Actually, I stopped shopping at Walmart and many of those other stores several years ago. The reason was specifically because of their business practices. For another thread though ...
Jason
"Rock And Roll Ain't Noise Pollution"
Here in western CT, I like the East Coast Music Mall. They have a pretty wide selection, from MIMs to PRS, and a solid crew of guitar techs. Some people don't like them for reasons unclear, but I've always had good luck there.
They also do online and overseas sales.
Laz, I've been to East Coast a few times but did not like it because they didn't put prices on anything. I felt if I asked a salesperson how much a guitar or amp was they could tell me any number they wanted to. I like to see the pricetag. So that turned me off. The salespeople were not very helpful either. But they did have a very impressive selection of quality gear.
I go to a local shop for strings, mic stands, small purchases like that. Their prices are a little high and selection limited. I do like GC for the big selection. But I do most of my shopping online now. I enjoy the low prices and that you can get anything you want. I have never gotten a lemon yet.
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
Ignoring color variations, count up how many actual different models are on display. It's not particularly impressive.
No?
It would be a lot easier for me to count up the ones they didn't have. Just an example, my GC easily carries over 12 Schecters, with around 8 being in different models.
Maybe because the New England is considered to be a large test market area, supply and demand, can't say for sure but we have a lot of different brands/models around here.
Well I see a lively debate coming on here, I have to use the line Wes always does from Sly..Different strokes for different folks.
If a small shop works for someone go for it, they will alwys be around no matter how big the giants get, there will always be a small shop that caters to niche markets but by in large I think Colorado Fenders analysis is pretty accurate.
King your response of no to whether or not you shop at any of the Big stores puts you in a very small minority of people. And in a large publicly traded company it's ALL about the shareholders not just somewhat.
what's the big deal about a mom and pop shop? So they only have a couple of employee's..that doesn't automatically make them better at anything including customer service. Any GC could have just as good of customer service dept. if it was managed well locally. And I can argue that the large stores do much more good for the local economy by providing wages for alot more than two employees. Of course they also bring more traffic etc.
You can debate this forever and there are pros and cons of each but at the end of the day you do what's best for you.
"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!
Guess I'm lucky here, lots of mom and pops to choose from. This is my favorite http://www.drumcityguitarland.com/ It's like you died and went to heaven walking into this place, and there is a good chance of running into a guitar idol here.
I think my friends' dad used to work there. I'm not 100% positive though. Ee...more like 80%. The only GC I can think of is in Westminster as being the closest one here. My local store ( http://www.guitarsetc.net/ ) is maybe 5 miles away. If I want a Fender in my town the only way that's going to happen is to go to the pawn shop(s).
"If I had a time machine, I'd go back and tell me to practise that bloody guitar!" -Vic Lewis
Everything is 42..... again.
And I can argue that the large stores do much more good for the local economy by providing wages for alot more than two employees.
That's nonsense. Larger stores can deal with more customers with less staff, meaing less people have a job then when the same customers had to be taken care of by multiple smaller stores. That's not an opinion but a fact.
And in a large publicly traded company it's ALL about the shareholders not just somewhat.
King was talking about how the economy fits into a western view of life. It's about society, and it's very well possible that market mechanisms result in behaviour that rewards an individual but harms society.
King your response of no to whether or not you shop at any of the Big stores puts you in a very small minority of people.
Being able to correctly spell the name of more then four nations would make one belong to a very small minority. I don't think minory/majority has much to do with the logical validity of King's arguments. You might not like what he says but that doesn't make his statements wrong.
I had this long reply about how we are going to be in trouble because we don't manufactor anything here anymore and what helped win the first two world wars was our ability to quickly produce things for the war machine and it's all big corp fault for moving everything overseas for those profit margins the shareholders like to see (takes breath) ... but I deleted it. Starting to get too political for my tastes. :)
Jason
"Rock And Roll Ain't Noise Pollution"
Jason - thanks for not sharing :lol: - you may be onto something tho'
...only thing I know how to do is to keep on keepin' on...
LARS kolberg http://www.facebook.com/sangerersomfolk
And in a large publicly traded company it's ALL about the shareholders not just somewhat.
That is simply wrong.
Is that why officers are paid millions of dollars in bonuses by companies in the process of losing market share, production capacity, and economic motility?
Is that why corporations engage in takeovers, even though study after study has shown that a takeover reduces the value of the company that is doing the aquisition.
Legally speaking, the Corporations Act states that the officers have a duty to act in the best interest of the corporation. There is no law in the USA requiring a corporation to act in the interests of the shareholders except in so much as the interets of the corporation and the shareholders coincide.
The case Paramount Communications v Time, Inc., establishes that a coporation is a collection of relationships, contractual and otherwise, among investors, workers, customers, suppliers, communities, and ecosystems. The legal duty of a coporation is to act in the balanced interest of all of those entities . . . popular myths to the contrary aside. In that case, the court upheld that the decision of the Board of Time, Inc., to reject a bid by Paramount Communications in favour of a less attractive bid (from the shareholders' financial perspective) that would better preserve the “culture†of the organisation.
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." -- HST
Some super-stores (like GC) are better than others. Some are really good, some really bad.
Some "mom and pop" shops are better than others. Some are really good, some really bad.
Some super-stores are better than some mom & pops.
Some mom & pops are better than some super-stores.
Shop where you get the most satisfaction.
"Everybody got to elevate from the norm."
My local musiciansfriend (owned by GC) has a better selection than any of the greater KC areas smaller shops i have visited.
My local MF has better prices on most everything and will negotiate and match prices on everything i have bought there.
Corporations are not "legally" required to provide a profit (dividends) to their shareholders.
but what all corporations and "for profit" businesses have in common is that they are "in business" to make a profit for their owners or shareholders.
CEOs and the like are compensated by contract whether they produce a profit or not , but they don't last long if they don't produce.
the majority of "shareholders" are normal everyday people like all of us
Corporations do not equal "evil"
Large stores like Sams Club, Costco, GC, Walmart, etc are merely a reflection of the times and survive within the law. otherwise they would not stay in business long.
Buisness trends fluctuate and the "pendulum" will eventually swing the other way when someone comes along with a better idea or provides a niche that consumers want/need.
Personally i will always trade availability,selection, and price over the "perception" of better service .
the only "service" i require is that i am able to save money on what i want and that warrentees are respected.
When i buy something that costs a repectable sum i always do my research first, i do not for one second expect a minumum wage employee to answer overly technical questions or provide unbiased opinion on choices available (but that's just me)
i do however build relationships with managers and long time sucessful sales people based on my observations
(this has saved me hundreds of $ at MF alone in the last few years)
like slej said YMMV,
"Some super-stores (like GC) are better than others. Some are really good, some really bad.
Some "mom and pop" shops are better than others. Some are really good, some really bad.
Some super-stores are better than some mom & pops.
Some mom & pops are better than some super-stores.
Shop where you get the most satisfaction."
#4491....
Well, I'm not saying whether it's a good or bad thing as I don't want to get involved in that debate. I will say however, from my experience at any rate it seems to be the natural progression of things.
As an example, when I was growing up in Brooklyn N.Y. in the early 60's we went to the butcher for meat, the bakery for bread and pasta, the fishmarket for seafood, the fruitstand for fruit and veggies and the local deli for things like canned goods, chips ect.
Then supermarkets came in I think it might have been A&P, doesn't really matter. All of a sudden, everything you went to those shops for was all under one roof, slowly by the end of the 70's maybe early 80's at the latest all those shops were gone. Now everyone thinks of the Grocery store as the "Local" store. Now you have the so-called "Superstores" Slowly replacing those, the wal-marts, targets and k-marts and for music the Guitar centers and the big online conglomorates. It seems to me they are the next step in the retail "Evolutionary" process. Think about it in terms of evolution, first there were all the individual shops out on the street, then there was the next step, malls, where you still had individual shops but all under one roof, now you have superstores where those individual shops become "Departments" of the superstore.
Like it or not, you can't stop evolution.
Immature? Of course I'm immature Einstein, I'm 50 and in a Rock and ROll band.
New Band site http://www.myspace.com/guidedbymonkeys
Arjen
let me help you out here. ColoradoFender bender asked if someone had ever shopped at a bunch of big chain stores Lowe's, Walmart etc. and King said no. For someone in the US at least not to ever have bought something from one of those stores would put him in a very small minority. The US is my native country and I don't know anyone including my 80 yo parents that haven't been in one of those stores so I'm not sure what your point is. I beleive him when he says that, I just think it puts him in a very small minority of people, which would lead me to beleive his point of view might be a little anti-Big corporation and as such I would expect him to defend small mom and pop shops which I think he was.
As for small shops somehow employing more people than big corporations as fact well show me the data that supports this fact. Not just your personal analysis of the situation.
I'm not going to argue about anything else cuz I really don't care it's really the way slejhamer described some are good some aren't but there's no way to generalize that all big corporations are bad and all small mom and pop shops are somehow inherently good, that's just not correct.
It's survival of the fittest if a small shop does a good job at something they'll make it, if not oh well, they'll get taken over by another GC, it's called free market capitalism.
"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!
I beleive him when he says that, I just think it puts him in a very small minority of people, which would lead me to beleive his point of view might be a little anti-Big corporation and as such I would expect him to defend small mom and pop shops which I think he was.
It doesn't matter what you assume or believe about King's inner state of mind, or whether you believe he has a anti-big corporation mentality. What matters are his statements and what you can bring in against them. They are logically correct as far as I can see, and that has nothing to do with where he shops or doesn't shop. It's hard enough to have an acceptable discussion without having to guess about what people think or don't think, espescially on the internet.
As for data I don't think it's particularly in my interest to spend my entire evening collecting data to convince you. So if you're interested help yourself: http://scholar.google.com/
If you are seriously interested I'll whip together a list of proper reading material, let me know. For the rest, where you shop in your country is hardly a subject for me to get extremely excited about. The only reason I entered the discussion was because some argumentation started to resemble opinions instead of arguments which makes it hard for me to follow it.
I beleive him when he says that, I just think it puts him in a very small minority of people, which would lead me to beleive his point of view might be a little anti-Big corporation and as such I would expect him to defend small mom and pop shops which I think he was.
It doesn't matter what you assume or believe about King's inner state of mind, or whether you believe he has a anti-big corporation mentality. What matters are his statements and what you can bring in against them. They are logically correct as far as I can see, and that has nothing to do with where he shops or doesn't shop. It's hard enough to have an acceptable discussion without having to guess about what people think or don't think, espescially on the internet.
As for data I don't think it's particularly in my interest to spend my entire evening collecting data to convince you. So if you're interested help yourself: http://scholar.google.com/
If you are seriously interested I'll whip together a list of proper reading material, let me know. For the rest, where you shop in your country is hardly a subject for me to get extremely excited about. The only reason I entered the discussion was because some argumentation started to resemble opinions instead of arguments which makes it hard for me to follow it.
