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I was under the impression that lockdowns increased instrument sales, especially guitars [1]. guitarcenter.com seems to have online sales but it's not designed

by gokhan 6y ago

I was under the impression that lockdowns increased instrument sales, especially guitars [1]. guitarcenter.com seems to have online sales but it's not designed to preferably sell online, it seems. And somewhat neglected? For example, Fender link from New Arrivals page gives 404 [2]. COVID really increased the rate of change for everything. Companies playing online first saw the boost, while companies doing it as if 30 years ago failed fast. [1] Lee from Andertons was telling lockdowns are nothing to complain about, bussiness wise. [2] https://www.guitarcenter.com/Fender-American-Pro-II-Guitars-Basses.gc https://www.guitarcenter.com/Fender-American-Pro-II-Guitars-...

ev1 6y ago
Compared to Sweetwater or any of the other ones, GC's webstore is one of the worst I've ever used. Pre-COVID, GC's irlstore was generally overpriced, they refused to price match anyone, things like earplugs would be double the price of most places, and their brand/stock lineup was not very useful. It felt like you were nowhere near the prosumer/power user/pro user lines, but at the same time you were incredibly overpriced past beginner items.
- qppo 6y ago
  Their web retail is through Musician's Friend, the GC website is mostly a front end for their in store stock.
  - ev1 6y ago
    I'm largely interested in used/refurbished items, I don't usually have a thousand to blow on hobby music gear & would prefer store curbside pickup (packages in San Francisco get stolen within seconds of arriving). For online, ship to store/pickup in store is super important to me (and probably many others). I'm not sure why more places don't offer it. This also being said, I don't believe I've ever found GC/MF in person to be useful or any better than Amazon. No one working there was actually knowledgeable about their lines of products or about instruments in general, they just kept harassing me over buying worthless GC-offered third party warranties that they refuse to pay out and covers nothing
noitsnot 6y ago
I went to Sam Ash a few months back and surprisingly they probably had triple the amount of traffic.

by gokhan 6y ago

ev1 6y ago

Compared to Sweetwater or any of the other ones, GC's webstore is one of the worst I've ever used. Pre-COVID, GC's irlstore was generally overpriced, they refused to price match anyone, things like earplugs would be double the price of most places, and their brand/stock lineup was not very useful. It felt like you were nowhere near the prosumer/power user/pro user lines, but at the same time you were incredibly overpriced past beginner items.

qppo 6y ago
Their web retail is through Musician's Friend, the GC website is mostly a front end for their in store stock.
- ev1 6y ago
  I'm largely interested in used/refurbished items, I don't usually have a thousand to blow on hobby music gear & would prefer store curbside pickup (packages in San Francisco get stolen within seconds of arriving). For online, ship to store/pickup in store is super important to me (and probably many others). I'm not sure why more places don't offer it. This also being said, I don't believe I've ever found GC/MF in person to be useful or any better than Amazon. No one working there was actually knowledgeable about their lines of products or about instruments in general, they just kept harassing me over buying worthless GC-offered third party warranties that they refuse to pay out and covers nothing

noitsnot 6y ago

I went to Sam Ash a few months back and surprisingly they probably had triple the amount of traffic.