More Guitar Center news

At least it's more metered than Garland's article. Honestly, I have no problem with GC having corporate layoffs and even closing stores if need be. The entire MI market is restructuring itself and GC will either adapt or fail.
 
I know what it's like to be in a sinking corporate ship. It's ugly. Horrible.

But it's amazing how long these ships can stay afloat, even when they've taken broadside after broadside, and the masts have been blown off, and the crew is dead or wounded. My company has been sinking for almost 10 years. I've survived well over 30 rounds of lay-offs.
 
"last year, the company was basically acquired by its majority bondholder, Ares Capital Management, and as of three months ago, the Ares-helmed Guitar Center put a new man in the CEO chair, Darrell Webb, whose resume includes stints at JoAnn Fabrics and The Sports Authority (but who has little experience in the music business)."

That makes perfect sense to put a man in charge who doesn't know what he is doing. Hopefully he works cheap.
 
"last year, the company was basically acquired by its majority bondholder, Ares Capital Management, and as of three months ago, the Ares-helmed Guitar Center put a new man in the CEO chair, Darrell Webb, whose resume includes stints at JoAnn Fabrics and The Sports Authority (but who has little experience in the music business)."

That makes perfect sense to put a man in charge who doesn't know what he is doing. Hopefully he works cheap.

His job isn't to know the music industry though. His job is to right the debt ship. The company can basically operate on it's own by scaling back to it's core business, if it can get there. He doesn't have to know the market. He has to come into the company, assess it, and scale it back to the bones to make it work again. If it fails, well, it was failing anyway. If it succeeds, then he can re-make the company with employees who have market expertise.
 
Looks like the new CEO is either preparing for Chapter 11 or trying to make the company more attractive to an outside investor to bail their butts out. It no longer has anything to do with music, and really hasn't since Bain bought them out. Most of the music industry is no longer about music any more.
 
His job isn't to know the music industry though. His job is to right the debt ship. The company can basically operate on it's own by scaling back to it's core business, if it can get there. He doesn't have to know the market. He has to come into the company, assess it, and scale it back to the bones to make it work again. If it fails, well, it was failing anyway. If it succeeds, then he can re-make the company with employees who have market expertise.
I always said that GC expanded too much. They were cannibalizing their own markets. I mean... There's two GCs in Paramus, NJ, which is not a large town, and both of them are within 20 minutes of the Totowa store, which is about 25 minutes from the Springfield store. The next closest one that's not in NYC, then, is a good 45 minutes away in East Brunswick. They clustered together and killed each other instead of spreading out and getting more market share or just keeping it limited.
 
His job isn't to know the music industry though. His job is to right the debt ship. The company can basically operate on it's own by scaling back to it's core business, if it can get there. He doesn't have to know the market. He has to come into the company, assess it, and scale it back to the bones to make it work again. If it fails, well, it was failing anyway. If it succeeds, then he can re-make the company with employees who have market expertise.

I was about to post something similar. A lot of successful companies are run by people who aren't particularly in-depth in their industry.

In the case of music retail, being a musician might actually be a detriment. Every musician knows what the company "should" do -- namely, cater to that musician's tastes. In most cases, that isn't a good business plan.
 
I always said that GC expanded too much. They were cannibalizing their own markets. I mean... There's two GCs in Paramus, NJ, which is not a large town, and both of them are within 20 minutes of the Totowa store, which is about 25 minutes from the Springfield store. The next closest one that's not in NYC, then, is a good 45 minutes away in East Brunswick. They clustered together and killed each other instead of spreading out and getting more market share or just keeping it limited.

I can get to three different GCs store in 30 minutes.
 
GC does need to close a ton of stores. Their plan was obviously to kill all competition and raise prices. But they can't kill online competitors and can't seem to acknowledge that and change direction.
 
I can get to three different GCs store in 30 minutes.
And how does that help? They should've made one slightly larger store for every three really close stores they have. They'd have had less overhead and greater sales.
 
Looks like the new CEO is either preparing for Chapter 11 or trying to make the company more attractive to an outside investor to bail their butts out. It no longer has anything to do with music, and really hasn't since Bain bought them out. Most of the music industry is no longer about music any more.

Because it's the music INDUSTRY. Note "music" is the adjective. The
Main word is industry.
I learned that the hard way after going to work for manufacturers in the rehab INDUSTRY. That business is chock full of people who don't know a wheelchair from a gait trainer.
It's about business, not music.
 
how many M&P stores are left in that area?
In my area? None of them left 'cept balsa wood and spit. LOL

There's still Robbie's in Wayne, Sweetest Sounds in Lyndhurst, Giovine's in Nutley, Lark Music in Teaneck, Cranford Guitar & Music Center (Prymaxe) in Garwood, and more.

balsa wood and spit was in Union which is the next town over from Springfield. It's actually where I got my first Strat. LOL
 
In my area? None of them left 'cept balsa wood and spit. LOL

There's still Robbie's in Wayne, Sweetest Sounds in Lyndhurst, Giovine's in Nutley, Lark Music in Teaneck, Cranford Guitar & Music Center (Prymaxe) in Garwood, and more.

balsa wood and spit was in Union which is the next town over from Springfield. It's actually where I got my first Strat. LOL

From what I know about Lark and Prymaxe, they sell to markets outside of GC's target. So it seems that GC was successful in eliminating most of the competition. Which is exactly what they wanted. Too bad the internet ruined it for them, huh?
 
how many M&P stores are left in that area?

Two m&p "chains" with about four stores each. A Sam Ash. Probably a handful of independents, almost all slinging super low end garbage, or nice items. The chain m&p store carry very similar to GC, but prices are higher and the customer service is about GC level. They mainly survive on band rental instruments and sheet music.
 
From what I know about Lark and Prymaxe, they sell to markets outside of GC's target. So it seems that GC was successful in eliminating most of the competition. Which is exactly what they wanted. Too bad the internet ruined it for them, huh?
But that's what I'm saying. The ONLY store that has closed since GC opened its first NJ store (Springfield) was balsa wood and spit. I know the forum is autochanging the name of the store that sells Agiles and Douglases and other cheap guitars HCEG loved. LOL
 
Wake me up when they default in April.

I do like how all these blogs cite each other.
 
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