The final nail in the coffin and real death of most Mom and Pops.........

Mom and Pops are dead on average........ for realz this time......

  • Yes

    Votes: 8 66.7%

  • No

    Votes: 4 33.3%
  • Total voters
    12
The~Kid

The~Kid

Well-known member
Dang after Jims Music closed........ and some other nice shops in the area in Orange County....


ABC Music used to have a wall of Orange amps.....


Mos Music was a respectable Mom and Pop in Fullerton teaching kids, bringing good gear and fostering a good community and culture in the area and the city.......


Even the nicest Sam Ash stores closed long ago in Cerritos and now in Westminister are gone.......




And in place while it used to be good when it needed to actually compete is GC....... and while it's not bad....... I mean there really aren't any or much great places around town to go to a guitar store and pick up an axe or plug into an amp or just check out gear or pedals or whatever...... Are Mom and Pops officially dead on average and retail in general short of GC or Music and Arts stores....... and if they are the only options why do they have to be so crap now? Not only stores in general but also subpar gear short of places near Newport Beach or Hollywood. ......



In general as well if on average a subpar GC is the best most can expect from a guitar store....... what the hell is happening to the culure and guitar in general...... I mean in general what does that say about guitar, where guitar is now and in general with music....


Have SweetWater, Musicians Friend and the like finally killed real Mom and Pop stores?!?!?!?



Is guitar receding in general :dunno:
 
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Most real mom and pop stores closed over 20 years ago. What you see, is the last of a species fading away.
 
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i dunno. I kinda feel like buyers are the ones who determine who lives and who dies. Like with walmart: you can blame predatory pricing and other anti-competitive tactics, but it's ultimately consumers who are deciding that going cheap is worth more than supporting their local merchants. In plenty of cases, the local merchants shot themselves in the foot with their own complacency. Either way, the buyers are deciding who lives and who dies. MF, SW, and GC aren't killing anyone.
 
Last I heard Guitar Center is in a lot of trouble.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Sweetwater is the last building standing in 10 years unless something changes.
 
We all contributed to this as well. I'm as guilty of tire kicking at a store and then ordering online.

I do tey to get things from Mom and Pop stores when I can and there are still a few left thankfully.
 
If people make a concious effort to actually buy from mom and pop stores, if they indeed exist around them, then maybe things will start to bounce back. I have always had the opinion that I don't mind paying a little more to be able to walk in and actually have a face to face transaction.
And maybe I'm just lucky to have a great local store with people there that I have over 30 years of purchasing experience with.
 
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All of my local mom and pops tell me the inventory is a hobby business and pretty much always had been. Lessons, setups, repairs are where they make money. My Grandfather's music shop pretty much only made money on student instrument rentals. While there is profit in guitars and whatnot, you would pretty much need to sell a hundred or more per month if that were your sole business and you were the only employee. That might be feasible in some areas, but probably not most.
 
I think they will survive, but there are different levels of survival. I think it’s a tough business though and respect people who try to run a store.

Running a store without an online presence would be hard and I think those stores fail more often. I have no evidence to back that up, just feels that way.

I would love to quit my job and run a guitar store, but we guitarists are so finicky and love to complain so much I don’t know I could deal with that.
 
I go to my local shop and order things first no matter what. Only if they can't get it, will I go elsewhere. During the plandemic, I would go in there regularly and buy a cable, just to build up my inventory of mic cables. I know I'm not propping them up, but I'm trying to do my part.
 
BeZo said:
I go to my local shop and order things first no matter what. Only if they can't get it, will I go elsewhere. During the plandemic, I would go in there regularly and buy a cable, just to build up my inventory of mic cables. I know I'm not propping them up, but I'm trying to do my part.
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I would love to do that but the Atlanta sole proprietor store I love is just shy of an hour away. Longer in traffic. I visit them every couple of weeks. Probably for the better because they are a serious risk to my CC balance. Lot’s of good used stuff.
 
skoora said:
A lot of Mom and a pops died too because the people who ran them were stubborn and slow to change and also not actually good with customers. Once they weren’t the only game in town it was only a matter of time.
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That I understand. I'll give you my business if you understand customer service. If they have shitty service or try to upsell me on something, toodles to them.
 
With the lax return protocols buyers have gotten used to along with Sweetwater's return policy there is no way Mom and Pop stores can compete with that.

When buyers can literally take possession of a purchase for 90 days and then get PP to force a return on the seller even after no damage was reported when the buyer took delivery. Even Sweetwater can't compete with that.

Actually I'm surprised GC, Sweetwater and other music retailers are profitable 2025................:dunno:
 
skoora said:
I would love to do that but the Atlanta sole proprietor store I love is just shy of an hour away. Longer in traffic. I visit them every couple of weeks. Probably for the better because they are a serious risk to my CC balance. Lot’s of good used stuff.
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Which store are you referring? I really enjoy stopping by Atlanta Discount Music
 
The mom-and-pop shops here are drying up. They simply cannot compete pricewise. Guitar Center is a joke. They only carry bottom of the barrel gear or shit you need to have a six-figure bank account to afford. I'm not a collector. I gig and record with every instrument that I own. The "working class" instruments were gutted out of GC 10 years ago. 90% of my purchases come via Sweetwater these days. And I will wait a day for a pack of strings from Amazon before I can be bothered to go to GC and deal with their bs.
 
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