<story><title>Guitar Center files for bankruptcy</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/article/BigStory12/idUSKBN282058</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>trentnix</author><text>MAP loopholes (like the thomanmusic.com example you mentioned) have killed brick and mortar retail. Some of those prices you&amp;#x27;re paying from those European outlets are less than the local retailer can buy it wholesale. So you&amp;#x27;re asking your local retailer to lose money to make the sale.&lt;p&gt;I owned a bike shop and sporting goods store in a past life (I&amp;#x27;ve written about it here: &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.sciencerocketry.com&amp;#x2F;blog&amp;#x2F;great-work-and-new-beginnings&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.sciencerocketry.com&amp;#x2F;blog&amp;#x2F;great-work-and-new-begin...&lt;/a&gt;) and the effects of Shimano&amp;#x27;s inability (or really, refusal) to control pricing from its European distribution was catastrophic to my business and my peers. And not only that, I found that many of those sellers would defraud customs on expensive items by declaring the value just under thresholds that would result in them paying import taxes and tariffs. It was a profit destroyer for us but Shimano moved units, and that&amp;#x27;s all that mattered to them.&lt;p&gt;When some of those parts customers purchased from Chain Reaction or Wiggle or whatever didn&amp;#x27;t work, the customers who bought those parts overseas would come into our shop asking us to handle the warranty process. We were a Shimano dealer, after all! If we politely refused or tried to collect a handling charge, we were the ones that would face the customer&amp;#x27;s outrage.&lt;p&gt;The end result is that there is less sales tax in your community because of the absence of that brick and mortar retailer. There are fewer jobs. There are fewer local communities built around hobbies, crafts, trades, or whatever. But you can get products cheaper and your dollars have greater purchasing power. Maybe that&amp;#x27;s a worthwhile trade-off - YMMV.</text></item><item><author>S_A_P</author><text>Guitar Center definitely shifted to &amp;quot;mainstream&amp;quot; and de-contented stores after bain got involved. Maybe that is the only real path forward, but I dont ever stop into Guitar Center anymore since they usually only have the prosumer-ish gear that Im not interested in. They also seem to have much less used gear in each store, despite the influx of &amp;#x27;sell yer gear here for cash&amp;#x27; emails I get from them.&lt;p&gt;Edit: Another thing- part of the problem for US based retailers in general is MAP. Its price fixing, and in many cases I can go to, say Thomanmusic.com and order something from Germany for ~85% of the best price I can get at major retailers here, including shipping, tarriffs and foreign transaction fees. 
Personally I think MAP is ridiculous and leads to TREMENDOUS waste of resources. Im buying something that was shipped from China to Europe, then shipping it back to Texas all for less money than US retailers will allow. WHY IS THAT?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>titzer</author><text>This sounds like one of the oft-overlooked knock-on effects of globalization and long supply chains. Lots of tariff quackery and a whole lot of risk and uncertainty for sourcing. It all ends up funneling money away from local businesses and governments. Even if it helps consumers by making goods a smidgen cheaper, what good is it if money ultimately &lt;i&gt;leaves&lt;/i&gt; the local economy?&lt;p&gt;Multiply your experience by a million and stretch it out over decades, and this is middle America getting sucked dry.</text></comment>
<story><title>Guitar Center files for bankruptcy</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/article/BigStory12/idUSKBN282058</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>trentnix</author><text>MAP loopholes (like the thomanmusic.com example you mentioned) have killed brick and mortar retail. Some of those prices you&amp;#x27;re paying from those European outlets are less than the local retailer can buy it wholesale. So you&amp;#x27;re asking your local retailer to lose money to make the sale.&lt;p&gt;I owned a bike shop and sporting goods store in a past life (I&amp;#x27;ve written about it here: &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.sciencerocketry.com&amp;#x2F;blog&amp;#x2F;great-work-and-new-beginnings&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.sciencerocketry.com&amp;#x2F;blog&amp;#x2F;great-work-and-new-begin...&lt;/a&gt;) and the effects of Shimano&amp;#x27;s inability (or really, refusal) to control pricing from its European distribution was catastrophic to my business and my peers. And not only that, I found that many of those sellers would defraud customs on expensive items by declaring the value just under thresholds that would result in them paying import taxes and tariffs. It was a profit destroyer for us but Shimano moved units, and that&amp;#x27;s all that mattered to them.&lt;p&gt;When some of those parts customers purchased from Chain Reaction or Wiggle or whatever didn&amp;#x27;t work, the customers who bought those parts overseas would come into our shop asking us to handle the warranty process. We were a Shimano dealer, after all! If we politely refused or tried to collect a handling charge, we were the ones that would face the customer&amp;#x27;s outrage.&lt;p&gt;The end result is that there is less sales tax in your community because of the absence of that brick and mortar retailer. There are fewer jobs. There are fewer local communities built around hobbies, crafts, trades, or whatever. But you can get products cheaper and your dollars have greater purchasing power. Maybe that&amp;#x27;s a worthwhile trade-off - YMMV.</text></item><item><author>S_A_P</author><text>Guitar Center definitely shifted to &amp;quot;mainstream&amp;quot; and de-contented stores after bain got involved. Maybe that is the only real path forward, but I dont ever stop into Guitar Center anymore since they usually only have the prosumer-ish gear that Im not interested in. They also seem to have much less used gear in each store, despite the influx of &amp;#x27;sell yer gear here for cash&amp;#x27; emails I get from them.&lt;p&gt;Edit: Another thing- part of the problem for US based retailers in general is MAP. Its price fixing, and in many cases I can go to, say Thomanmusic.com and order something from Germany for ~85% of the best price I can get at major retailers here, including shipping, tarriffs and foreign transaction fees. 
Personally I think MAP is ridiculous and leads to TREMENDOUS waste of resources. Im buying something that was shipped from China to Europe, then shipping it back to Texas all for less money than US retailers will allow. WHY IS THAT?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>alistairSH</author><text>But what is causing the prices in US and EU to vary so much?  Im a cyclist, and even with a race team discount, the EU prices are often 10% lower than through my LBS.&lt;p&gt;Are Shimano and others just gouging in the US market because they can (and damn the impact on local retailers)?</text></comment>