What do you **LIKE** about Guitar Center??

Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2005 10:45 am

Okay, I know a lot of you have voiced your opinions over and over about how much you hate Guitar Center. I'm gonna take the opposite view point and tell you how much I like Guitar Center.

I know, I know - generally the sales people are idiots and they only carry mass market BS but:

1. They get guitars and drum-sets into my potential clients hands for very little money.
2. Everybody and their brother is apparently a guitar player and this gives them a place to congregate and get all excited about music
3. I can special order stuff from them and get a fair deal when I ask for it.
4. All the sales people know me by name.
5. Sure, they sell crappy mics and pres and Roland "all-in-ones" to my potential clients so they can record on their own - the opposite side of that coin is, kids with a $500 budget will buy a few SM57s and then figure out real quick that they can record themselves, but still sound nowhere near as good as what I can do for them. Then, they come to me with just a little bit more knowledge about what they want. (Mainly b/c they know what they DON'T want.)
6. I get free advertising with them - let the sales guys know that if they have customers inquiring about tracking or mastering to give me a call.
7. The girl at the front that checks out the packages is cute. Twisted Evil

8. If I need a cable or anything else at the last minute, I know where I can find it.

Any more thoughts anyone??

J.

Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2005 11:11 am

Quote:

The girl at the front that checks out the packages is cute -- Cucco

That's a good point. I think, is a trend with the
Guitar Centers. The MARS had a bunch of ugly dudes at the doors,
and went bunkrupt...

Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2005 11:45 am

thats funny. it's at every store too. i can just see it in the GC business plan.

Guitar Center Business Plan Bylaws
...

130.35(a) Do not hire any sales associates that know anything about what they are selling. If you must hire a person knowledgeable about music or musical equipment, put him in a department he doesn't understand. For example, drummers should work in pro audio, guitarists should work in drums, and bass players are too dumb to know any better anyway.

130.35(b) There must be a cute girl at every store as the last thing a customer sees. Tattoos and piercings are a plus. She must be tested every 3 months to make sure she is hip to current music trends. It is preferable if she likes gothic music.

Very Happy

Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2005 12:13 pm

i've only been to two guitar centers: the one in hollywood and the one in rochester, ny.

but lemme tell you. they definitely keep the good looking ones at the front desk.

Thumbs Up

Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2005 12:15 pm

this is true durring the buissee times but walk in there on a wednsday afternoon and you will see some litle bored white guy with messed up hair sitting there hating life.

i love how the one of the guys in pro audio claimed to have recorded in the best studios in the world but didn know why you should balance a cable, or what a DI was for.

but truly i do love just walking around in guitar center and playing with all the keyboards i would never buy.

Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2005 12:35 pm

I have been to Guitar Centers in about 5 Different States...and they all have the "Guitar Center Check Out Chick" pale and gothic, peirced and usually wearing 1/2 a smile.
unfortunately the GC I frequent has eliminated the GCCOC and replaced him with a gothic dude...
that doesnt work...
what was this thread about?

Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2005 1:05 pm

I like getting searched by that bored guy who hates his life at the door when I'm leaving the building (I never get the cute chick!) .

I love having to do the "buying a used car dance" whenever I want to get more than 10% off of something. "I'll have to clear this with my manager." Then they come back and say "He won't go for it".

Pluheeze! Just let me speak to the manager directly. If you don't have the authority to cut a deal, why am I wasting my time talking to you?

I really like that they try their damndest not to say what the actual list price of something is, so you can't figure out what kind of a discount you're being offered.

I like how "informed" the sales staff is ..... NOT!

I like that the last time I went there looking for a G.D. DRUM KEY, that the guy at the drum counter said ..... "Uhhh, ..... I don't usually work this section .... Uhhh, I don't know where they keep them .... uhhh,I don't think we have one. Confused

"

A frikin' drum key fer crys sake ...

There's a LOT more, but that should do for now.

Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2005 1:06 pm

I'm OK with the place. I tried to audition some near fields one day; Hmmph. To make it short; nothing was hooked up in the "studio gear" section, the pair that the sales person pulled off the shelf and connected to the DJ CD player had a hole in one of the cones. Bvvvvvft, Bvvvvvvft. I laughed; it was good fun. Very Happy

If I need a cable in a pinch, I plug in my soldering iron and pull some cable off the spool.

Brick and mortar stores just don't seem to get it. The ONLY chance of diverting me from buying online is to have a good sales staff that knows what they are doing. I try to support local business, which Guitar Center has crushed in my area, but they need to be on the ball. I am a consultant by trade, I know that it's gold to keep a customer that makes a few expensive purchases rather than have to constantly find new customers that buy the little stuff. That's how you end up with insane markups on items like picks, strings, cables, ect. That's how you end up having to work long nights to make the same dollar.

It's the trend, I know. Ensoniq and E-MU get bought by Creative Labs and look at the crap they make now. Come on, that was Ensoniq... E-MU... OMG how the might have fallen. The profit is in the cheap crap you'll find everyone banging away on at GC. They take it home thinking, I want to make music, I can do it. That lasts for a few weeks. When I took my ASR-10 home long ago I thought the same, it owned me for years and gave me respect for the real deal. Don't think I'll get that from an ION and might loose my incentive when the knobs break off my MS2000.

</end rant>

Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2005 1:44 pm

I was spoiled a long time ago... I was always dealing with GC on "pro" level - Be it putting together a few radio station production rooms or recording studios or whatever. So even when *I* wanted something, I was dealing with the store manager. Currently, I only deal with the district Pro Audio manager.

But I'll tell ya... One day I went in there with my sister, who asked me if I could help her pick out a new acoustic.

For the first time in my life at GC, I went in without making a phone call first - There was no one there I knew, and the store was "between managers" at the time.

The sales guy, who was allegedly the guitar manager, gave me a price and yada yada yada. Then suddenly, he had to "run it by the manager." Run it by the MANAGER?!? I thought he WAS the manager!

When all was said and done, everything was fine.

But wow... Not a fun experience at all. Felt like I was dealing with a used car salesman with a quota coming up.

Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2005 2:48 pm

the sam ash I go to has 2 cute girls up front-
I guess they are trying to 2 time GC! In my GC they made a dude I know manager of pro audio which is great- I get super deals there!

Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2005 3:28 pm

i stoped really goin there when the guy who didnt know what a DI was, walkedup to me and said "hey there, i did some research on what you asked for and it turns out that bla bla bla bla bla covering my ass bla bla, so we where bolth wronge". what did you say? we where bolth wronge? no. you where wronge i was right, i went online, you lost the sale.

and if any one from GC is listoning try to fix these proplems we will come back if you do. and oh yea, bring back the cute chick at the front counter.

Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2005 4:55 pm

I like GC because I get everything at 10% above cost or less, just because I ask.

There is a guy at the door here and I think he is mentally retarded. He treats everybody like they are a thief and I swear I've seen him 100 times and he never recognizes me. There has never been a chick at the door out here.

Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2005 7:02 pm

Quote:

She must be tested every 3 months to make sure she is hip to current music trends.

She should probably be tested for other things as well.

Quote:

I like GC because I get everything at 10% above cost or less, just because I ask.

How do you know you're actually getting things for 10% above cost?

-Duardo

Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2005 7:37 pm

I can't stand guitar center. Last time I went there Stained was blairing on the store stereo along with several dudes just shredding there ass off. I yelled to the clerk if he could turn down the music. I couldn't hear myself think. He left to see what he could do and never came back. Thanks buddy. I 'll take my buisness to the mom and pops.

Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2005 8:04 pm

The best thing about guitar center is they make me feel smart. Shocked

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