The End of Guitar Center
ericgarland.co
ericgarland.co
As companies like this are grabbing market share the story is always that if they fail the market can just go back to what it was. It rarely does.
Interesting is that some of the businesses that GC put under might have been able to compete in markets where GC can't, where customer loyalty is important. There's no reason to buy something from Guitar Center that you could order online unless you need it immediately. But a locally owned music shop where you've known the owner for 10 years and always go play guitars on your days off? It feels good spending money there.
If I want a guitar I've actually got some OK options with a handful of pawn shops (the thrift store solution where you have to hunt but can get a deal) and maybe one or two smaller music shops with limited inventory. Then there's craigslist where I can look around and hope someone's selling what I want but at least I can go check it out in person.
But for stuff like PA systems and amp cabinets I don't want to just read reviews and order some massive shipment from Amazon or hope someone is selling the thing I need on Craigslist. New, current model audio gear isn't always easy to find that way and it's just too big and expensive to ship conveniently. I want to drive to a shop, listen to the different options, feel their build quality, and ultimately load something into the car.
For the past several years, GC has been the only place in my area where I can get that stuff. Granted it's not a problem I run into often since I don't go buying PAs with subwoofers every year but when I do need that stuff, I hate only having one store with any chance of carrying what I want.
But of course, selling musical instruments is different, for unspecified reasons. Guitar Center's problems aren't just because of a changing retail environment but a searing indictment of modern capitalism that is somehow linked to the housing crisis (what?), and somehow to the declaration of martial law (huh?) and the destruction of the US dollar (uh...) that apparently happened over the last few years.
Fine, the author thinks Guitar Center is about to declare bankruptcy. He's not alone; rating agencies have deemed their bonds to be junk. But neither is Guitar Center; there's a lot of failing companies around. Unless you're unlucky enough to own some of their debt (or, worse, the company itself), I have no idea why you'd care.
(...which kind of makes me wonder why the author cares. If he ownd a bunch of Guitar Center bonds, I'd assume he'd just sell them. What's his angle here?)
Maybe he is short on GC stock.
There is a difference, because people like to try out instruments before they buy - otherwise it's like buying a car without test-driving it first.
It's not the same process as jumping on Amazon and ordering a book or a DVD, especially considering instruments can cost thousands of dollars.
Er, what? Martial law? I guess I wasn't around for that one.
Second, it did so just as the housing fraud and financial insanity which characterized the late 1990s and early 2000s nearly destroyed the U.S. dollar and left us with martial law.
I guess it's relevant for musicians and Bain Capital, but he does come across as a hyper quack.
I'm not happy with how the bailouts happened and bankers and others who engineered the disaster not only walked scot-free but made a killing on the situation, but increasingly I'm convinced we dodged an asteroid there.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/07/18/359621/-Bush-declar... http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/may2007/230507martialla...
As you may know, Emperor Bush has always ruled over us gently but firmly.
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=YMK-Ix5Ue24
Either me and c-span are wrong, or the guys detracting me are. You decide.
What you're discussing is that the House (which under the constitution can set their own rules) decided to create a rule XIII(6)(a) that said that bills couldn't be passed by the House without a day to consider them except by a 2/3 vote. Later, the House changed that rule to waive the requirement to wait a day. Later still, they reinstated it.
Colloquially, the waiver of the rule is sometimes referred to as "martial law", in much the way that proposals to repeal or reform the filibuster rules in the senate are called the "nuclear option". The nuclear option does not involve nuclear weapons, and the so-called "martial law" rule in the senate does not involve martial law. It's not even related to martial law.
Martial law would be a suspension of civil liberties and an injection of military personnel over civilian authorities; it would also necessitate a repeal of habeas corpus and the posse comitatus act. What you're discussing is a minor (and long since reverted) rule change governing when and in what circumstances draft bills could be brought to a floor vote in the house.
The bottom line is this: The minority party in the house wanted to delay and debate the bailout bill. The house—which is charged with setting rules about delays and debate by majority vote-set rules which didn't allow the minority party to delay and debate as much as they wanted. Some members of the minority party, in a fit of hyperbole, analogized the rule change to martial law. It wasn't. It wasn't even sort of LIKE martial law.
TL;DR: You're so wrong, you didn't even understand c-span.
Seeing Guitar Center flail is like seeing McDonald's flail... I don't feel bad at all and hope for a speedy decimation.
Back in the 80's, Guitar Center was AWFUL. I'd go in to buy a pack of strings and the salesman would want to negotiate the price. Hated the place and would never go. I rediscovered GC a few years ago and was pleasantly surprised at the changes.