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Interesting read regarding Guitar Center


sahlomonic

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It's sad to see Bain pillaging companies like this. 150 or so Bain employees benefit while thousands of families lost pensions, GC ran small shops out of business and Bain sold GC down the river by signing them up for 10% interest loans they can never repay. All the while undercutting everyone out of business. They ruined the entire industry.

 

 

 

Hopefully small family companies can rise from the ashes and companies like Sweetwater become the dominant market players.

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if GC/MF goes down, i wonder how that will impact major guitar companies who get a lot of their sales through them.

 

 

See, the avenues for those guys are still firmly in place. I don't think the big boys will hurt much if at all

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It's sad to see Bain pillaging companies like this. 150 or so Bain employees benefit while thousands of families lost pensions, GC ran small shops out of business and Bain sold GC down the river by signing them up for 10% interest loans they can never repay. All the while undercutting everyone out of business. They ruined the entire industry.




Hopefully small family companies can rise from the ashes and companies like Sweetwater become the dominant market players.

 

 

I'm certainly hoping for this, as GC has shut down damn near every ma & pa shop since they opened in KC; just a couple remain that I'm aware of. Mars Music opened up in '99 and a lot of small shops seemed to survive them, until GC came along around '06 or so.

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I doubt that, if GC goes down, it'll take MF with it. Some investor will probably buy the GC and MF brands from Bain for pennies and just get rid of the brick and mortar stores, effectively ending the GC name. Musicians Friend is too large to just liquidate and I have a feeling that THAT branch is fairly profitable, since there is little overhead compared to a GC store.

 

Still an epically {censored}ty situation.

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See, the avenues for those guys are still firmly in place. I don't think the big boys will hurt much if at all

 

 

I think you're wrong man. GC / MF make up a HUGE percentage of the big guys ( Gibson , Fender etc) annual sales. A few years back when Bain first bought GC and restructured all their debt , it changed the whole face of Fender. Just the past due amount that GC owed them was enough to make Fender restructure their entire business model. Think about how many mom and pop shops still have a wall of Gibsons , very few. If they close (which they won't) it will change everything as we know it when it comes to gear

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I think you're wrong man. GC / MF make up a HUGE percentage of the big guys ( Gibson , Fender etc) annual sales. A few years back when Bain first bought GC and restructured all their debt , it changed the whole face of Fender. Just the past due amount that GC owed them was enough to make Fender restructure their entire business model. Think about how many mom and pop shops still have a wall of Gibsons , very few. If they close (which they won't) it will change everything as we know it when it comes to gear

 

 

I know it will be a tough transition/adjustment period for stores and builders. But I do, cynically, hope they go belly up. I hate seeing my local music stores struggle under the purchasing power of GC. They seem to have all major brands on contracual lockdown. Leaving the Mom and Pop stores struggling with less desirable brands.

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I know it will be a tough transition/adjustment period for stores and builders. But I do, cynically, hope they go belly up. I hate seeing my local music stores struggle under the purchasing power of GC. They seem to have all major brands on contracual lockdown. Leaving the Mom and Pop stores struggling with less desirable brands.

 

 

GC doesn't have anyone contractual lockdown , but because they buy so much product , they basically determine what MAP pricing is going to be and it makes it very hard for small shops to compete with those prices , so the small shops choose not to carry that line

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