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Posts: 4535
Location: Flahdaw | and they're gonna go out of business.
I was in Samash this morning, just poking around, looking at acoustics. Well, there was some doofus in there just wailing on an electric...bunch of distortion and delay. The guy SUCKED! Really. I can appreciate a good electric player as much as a good acoustic player, but this guy SUCKED, and he was too loud. (don't people know when they suck?) So I couldn't take it anymore and went to leave the store. I said to the guy at the counter, which is right at the exit, that I was leaving because YOU are letting that guy on the electric ruin everyone's shopping experience.
The guy says...."oh well"... the equivalant of "we don't really care if you, the guy with money to buy stuff, leaves because we don't want to tell this untalented hack to stop playing or to play with headphones." Some businesses deserve to go under.
There, that's off my chest! So, do I sound like a cranky old man, or what? |
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Posts: 5327
Location: Cicero, NY | Yep. :D |
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Posts: 494
Location: Location Location Location | People don't know when they suck. If they did, they'd stop sucking or stop playing. I always hated Sam Ash. I hope they do go out of business. |
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February 2004
Posts: 2487
| Nothin like a call to corporate, and let them know you were in the market for a high quality acoustic purchase. The Kid don't care he's making minimum wage and if he's on commission those guy's loose anything over a certain amount. Not sure exactly how they work it but it is corporate robbery and it is legal. It's like telling a waitress "hey I see you had a good night and your tips are more than you would have made on minimum wage so were keeping anything above your normal 40 hour weekly wage" So that kid just don't care, and the other kids probably his lead guitarist and is sucking up free guitar and amp practice time on the stores dime.
Yes they will go out, problem is they will kill all the mom and pop stores before they go. |
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March 2005
Posts: 12750
Location: Boise, Idaho | Ever been to GC when they were having one of their "drum offs"? Obviously, being able to hear is not one of their concerns. I walked out.
They had a guy playing a cheap Ovation right in front of an electric amp and was getting horrendous feedback. One of the salesguys turned the amp down, but the guy turned it right back up.
Another time a kid was playing in the acoustic room with a big amp turned about half way up. I left at the same time as a woman who was looking for a guitar for her kid. The salesman asked us on the way out if he could help us(probably thinking she was my wife). I told him I was going to buy the $2500 Martin, but couldn't hear it over the noise. |
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Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | And of course, not only has he driven a serious customer out of the store, he'll go home and buy the gear he was trying from an online dealer at the cheapest possible price. It's a sad state of affairs, but brick and mortar stores, including the "good" ones, are becoming free showrooms for online box-shifters. |
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January 2009
Posts: 4535
Location: Flahdaw | Originally posted by Paul Templeman:
And of course, not only has he driven a serious customer out of the store, he'll go home and buy the gear he was trying from an online dealer at the cheapest possible price. It's a sad state of affairs, but brick and mortar stores, including the "good" ones, are becoming free showrooms for online box-shifters. uh oh....something tells me that one's not gonna set well....someone start a new topic fast! |
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Posts: 2683
Location: Hot Springs, S.D. | I don't let that go on here. But I did have a similar experience at a GC in Denver. I had just moved here and didn't bring an amp with me. I wanted a small tube amp. The salesman said he had three in the size I was looking for, a Marshall, a Crate, and a Fender. They didn't have a soundroom free, and I couldn't hear a thing because of all the "jammers" who were in there at the time. The salesman took me to one of the OFICES so I could have some quiet. The guy who was sitting at the computer in the ofice was angry and insulted that the salesman asked him to let us in for a few minutes, and at first he refused. Finally the salesman insisted that I was a paying customer and that's why the store was in business, so he told the guy to leave. I was very impressed with the salesman, and I took my time deciding. (I wound up buying the Fender, which I have since traded in for a solid state Crate.) |
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October 2008
Posts: 489
| Sam Ash has been a crappy place to buy stuff since the seventies. Their White Plains NY store honked me off for the last time around 1978. Since then I have have spent many thousands of dollars on gear. Not one penny to Sam Ash. |
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Posts: 4389
Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | "Box-Shifters ... I like it ... that's just one letter off from box-shi_ters! Appropriate if you think about. |
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Posts: 4996
Location: Phoenix AZ | Ya know how most places have "the acoustic room", well my local does it just the opposite. Not an amp in sight. If you want to plug in, you go into one of the amp rooms and go at it. |
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January 2009
Posts: 4535
Location: Flahdaw | Originally posted by Gallerinski:
Ya know how most places have "the acoustic room", well my local does it just the opposite. Not an amp in sight. If you want to plug in, you go into one of the amp rooms and go at it. That IS cool! But why don't the stores require headphones for the electric players. In all my years, I've heard about 10 electric wailers that were good enough to stop and listen to. The rest were schmucks trying to impress someone. |
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Posts: 10777
Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | That "amp room" makes much more sense...
Me? I'm shy... The two times that I was in a GC I wouldn't plug anything in and prove that I can't play.
Unfortunately, dozens of other folks didn't feel the same way! |
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March 2005
Posts: 12750
Location: Boise, Idaho | I like that idea. The local GC has a tiny acoustic room, but no "high end" or separate "quiet room" like I've seen in some. The acoustic room has 4 humidifiers running constantly. When I asked the formerformerformerformer manager to shut them off so I could AB some guitars, he thought I was nuts and said they'd never been off before.
On the other hand, the drum room is pretty good sized and the keyboard/mic/cable etc room is really big and open to the rest of the store. |
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January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | Fortunately, as the paying customer, you have the ultimate say in what and where you buy. Value your freedom and choose wisely. |
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Location: Copenhagen Denmark | Very understable , all of the above...and how is one to determine which amp./speaker combo sounds like using headphones ?
V |
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December 2006
Posts: 6268
Location: Florida Central Gulf Coast | Originally posted by darkbarguitar:
I was in Samash this mornin... So, do I sound like a cranky old man, or what? Bob. that's got to be the one by the airport! Those working there that 'play', play the same crap as their young customers. If they don't play, it doesn't matter...
Cranky? Nopper, discriminating! |
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November 2004
Posts: 367
Location: Eaton, Indiana | I had driven 80 some miles to a store where I had heard there was a good line of acoustics.
When I arrived there was this kid with his pants half off sitting on a amp with a elctric guitar playing that old song...jit jit jit jit jit jit jit over and over again on the same two strings.
After 15 minutes of that I was ready to leave. The store owner did not seem to care about me or the kid. In my frustration I went over to the kid as I was leaving and said, "you are really going to be happy when you learn your second chord...
Getting old I guess
Scott B C (before computers) |
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Posts: 12750
Location: Boise, Idaho | Arthur, the GC down by Washington Square has at least one quiet room and a high end room. You might have to wait a bit, but I got in and tried out some nice classical guitars in the quiet room. |
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October 2005
Posts: 4026
Location: Utah | I went to the local GC on Monday morning, presuming that I would be the only one testing amps. Took my good guitar with me to A/B several amps. Sure enough, no other guitarists blaring away on the half-stacks.
But there was a drummer who wanted to jam. He had his headphones on and was banging away until he saw me set up. Then he took off his headphones and started bashing away as soon as I started playing. When I stopped to move to another amp, he put his headphones back on and started banging to that. He made it impossible to really test the amps. |
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Posts: 4535
Location: Flahdaw | I'm guessing the B&M's are so scared of losing any potential customer, they'll let anyone bang away at anything at any volume if it means a potential sale. In retrospect, I wasn't gonna buy anything anyway....maybe they could see that in my eyes. I'm smart enough to know that, with this economy, there are great, GREAT deals on used items out there. My next peice will come from ebay or craigslist. Samash is for strings and capos. Try to stay in business selling those.
Now when g8r opens his acoustic store in G'ville, that's a different story. |
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December 2001
Posts: 7210
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Well I think the "Topic" and "TagLine" should be reversed, and it starts to make sence.
The Music Store are gonna go out of business... and they don't care anymore.
Except in a few pockets, music stores either cater to the very young or the parents of very young who are starting out. Kid wants a guitar, the parents take them someplace like GC so they can see all the popular brands that all their heroes are playing. That's fine, but really, that's about it.
After the above, there are the "Service" music stores. They provide lessons, music instrument rentals to schools and venues, etc.. Sure they "carry" instruments and accessories, but they really sell mostly "services."
While "caring" may be the right thing to do, is it really going to affect their bottom line? Are they going to be able to afford to pay "musical instrument sales people" rather than minimum wage help? I doubt it.
To make things a bit worse, there was a time when kids that worked in music stores did so because they were interested in music. They wanted to buy strings or sticks or whatever at a store discount, and be surrounded by instruments. Now, many people working in music stores are there because it's a job. Nothing more, nothing less.
On top of all this... unless the store is either blowing stuff out cause they're tired of looking it, or are just "convenient" which is a very individual thing, it's hard to beat ordering online.
I realize it's not music related, but so far this week I've received packages from Office Depot and from JC Penny at my house. I drive past Office Depot going and coming from work, Lisa passes JC Penney AND the Office Depot every day going to her work. Shipping is free, you get an extra discount for buying online, and as silly as it may sound... it makes just turning into their parking lot not worth it, let alone walking into the store to NOT find as large a selection as is online. And that does relate to music stores at almost every level. Just by their nature, the overall variety is limited..
So anyway.. It's a bit sad to say the least.. but I really believe...
Music stores are being slowly phased out as we know them, and really... there's not much they can do about it... so they don't care. |
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December 2006
Posts: 6268
Location: Florida Central Gulf Coast | Originally posted by darkbarguitar:
Samash is for strings and capos. Not when they didn't have one set of 12ers in the store!
Oh well... |
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January 2009
Posts: 4535
Location: Flahdaw | Originally posted by 2ifbyC:
Originally posted by darkbarguitar:
Samash is for strings and capos. Not when they didn't have one set of 12ers in the store!
Oh well...
Good post, Miles, although it's hard to fathom. How do you try out a guitar. Here's a possible future.... company owned stores. Say there's a giant merger of Ovation, Takamine, Alvarez, Seagull, Dean, Washburn, etc. They open stores in key markets, offer great pricing, warrantys, service. BUT, they don't care if you buy from them in the store, they'll also sell direct on line...they got you coming or going. I don't know...the future is an weird unknown. |
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April 2008
Posts: 2985
Location: Sydney, Australia | I think the market is changing, thanks to the internet. Years ago country people purchased stuff through catalogues, because it was a two day ride to the nearest store. Now people can buy stuff on the internet much easier and cheaper.
The cycle reinforces itself. I stumbled on to Amazon.com because I couldn't find a book I needed from my local bookstores (all of them) and would have had to wait some indeterminate time for them to order them in. Bought it from Amazon, cheaper and there in two weeks (right across the globe). Pretty soon, I'm not even bothering looking in the local stores. In response, they stop stocking specialist books totally, so I just keep buying from Amazon, while the local bookstores are full of John Grisham.
The same thing is happening with instruments and other products. While it would be nice to 'try before you buy' Amazon allow you a virtual flick through the pages. Groups such as this fan club where other buyers (members of the club) let you play their guitar which they've already purchased, may be the replacement for guitars in stores.
This still leaves a market for entry level guitars in stores where Mom and Dad will buy a cheapo guitar for little Johnny from what's on the floor. |
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The music stores don't care anymore...
