Best Buy taking on GC ?

[timmy5strings]

Is Best Buy going to be GC's competition ? There is a thread on TB that BB is selling higher end stuff than the normal starter kits they've had. Will you be able to buy your bass and dryer all at the same place ? That seems sorta whack to me. It seems they are cashing in on the Big Store thing.

Finance and Commerce

 

[Sweat]

Good Lord what a crock, I would not even buy a computer from worst buy,like buying a TV atwalgreens, GC gets bashed way to often but at least thieir nitch is music instruments and some stores are great, i.e. North Dallas, hell I know more about the stuff Best Buy sells than most of their employees.

 

[timmy5strings]

I forgot to add this
Best Buy selling musical instruments - TalkBass Forums

 

[sloshep]

I am not sure about this one. It has the look of degeneration all over it. Guitar Center has its faults , but at least it has focus on what its trying to do. Best Buy looks like its trying to become the electronics / music Walmart. Jack of all trades, master of none.

 

[Brim]

First Apple...now GC? Hate to say it, but it's time to get some Best Buy stock.

 

[paranoid70]

I have noticed guitars there a few years ago. Quite a few department stores sell starter guitars already. I don't Guitar Center is in real danger here to be honest.

 

[Big Poppa]

there are full line stores in certain formats it started in riverside california about 18 months ago as a test...they will have about 35 by summer

 

[Caca de Kick]

Quite a few department stores sell starter guitars already.

We're not talking starter kits here...folks are reporting BB is stocking the MIA $1100-1300 dollar instruments in stores.

There's a BB four blocks from my house, and I hate going there, people are door knobs there.

 

[PzoLover]

who's money is at risk here

Hey everyone,
last week, I met a guy who asked about my Stingray tee shirt over lunch here at Ye Olde Folkes INN and when I mentioned about playing one of the world's best electric basses before falling down with a CVA, he was so proud to tell me about his grandson, who's a bass guitar player in a band that's recording a new CD.
Imagine that you're "Grandppy, and you're on a fixed pension income and you and Grammy have been approached by your young beloved to help buy a new bass guitar ... "Where you gonna shop??" suppose your young family rock star
takes you to the nearby specialty shop where you get sticker shock looking at all the good stuff, and you hear all kinds of strange lingo from kidz with pins in their faces, and on the way home you stop at the Big discounter store and you see the same stuff for quite a bit less of your pension, and bear in mind you're still trying to figure out how you will afford to send your first great granchildren to college after the prize winning CD sales start to slump and the rock star asks for help to buy a new chevy... you and I may never shop at Worst Buy for all kinds of reasons obvious to us, but from Grandppy's shoes, the market looks a bit different
love that consumerism
ATB,
/PL

 

[RobertB]

Just what I need ... some kid trying to sell me yet another "extended warranty".

 

[spychocyco]

Can't wait to see the setup you'll get on your new guitar from BB.

I'll pass. I'm a little peeved at GC because they took advantage of my wife and charged her for the case on my Axis, but by and large I've been treated OK by them. At least everyone I've ever talked to in there seemed to know what they were talking about.

 

[phatduckk]

I have 3 best buys within 6 freeway exits of my house (+ 1 within 3 miles of my work). if they stock what GC stocks id be pretty stoked. hey, competition is good for us consumers

 

[WillPlay4Food]

I have 3 best buys within 6 freeway exits of my house (+ 1 within 3 miles of my work). if they stock what GC stocks id be pretty stoked. hey, competition is good for us consumers

But then it becomes a race to the bottom. BB may offer lower prices than GC, but are they going to stock parts? Like an earlier poster said, are you going to get your setup tweaked at the service counter? What about service? Knowledgeable people cost money and I'm not sure BB is looking to pay for expertise.

I've seen this with my R/C aircraft hobby. Sure I could buy online and save a few bucks, but if I buy a model from my local hobby shop I know they carry all replacement parts for that model. They will also help me tweak my setup / trim my heli, help me with repairs if I need it and they'll do it free of charge because they understand service is king. It isn't always about 'this sale'. If I can't get my heli in the air, why would I want to continue in the hobby? If they help me get into the air and stay interested in the hobby, I'll probably be back and I'll probably be looking for a bigger (more expensive) machine for my next purchase.


tl;dr

Seems like everyone looks for the lowest price only. Then they complain about 'crappy customer service' when something goes wrong. Support good service companies and they will support you.

 

[AnthonyD]

Just what I need ... some kid trying to sell me yet another "extended warranty".

Made me laugh!



More outlets can't hurt, I suppose... It'll be cool to take a "noodle break" with a four-banger while shopping for the big-screen TV. For me, though, my EBMM dollars go to Pete!

 

[mattj]

I have a Best Buy with a guitar shop in it right down the street from me. They set up a small store within a store in the back. It actually isn't that bad. Mostly Gibson and Fender, some Yamaha. They have an amp room, Marshall, some Vox stuff, effects, acoustics... They do carry some parts too and sales people seem to know what they are taking about for the most part. I was in there last week and their manager was going over how to explain to customers that even though yamaha makes four wheelers and motorcycles, they have been making musical instruments for a long time and they are worth trying out. I guess it is doing well, they just opened a second guitar shop here in Minneapolis right next to the TC GC.

 

[silverburst]

Can't wait to see the setup you'll get on your new guitar from BB.

Couldn't be much worse, really. Maybe their inventory will turn over more quickly so the product won't be as beaten up.

 

[WarMan]

GC carries parts?

From my experience in Dallas, the local GC only carry the most basic of Fender and Gibson parts. The rest of their parts are very generic. I don't really see BB not carrying parts as a liability. I have to order most speciality stuff on-line anyway.

I like GC but I think the competition would be good. Local stores are going away and GC owns three of the major on-line retailers. Competition keeps everyone on their toes. Lack of knowledge by sales staff is not a major concern. From my experience, each GC seems to have a small core of knowledgeable people who seem to stay. The rest are transient.

 

[Old_Guy]

It'll be like cameras. When I was young, lots of guys developed B&W pictures in their bathrooms at home. You went to a camera store to get chemicals, papers, etc., and of course advice and instruction. Then Ritz came along and started standardizing products, and of course pushing down prices. Now that digital cameras are mainstream, you can find them anywhere - and you don't need the chemicals, timers, dip tanks, or anything else, just the same PC you did your taxes on. I bought a 5 mp digital camera for my daughter in Home Depot of all places last Xmas.
So what's happening in the musical instrument business? Heck if I know, but it would seem like you can get a B-DEC 30 and with your EMBB, be a perfectly content bassist and never leave your own basement all by yourself. If BB considers guitars to be just another "home entertainment" item, makes sense they'd include them in the product offering. Get a big screen tv, get a bass, maybe a small beer fridge - all supporting the same activity - self-sustaining home entertainment (which is the Big Trend, known as "cocooning.") Nobody goes to bridge parties anymore, and the poker games in my neighborhood have become 'high stakes' (which I though was illegal, but never mind).

Is it good or bad? Well, professional photographers cringe at "advanced amateurs" with their "pro sumer" cameras taking away potential wedding shoots. HS yearbooks now let the kids do their own photos. Film sales of course are rapidly declining, but overall interest in photography is up, though the market has shook out (Minolta became Konica Minolta which died but reincarnated as Sony branded cameras, etc.). Gibson's robot guitar allegedly tunes itself (though reviews are mixed about how good it is, still...that's an interesting move).

Back to last week's Question of the Week - the general forum consenus was that entry level instruments are good because they draw potential players in who otherwise couldn't afford it; some of those new players graduate to better (EBMM) instruments, and some of course eventually become accomplished artists. Same thing with cameras - some kid with an entry level fixed lens 6 MP box might someday shoot for Nat'l Geographic, etc. So for us folks here, if we're consistent with the consensus from last week, it's a "good thing" that BB is selling guitars. It'll be rough on the other channels of distribution, which will have to solidy market niches with better service, variety, ease of special ordering, etc., but again, that's good isn't it?

 

[ptg]

Great, just what we need...Another huge conglomerate selling mass produced vanilla merchandise sold buy neophytes with book fed sales pitches.

Hi, welcome to McMusic...Would you like fries with that bass?

 

[timmy5strings]

Does that turn these places into Walmart where manufacturers have to go in with super low prices to get their goods sold ? That can't be good for manufacturers ? Good for consumers maybe.