What's up Gibson?!

[santana157]

Have you heard about this new dealer policy?

http://forums.birdsandmoons.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11209&page=1&pp=10

I couldn't believe this when I read it!

Gibson is going from legend to LAME!

 

[CharlieB]

AND this is on top of them eliminating the online sales, except for 4 places, in order to make in store "personal attention" sales the better way to buy.

So, basically they wanted 90k from every dealer. Sounds to me like cash crunch time for Gibby.

 

[Six String]

It sounds like Gibson is making a power play to give the edge to the few to allow for increased pricing tactics. Who are the remaining dealers that are going to be the Gibson dealers? Those that were the over priced dealers from before? Eliminate their competition and they can do better business.... :roll: It sounds like the only thing we can hope for is that they will continue to make quality instruments.

 

[Bogart]

Man, that's weak. I think we just have to hope that it doesn't all go according to what he said.

 

[Chris]

I'd been hearing rumors about this. I knew something was up when the local Sam Ash got rid of Gibson. Henry had bought out Valley Arts and tried to start a chain of stores, according to rumors. They were even making Fender copies under the Valley Arts name.

They had a store in downtown Nashville; but it wasn't that great when I went there. Everything was list! They were soon in trouble, so they were running radio ads and putting billboards everywhere, including right in front of the local GC!

Needless to say, the place closed down, and now they've shifted focus. They're adding people now, and trying to ramp up production. As for the electric plant, it puts everyone else to shame profit-wise, so they're cranking up the line as fast as they can. Even OAI is adding more people to have more production.

 

[Voxman]

It involves astroglide and a cactus

Interesting link......here's a frightening quote;

"Dave's Guitars (www.davesguitar.com) was shut down with no explanation at the time and Gibson refuses to this day to give him a reason why he is no longer a dealer. Dave's Guitars had annual sales figures with Gibson in excess of $1.6 million.

Music Machine (www.musicmachine.net) in Washington state was also shut down with no explanation. Their annual sales topped $2.2 million. Let me say that again...their sales were $2.2 million per year with Gibson and they were just cast aside.

As of this date 65% of all Gibson dealers who have been presented with these figures....have opted to no longer be a Gibson dealer. This exceeds Gibson's expectations by 35%. They figured they would lose about 30% of the current dealer network....they had no idea that 65% of the dealers would tell them to go to hell."

"It involves astroglide and a cactus. They intend to take away the astroglide at summer NAMM."

"BTW....Sam Ash is no longer a Gibson dealer...I find that particulalry interesting in lieu of the fact that they are probably Musician's Friend's biggest competition"

Who's sleeping with who here?


This is what I think......were screwed if this works out for them...time for a revolution, 60's style

 

[Six String]

I'm in Vox.... let me know when and where.... I'll get the wood and cardboard for the signs. Man, haven't seen this in a while..... RIGHT ON~ 8) 8) 8)

Er, maybe we need to think about a letter campaign..........? Not to get ETSG political, but we are a "sizable group"....!?! Think about it. :wink: :wink: :wink:

 

[CharlieB]

I'm just thinking out loud here...

If you take all the little mom and pops, and put them together and add 'em up, then they probably account for a smaller portion of the total sales.

This is typical fare. When I was a Leica dealer in the mid 70's the factory was doing so poorly that they let ANYONE sell the stuff... even sold direct in some instances. As soon as sales picked up, whammo, they came down on dealers (like me) who did a decent volume, but not outstandingly so.

 

[Six String]

Then SOP CB............ :roll: :roll: :roll:

 

[santana157]

I thought this was in interesting quote:
BTW....Guitar Center=Wall Mart

"Perhaps ... until it became "Rubbermaid Part 2"....do you know the story of Rubbermaid's relationship with Wal-Mart and the result of that relationship?

Short version: Wal-Mart bought a ton of their stuff...they become their biggest customer....they relied so heavily on Wal-Mart that they let their others customers go by the wayside...then Wal-Mart lowered the boom..."next order we need an additional 15% off the regular cost"....Rubbermaid had no one else to turn to...they had to give in...then they went bankrupt...and then Wal-Mart became the majority stockholder in Rubbermaid....bought in for pennies on the dollar....now they control Rubbermaid completely."

 

[Hard2Hear]

I've been really torn over the issue. I don't hate the company, I hate the jerk who stole it when it was in trouble in the early 80's. If I meet that man I'll kick him in the rocks as hard as I can with my steel tipped boot.

It's just another example of US business owners totally screwing their workers, the people who created them and support their lifestyles. It is happening in every US industry right now. So many factories closing and moving production to Korea or China. I really want to support the US companies, but it seems all they care about is their increasing profits. None of these execs can ever be rich enough, all they want is more more no matter how much they have already.

In the end we, the consumer suffer by having to choose inferior quality or inflated prices; and US factory workers suffer by having to meet unreasonable demands or losing their job to asian cheap labor.

There's just no good outcome in any of this.

H2H

 

[Voxman]

And there screaming about Social security.......maybe if the A$$ wipes didn't send all product manufacturing somewhere else ther'd be enough income and less of a massive underground economy so you can afford to live somewhat normally?

 

[ess]

maybe theyre doin a 'BMW' :?: :idea: :idea:

 

[Chris]

I've heard a lot of things about Henry, but I don't believe them all. I have met him once, and he was pretty good to me.

He personally gave me and everyone else bonuses last Christmas. Some people's bonuses were almost as much as their paychecks!

 

[Voxman]

Can't ya just ask him some questions then? About direction of the company in direct relation to your future.....?Or sumthin'

 

[vic108]

Or "Hey Henry, I don't like the way you run this place..."

 

[Chris]

They tell us what's going on. They're adding people every week at the plant; they want to almost double the number of employees (and production) by the end of the year.

The main problem is that people keep quitting. There's been over a dozen people come and go since I started. One only stayed one day! :roll:

 

[CharlieB]

A sure sign of assholedness.

 

[vic108]

Regardless of how we all feel about guitars and Gibson SG's
in particular, it's still a FACTORY and factory jobs are tough,
monotonous, dirty, noisy, and boring.

Yea, it must be hard to keep good folks to stay.
I don't know what the pay scale is but I bet it
ain't much starting out on the floor...

Chris, thanks for your insights into GIBBY.
I know alot of us appreciate it.

And there are alot of folks here that really care
about the company and it's employees.

Keep up the good work and please don't mind the ribbing now and then...

 

[Hard2Hear]

Yes definately. Chris, your insight is priceless here. Something few other places get to see into.

I never direct anything bad toward the workers at Gibson. Some people choose to bad mouth the workers, but they are too simple minded to realize how a corporation works and where the problem really is.

I wouldn't suggest Chris asking Henry in passing why he's screwed up Gibson either

But it's really odd to me that they're doubling production while cutting their dealership by 50% or more. The math just isn't working. Does MF/GC really sell THAT much? Thats really crazy.

H2H