and Now Alfa Romeo. And JEEP, is there anything worse and grossly
overrated and obscenely priced.
Aside from building trash, the resale is horrid.
While i love going to guitar center
If my local one goes down, i cant wait for them sweet sweet store closing discounts.
why are live wire cables bad?? I have some, mostly use mogami now...they sound fine and have lifetime warranties...ive had to resolder a ground or two...ive had to fix mogami as well...rare but it happens...mogami DOES sound better...livewires sound better than monster/fender/boss cables
It would be better for customers if Guitar Center were replaced by 100 smaller entities. But you all are buying $3000 guitars based on an internet photo, so we are still f**ked.
An incompetent competitor! Good point that I had not considered .
Guitar Center will Survive a Re Structure The Biggest Creditor Likely Will Get Paid The Rest Will not ,and lots will go under & go to the wall Sadly with lots losing their Jobs
observation: All these G.C. videos are wasted oxygen.
And they should have returns for store credit or exchanges only, instead of 45 days , everyone I know rents guitars from guitar center
The most shocking thing for me is how terrible GC's website is, in this age in which so many of us by gear online.
When your country has a wealth disparity greater than that in France right before their revolution, nobody has MONEY to buy guitars
This year has been the biggest guitar sales year in history. Wealth gap notwithstanding, people are getting back into guitar.
Regardless of your income/employment status You are keeping yourself occupied If you pick up and learn to play a musical instrument, you are doing something creative for yourself and society. You will not be harming yourself or society.
Always remember: An idle mind is the devil’s workshop.
I was born so poor that if Cadillacs were only a dollar, all I could do is walk up and down the street saying "what a deal." So, I worked as a kid and it was not child abuse. It was me earning some dollars mowing lawns, allowance for doing chores around the house. I had started teaching myself guitar in 1974 with an old acoustic guitar my father (divorced by this time) had given to my mother. So, in 1982, I had saved up lawn money and chores money and bought my own guitar and amp and effects box. It took all of my money at the time but I got a Memphis Les Paul Standard copy (I still have that guitar,) a Marlboro 132 A 8 watt practice amp, and an MXR 10-band graphic equalizer.
So, the disparity is not by some convenient magic. And poverty is curable if the worker, such as myself, is given free reign to pursue business opportunities. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, these guys started out on a coffee table. The Getty fortune in oil started from seeing a black substance out of the ground and finding a use for it. Getty was not a line of kings.
The Rothschild legacy. That was not even the real name of the first investment banker to work this angle. But soon, they chose this name because it sounded good at the time and they got in the habit of dreaming big and loaning money to nations instead of just watchmakers trying to avoid foreclosure.
Also, let me burst another bubble. The disparity of fortune in France didn't change from before. So, Robespierre got his serial killer jollies out but look at them today. There are places in Paris that even the police do not go.
@@GarysGuitarsUSA Yeah, selling Glarrys and Chibsons like hot cakes. Meanwhile see if you can find a mom and pop music store not utterly wiped out by the now bankrupt Guitar Center. Yeah great year
@@ronws2007 I've worked goddamn near every day for the past 40 years, GTF away from me with your grade school level "profiling."
Guitar Center was never about passion for guitars or for good customer service. They didn’t even really seem to care about return business, just a quick buck and buyer beware.
Some one with the knowledge needs to look into Bain capitol. They are the same company that shut down toys r us. Now guitar center
Bain Capital, sold their stake to another private equity firm, but they're all kind of shady.
@@GarysGuitarsUSA agree they are very shady. I believe? They did the same with toysrus.
GC ruined their brand decades ago because of their terrible customer service.
Sheldon Floyd situation
where did part one go?
It's there... You'll have to look through the videos on the channel, it was a couple of months ago
whats ur opinion about sam ash?
You ever see Brad the Guitarlogist dumpster dive at guitar center? The crap Is Real just saying not like I would know or anything....... or would I? All I know is that I'm going to look into making an acoustic body for a very very nice acoustic neck. 😉
[Compliment] You look a bit like a grown-up Johnny Whitaker (from "Family Affair")..."turned his back on acting and said hello to the guitar business".
Not old enough. Interesting observation tho.
Guitar center bankruptcy will hurt cheap Chinese manufacturers of knock off guitars. You know, the kind of people who don’t pay for intellectual property. Good riddance guitar center.
Not that many Chinese guitars in GC. Mostly Indonesia, some Korea... a little Chinese, certainly not a majority.
Guitar Center will die...just slowly, coz they are so big.
Maybe go the path of Sears
@@GarysGuitarsUSA Thoman USA?
They're already working on that
March 2024 - This is very interesting to me, (non-musician), only now have become aware of the guitar industry’s turmoil; reminds me of what happened to the bicycle industry.