Guitar Center is filing for bankruptcy protection. Those needing guitars, basses and amps may find that this is an (albeit unpleasant) buying opportunity. This occurred with Mars Music in the past. Musician’s Friend is under the Guitar Center umbrella.
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Yikes, that’s a deceptive thread title!
While closing is a possibility in the future, they haven’t announced that any stores will close at this point. So far it’s just a restructuring.
That said, it’s really sad. My son and I loved to go to GC to bum around, play all the guitars, and buy some strings. In the past, we’d go just about every other weekend.
We’ve done it ONCE since March.
Companies do file for bankruptcy and then emerge to stay in business. (Think Delta Airlines in 2005, for example. Can’t speak for the airline business these days, but still.)
"According to recent articles in the [New York Times] and [Music Trades magazine] Guitar Center was unable to pay an interest payment of roughly $45 million earlier this month, triggering a grace period of 30 days. The company is currently about $1.8 billion in debt.
This announcement is probably not a huge surprise to those following Guitar Center in the news. The company had already been experiencing difficulties earlier this year, when it had to shut down many of its facilities and furlough staff. Already under stress, it seems the COVID-19 crisis just exasperated an already tricky situation."
I know this is an old thread but having visited my local Guitar Center twice in the last week it is certainly thriving.
At least by amount of customers in store and them actually buying gear.
Only thing I noted was a general lack of decent used gear, especially guitars.
Which is what I usually go for…lol.
The article quoted above was just prior to the pandemic. I do not know if they did reorganization, or if simply sales increased with people at home and/or working remotely. I believe that Norman’s Rare Guitars has done very well despite being open by appointment only. The music school where three of my kids studied has been shuttered permanently. I am guessing that Reverb has also done well.
Guitar Center was acquired by Bain Capital and Sweetwater by Providence Equity.