<story><title>Guitar Center files for bankruptcy</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/article/BigStory12/idUSKBN282058</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>aczerepinski</author><text>For me anecdotally, it’s Sweetwater that’s been killing Guitar Center, not Amazon. Like many, I bought a ton of music gear during the pandemic. At first I split my purchases between GC and Sweetwater, but over time it became clear that SW shipped more reliably, had better inventory, was quicker to respond to questions, and sent candy in every order.</text></item><item><author>offtop5</author><text>Very bad news imo.&lt;p&gt;Having everything flow into a Amazon Monopoly of retail isn&amp;#x27;t great. Even just going in the stores to talk and get a literal feel for instruments is great.&lt;p&gt;The biggest issue with online retail is it erodes one of the last community functions. Particularly for older Americans retail shopping might be their only social interaction all day.&lt;p&gt;If 2050 is this dystopia where everything is ordered online, all food is dropped off by drones, it&amp;#x27;s going to be very bleak.&lt;p&gt;That said retail, particularly non essential retail ( my various instruments are all effectively toys, I&amp;#x27;d guess the working musician to hobbyist ratio to easily be 1:100) is getting hit hard. No one NEEDS a news 1500$ Gibson.&lt;p&gt;Edit : Worth while to add a with concerts being shut down the professional market is effectively dead as well.  I wouldn&amp;#x27;t count on this returning until late 2021 at best</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>busterarm</author><text>Almost 20 years ago GC lost a $7000 order of mine, wouldn&amp;#x27;t lift a finger to get UPS involved and banned me from ordering after I had to use a chargeback to get my money.&lt;p&gt;Been a happy Sweetwater customer ever since. I&amp;#x27;ve had 3 different reps and I know them all quite well at this point.</text></comment>
<story><title>Guitar Center files for bankruptcy</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/article/BigStory12/idUSKBN282058</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>aczerepinski</author><text>For me anecdotally, it’s Sweetwater that’s been killing Guitar Center, not Amazon. Like many, I bought a ton of music gear during the pandemic. At first I split my purchases between GC and Sweetwater, but over time it became clear that SW shipped more reliably, had better inventory, was quicker to respond to questions, and sent candy in every order.</text></item><item><author>offtop5</author><text>Very bad news imo.&lt;p&gt;Having everything flow into a Amazon Monopoly of retail isn&amp;#x27;t great. Even just going in the stores to talk and get a literal feel for instruments is great.&lt;p&gt;The biggest issue with online retail is it erodes one of the last community functions. Particularly for older Americans retail shopping might be their only social interaction all day.&lt;p&gt;If 2050 is this dystopia where everything is ordered online, all food is dropped off by drones, it&amp;#x27;s going to be very bleak.&lt;p&gt;That said retail, particularly non essential retail ( my various instruments are all effectively toys, I&amp;#x27;d guess the working musician to hobbyist ratio to easily be 1:100) is getting hit hard. No one NEEDS a news 1500$ Gibson.&lt;p&gt;Edit : Worth while to add a with concerts being shut down the professional market is effectively dead as well.  I wouldn&amp;#x27;t count on this returning until late 2021 at best</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ssharp</author><text>If I&amp;#x27;m buying online, it&amp;#x27;s probably from Sweetwater or Reverb, definitely not Guitar Center. I mainly used GC if I needed strings, picks, sticks, or other small things, but I&amp;#x27;ve found Amazon to be perfectly fine at getting me that stuff quickly. When I first started playing guitar, probably around age 20 or so, Guitar Center was like Toys R Us to me when I was a kid. It was a magical place. However, GC came into most markets and pushed the local stores out of business and now they&amp;#x27;re getting put out of business by better ecommerce outlets and Amazon.&lt;p&gt;I am glad some local stores have survived, either battling GC valiantly or being far enough away from them. Having a hub for lessons, repairs, expertise, etc. is very nice to have around still.</text></comment>