Best Buy opens pilot musical instruments store in MN

[;ivlunsdystf]

Just sayin'. I saw the ad this week in the local newsweekly. I think it's a sub-store in their already existing local store.

It makes me perversely happy to see another big chain trying to out-Guitar Center the Guitar Center. Give 'em a run for their moneys.

[digitaldrummer]

Maybe they are hoping that now that Guitar Center has been purchased by private investors, they will screw up and present an opportunity...

by the way, Guitar Center also owns Woodwind and the Brasswind (and I think Music123.com is the same) and Musician's Friend (which includes Giardinelli).

[Jeremy Garber]

There was a discussion about this not long ago on a drum forum I frequent. I believe this isn't the first Best Buy to do this. They've been testing it in a few places already. I want to say DW has a deal with them, but I'm not sure. From that discussion, it seemed that Best Buy would be stocking the more budget stuff, and not high end gear. I may be wrong about that.

Speaking of which, I spotted a mic in Walmart the other day that may make a great effect mic.

[signorMars]

they opened the very first of those about 2 years ago... i read about it in a retailer magazine back when i was in music retail... it's almost completely guitar starter packs and such. nothing over a few hundred bucks. but that was 2 years ago, so i have no idea.

[mcsquishytooshy]

and Musician's Friend (which includes Giardinelli).

Really? I love chocolate.

[apropos of nothing]

Target stores in the market I'm in (RTP, NC) have alesis drum machines and cheapo drum pads marketed under the name "Ion." Life in the Myspace era is really weird.

[oyrgawd]

BB has been experimenting with stocking 'real' gear in some of their regular stores for a bit. When I was in music retail, our CEO talked about it with concern. Not because of the competition BB represented, but because their hugeness could give enough visibility to the commonplace-yet-illegal price fixing (i.e. "MAP") in the MI biz that the government might end it. He pointed to Europe as an example of what things would be like without price fixing; where no one can make a decent margin on widely-available gear anymore so everyone has a 'house' brand that they can still keep a 30%+ margin on. Of course, more and more MI retailers over here have house brands already (Rogue, Samson, etc.). Anyway. Prices closer to the cost of manufacture sound good to me.

[???????]

BB has been experimenting with stocking 'real' gear in some of their regular stores for a bit. When I was in music retail, our CEO talked about it with concern. Not because of the competition BB represented, but because their hugeness could give enough visibility to the commonplace-yet-illegal price fixing (i.e. "MAP") in the MI biz that the government might end it. He pointed to Europe as an example of what things would be like without price fixing; where no one can make a decent margin on widely-available gear anymore so everyone has a 'house' brand that they can still keep a 30%+ margin on. Of course, more and more MI retailers over here have house brands already (Rogue, Samson, etc.). Anyway. Prices closer to the cost of manufacture sound good to me.

I bet the big boys are just going to raise the prices if that happens. From what I understand prices on lots of things (like cymbals) are way higher in Europe. They're certainly not going to take a hit to their bottom line lying down.

[Jeff White]

by the way, Guitar Center also owns Woodwind and the Brasswind (and I think Music123.com is the same) and Musician's Friend (which includes Giardinelli).

Yeah, WWBW and Music123 are/were the same. I used to work at Music123, actually worked there in two different eras. It started from the back of the Zapf's Music Store in Pennsauken NJ back in April 1999. I was the second sales guy that they hired. An old friend of mine was the original web designer of the original site. I left in May of 2000 to pursue the engineering thing, then came back in 2004 to March 2006 when every sales person in the NJ location was laid off. Basically, the owner of WWBW did a hostile takeover from the Zapf family back in 2003-2004 (he owned 51% they owned 49% as he bailed them out with cash at one point). Then he fucked up both businesses by buying like $10 million in MusicPad inventory that didn't ever sell, building a new warehouse and poorly planning the move, so he lost like 60% of his loyal customers in the summer of 2005, and constantly being in court with the Zapf family trying to gut him for fucking them out of lots of money/their business/etc. Also, people were used to dealign with sales folks for years and years and after he fired all of us his new sale team were all hired for minimum wage and had little to no audio/music experience. And since the owner was close to retiring anyway, he sold out to Guitar Center in order to bail out of the catastrophe that was DBI (parent company that owned both WWBW ad M123). In the process he fucked like a dozen or so families out of their own small businesses that he gobbled up and made false promises to, got rid of 95% of the folks who worked at Musci123 since it was Zapfs, and then essentially moved the other 5% and their families out to Indiana (where DBI was located) and then laid them all off within a year, etc. All bad business. He's a rotten SOB and a total asshole in person. He's like the Gibson of Online Retail. But I'm not bitter.

Anyway, It's all going to be Guitar Center soon, right?

Jeff

[???????]

yet another reason to buy vintage and used.

[apropos of nothing]

Lest you think you can get away from the Military-Industrial Complex, it should hearten you to know that the largest distributor of musical instruments to non-GC/big box stores is Kaman. Yes, that Kaman, the one that also makes the attack helicopters:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaman_Aircraft

[fromthecurve]

Not because of the competition BB represented, but because their hugeness could give enough visibility to the commonplace-yet-illegal price fixing (i.e. "MAP") in the MI biz that the government might end it.

The Supreme Court upheld a "MAP" pricing policy recently. The case concerned a different industry, but MAP is safe for now.

[fromthecurve]

Lest you think you can get away from the Military-Industrial Complex, it should hearten you to know that the largest distributor of musical instruments to non-GC/big box stores is Kaman. Yes, that Kaman, the one that also makes the attack helicopters:

Isn't that weird? Kaman just announced that they intend to sell the musical instruments operation to Fender, presumably so they can focus on helicopters.

[;ivlunsdystf]

Just to clarify, this latest Best Buy thing is apparently for higher-end stuff than the Target/Washburn effects pedals and whatnot. Of course Best Buy has stocked consumer keyboards (with built-in speakers and whatnot) for quite a while.

It looks like a direct shot at the GC target market, which (in-store) seems to consist of kids coming in with their parents to buy their first 'serious' guitar, and balding middle-aged men stopping in to buy Eric Clapton Digitech pedals and Boss digital multitrack recorders, and metalhead kids buying black and gunmetal grey effects pedals, middle-aged wives buying Dunlop Crybaby pedals for their husbands at christmastime, etc.

Interestingly, they are keeping this entire venture off the internet. There was a prominent print ad in City Pages (throwaway newsweekly) earlier this month. Their website has exactly NOTHING about it, even in the 'company news' section. It looks like they want to keep it as a local test market thing. Minnesota has gotten other interesting test market ventures over the years (anybody remember clear beer back in 1993 or so?) Anyway, we can thwart Best Buy somewhat by honking about it here and at Gearzlutz etc.

I only brought it up here in the first place as a general service to the community. I don't give two shits where Gibson guitars are currently being sold. I don't make a living off music and I don't plan to; it's just sort of interesting to watch the titans fight it out. I'll go on buying little assortments of cables and whatnot at little local stores and I'm sure life will generally go on whatever Best Buy cooks up for the teenie ax-slingers of the world.

[A-Barr]

Clear Beer??


The most depressing thing about Big Box stores, to me, is that by the time my future-children reach maturity, there may be no other places of employment for them.