How Guitar Brands Dictate Their Minimum Buy Ins
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- Опубліковано 24 бер 2024
- #knowyourgear #podcast #guitarpodcast #geekystuff
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The big brands do NOT make it affordable for you to even stock them!
Having been in music retail myself for 8 years, I'd get people come in, & ask., ' DON'T you stock Gibson/Fender/PRS guitars/amps etc?'
I say 'NO, we can't afford the stock levels, and NO we CAN'T just get 1 or 2 in to stock, it DOESN'T work that way!'
'Oh! That sucks!'
Yeah, here the Big F wanted us to stock min, $40K at all times in guitars/basses amps etc, The big G, even more!
NONE of them made it EASY for the small suburban shops, running on shoestrings!
Pathetic!
I’ve enjoyed these videos. I owned a music store in a tiny town in AR for about 6 years. I was a Fender dealer. I wanted to carry as much as I could so I did the buy-in for USA, MIM, Squeir, Acoustics, and Solid State amps (which also included the Cybertwin). The opening order was $45,000!!! Mind you the town population was 10,000. That was one of my more dumb decisions regarding my store. Plus, once a guitar sold, the rep would come in and make me order another one to replace it, even if I had to practically give the guitar away just to move it. I had one customer come in wanting a Deluxe Reverb, of course I couldn’t get it unless I ordered 2 amps from the line. I talked the fellow in to buying a Traynor YCV20WR instead. He was thrilled but couldn’t get over it not having that Fender emblem on the grill. I carried USM guitars also, and they were more flexible like you mentioned. I carried Parker but I had opened with them before USM bought them. Believe it or not I sold every one of the Parkers I ordered. We talked to Taylor at the California NAMM show, they were so rude “we’re not interested but you can come back next year, we probably won’t be interested then either but do come by and let us know”. I walked right across the aisle and signed up with Larrivee, a better guitar in my opinion, and we sold every one of those as well. If I had it to do again I would have stopped at the MIM Fenders, the acoustics did well, the Squiers did well, and the solid state amps did well. Dean acoustics did well for us, their electrics not so much. We sold a lot of Cort products too. We sold a lot of Sonor drums. Our nearest competitor would say “I wouldn’t cross the street to play a Sonor”, a year later he was stocking them. We tried Tama and Ibanez with decent results. WIthin a year of my store opening the local walmart started carrying GHS strings. My GHS rep tried to tell me the model they sold was inferior to the model I sold (that was in the exact same packaging) That was the last time I ordered from them.
GHS:Ok Boomer! ;oP
that's a real bummer to hear about Taylor - love their cutaway acoustics
Really appreciate this. I've always wondered how the business works for music stores. I worry that local music stores are dying because of both online competition and from sheer cost to operate the business. There is almost no place near me now where I can actually put my hands on the gear and try it in person. Simple things like neck width/shape are so important, but you can't figure it out without opportunity. Same with things like basic setup....nothing like having the store tech teach the basics. We're losing something precious.
Thanks for posting this…I always wondered why my small shop had Fender accessories, but not guitars
I remember back in the day, in Mississippi, nearly all stores sold Peavey, but if you had their stuff, you couldn't be a dealer for anyone else.
You could get a new Fender or a Gibson guitar, but not a new Fender or Gibson amp-all amps and PA gear were Peavey.
Some smaller stores were ALL Peavey, and those were the ones that had the UGLY guitars that nobody wanted, even though they were actually killer.
I believe Peavey killed many small Mom and Pop shops with that business model, the only music shop in my town only had Peavey and literally nothing ever sold lol
I remember Peavey being EVERYWHERE
That's the OEM cutting the dealer's throat & it's just plain stoopid....
Hey, that was my question! Thanks for doing what you do to make us all better informed. I guess we'll never know what the VP decided to do with that information, assuming he closed that account with the dealer. I can't imagine they thought they could have gotten away with it forever. The VP could have also tried to find out what kind of deal they got from the other brand to make them willing to do that.
There was a rumor going around in the mid 90's, that the center for guitars was telling the manufacturers to stop selling to the small single location shops or they'd stop dealing with them. One of those smaller stores (I used to frequent) went under apparently because of.
Decades ago a larger local music store did that with Marshall. They wanted Marshall exclusively so my local store couldn't carry them.
Soon they will be begging for any buy ins at all and offer massive discounts.
Many of them will be bankrupt before that happens
@@Joe-mz6dc well look for it bankrupt stores will sell their stock at any cost
Phil! I am shocked! You snitched on such a creative hustle! :D Funny storry
Oh, man. I know this. My local shop carries Fender guitars and acoustics but not Fender Amps, and they are so on the hook for Fender Accessories. I love the place but they only have Fender branded strings. I asked about getting in some other strings and the owner just said, he's gotta move Fender product if he's going to keep carrying the guitars. It was sad, because I'd be more likely to get a D'Addario tattoo than a Fender tattoo.
1500$ of tubes? Nowadays that may be enough to retube a Triple Rec, but just.
This is so interesting to hear the business side...
G'day Phillip,
Thanks for that info on Fender. It all makes sense now. I dropped into a dealer last year to look at buying a Strat, & wanted to get a Fender pick guard for 1 of my Teles on the same deal. Even though they wanted to sell me the Strat, they suggested that I go to eBay for the pick guard. It's obvious now that they are a guitar dealer, but not a spare parts dealer. That's nuts! That also explains why it took a week to get the guitar ready for sale - they had the Strat, but not the gig bag or the vibrato arm, & had to order them in. Why does the distributor make it so hard for a dealer to support the product with spare parts? With Fender not telling the custommer the products that every Fender dealer carries, it's almost like a treasure hunt, but in reverse! That's like buying a new F-150 from a Ford dealer, only to have them say; "Sure, we can give you a factory service on your truck, but you'll have to leave it here for a week, whilst we're getting the approved brake pads which retains your warranty..."
Thanks for a great video.
Keep up the good work
Andrew
Great story about Fender vp
Thank you for the insight.
The way to sell an extra “just in case” set of tubes is to include a free case to protect the tubes. There’s no way to keep them together if they stay in their own boxes which get separated like socks in a dryer. You’ll always be missing the one you need when you need it and yeah you could look at it as another chance to sell a tube but you’re gonna have a pissed off customer. Keep’em happy from the get go. Free case.
Great idea!
That is such a shitty business model, which is why I'd buy vintage if I want something Fender.
Thanks for the FYI Phillip
That's the reason that the two local music stores in my town only carried Washburn and Samick respectfully.
I can tell ya' stories about getting screwed by Gibson and Peavey.
I think I know the store he was talking about. Where are they now?
i like these "inside "stories from phil , it shows that like any business , the guitarmarket is just about one thing , now , what would that be : )
where is the full episode?
Wait...Sunn amps are back? The Sunn amps that Fender bought out and shut down??
Sometimes things that sound good on paper, like making sure everyone can "have access to something we sell" really doesn't work in the real world. That's why people like that VP go out into the field, I'm sure they learned something that day. What do they think the vendor that doesn't sell their guitars is going to say about them? Jeesh. The system is dumb, if there are limited special items, those should go to your higher value (volume) dealers first. Everyone should be able to sell any product they make otherwise, why send a Fender customer to a different brand for an acoustic? It's nuts. It's also really simple.
If it wasn't for your little stories I wouldn't be listening to your podcast religiously :-D
I wouldn’t have a Chapman guitar on my property even as firewood if it was 20 below and the furnace is broke. Trash, but tainted.
Guild
So, how is Gibson for a small dealer?
they are not for the small dealer. they suck in fact
Ah, corporate capitalism. I try to stay as uninvolved as possible…
I know right, they really have us hoodwinked that building guitars isn't a high school level project.
You can easily build a guitar as a high school project. You can build a guitar with nothing but nails, a 2x4, and an antenna. That doesn't mean it'll be as good. Good techs/luthiers have skills you can't even comprehend.
It’s like that with concerts too. Used to be cheap to see all the famous bands. Now be prepared to have a financial discussion with your family
Gibson was the worst of all.
Are there any anonymous groups for help with with my guitar collection addiction! 🎸⛑️
They only help people with 50+ guitars 😂 I'm almost there 🤓