Should Fender be raising prices or stocking minimums?

[marcellis]

HI Marc and Jazzman: I actually bought my D25 in the Guitar Center in San Jose CA back in '97. At that time there was (and still is) an outfit in town known as Guitar Showcase. When I went to Guitar Center they had more of a "for the working musician" ambience than Showcase. Showcase had more of a reputation of stocking the latest fad items for the wannabes. In any case, I was shopping for a Guild and GC had the line IN STOCK. Interestingly, a couple of years later GC had "lost the line" and Showcase had it. Showcase had at that time a much larger local warehousing capability building than GC. Wonder if that had something to do with it. It was also coincidental with the closing of Westerly and Showcase is where I actually bought both the F65 and D40. They had at least 15 different Guilds including electrics on display at that time and the atmospheres between the competitors had almost completely reversed.
So, a couple of weeks ago I stopped at Showcase for strings. They had one domestic Guild on display in the acoustic room. :shock: LOTS of Fender acoustics in the "second tier" area. Whassup with that? OR DID YOU stop there on a shopping spree and clean 'em out when you were in town, Marc? :lol: Or maybe they're waiting for Hartfords and ran out of Tacomas? Seems to point up the whole issue of how a dealer is supposed to divvy up their stocking dollars. The attempt to up the minimum stocking requirement may also have an intended collateral effect of lowering the competitor's presence, ie, more money spent on Fender means less money for Martin and Gibson. :twisted:
I know it's a large strategic factor in my business. 8) What really scares me is selling instruments in BEST BUY? Was that for real? Might as well be Walmart or Target. What the h--l are they gonna know about guitars?

Yeah. It makes you wonder. GC stocks Fender acoustics but not Guilds. It stocks Gretsch electrics too.

Corporations aren't rational all the time. But sometimes they are. Shutting down Tacoma & then the
move to New Hartford, then, the raising of the prices & cheapening the tuning machines, it
makes you wonder wassup w/ all dat.

But I suspect it's more a contractual thing than an intentional move by FMIC to dry up the Guild line.
After all, I think they could sell a hell of a lot of GAD's at GC, if GC only stocked them. So FMIC & GC
may be losing money by not stocking GADs.

I was in SJ last month. I wish I'd known of Guitar Showcase. I would have stopped in.
BTW, Fry's really ripped me off on a pair of SONY MD900HD headphones. I wanted a pair
of good monitoring headphones. Fry's had them stocked for $250.

I had not done any research on the prices. So I bought a pair. Now I learn they're flying out of EBay for $40.

 

[adorshki]

No, wasn't thinking of an intentional move to dry up Guild, Guild being part of Fender, but a strategy to gain more shelf space by upping minimums for Fender product as part of the overall plan. I must admit I don't know if that means Fender LABEL product or Fender CORPORATE product, I would assume the latter. I also think the idea of planning the change to New Hartford just in time for the global economic meltdown has a lot of validity, and once you get a train like that rolling it's pretty hard to stop, and you've still gotta make it pay for itself. I AM surprised by the apparently large output of FENDER acuostic product judging from what I saw, but it could be merely coincidence of timing. Maybe they need to give that factory certain amount of volume to keep overall costs down..I didn't bother to ask any questions 'cause you just KNOW you're going to get a different answer from every employee in the store!

 

[Brad Little]

Yeah. It makes you wonder. GC stocks Fender acoustics but not Guilds. It stocks Gretsch electrics too.

But I suspect it's more a contractual thing than an intentional move by FMIC to dry up the Guild line.
After all, I think they could sell a hell of a lot of GAD's at GC, if GC only stocked them. So FMIC & GC
may be losing money by not stocking GADs.

I called my local GC a couple nights ago inquiring about Guild acoustics, particularly a CT made D-55. The guitar dept. guy said they had only one in stock and it was used (actually a D-50). I asked if he anticipated getting the new Guilds in stock and his reply was that they carried the whole Fender line, so he expected they would. Not cast in stone, but at least he knew that they were now part of Fender. Let's wait and see.
I'm going to check the one indie locally that used to stock quite a few Guilds in the next week or so-I need to get up to his shop anyhow, just to give him a little business. Last time I was there it was down to him and his kids working there, used to have one or two non-family that he had to let go.

Brad

 

[Paddlefoot]

Corporations aren't rational all the time. But sometimes they are. Shutting down Tacoma & then the
move to New Hartford, then, the raising of the prices & cheapening the tuning machines, it
makes you wonder wassup w/ all dat.

Man if you think the open tuners are cheapening the product you haven't checked the Luthiers Mercantial or Stew. Mac catalogs lately. Now Gotohs might be a bit cheaper but Waverlys are very pricey items. They work good too.

 

[marcellis]

Is New Hartford putting Waverlies on Guilds?

If so - I'm incorrect.

 

[chazmo]

Gotoh 700 gold-plate open-backs, I think.

 

[marcellis]

Maybe I am over-generalizing based on my own experience.

I've heard Gotohs are very good. But my experience with open-back tuners is lousy.

I own closed Grovers on my 2 F-65ce's & on the D60. I also had them on the old
D40 I traded away this year.

The tuners on the D60 are shot. But the tuners on the F65ce & D40
are the best I've ever owned. I own open-back tuners (Grover Sta-Tites)
on a VN guitar. They're the worst tuners I've ever used. My old D25 originally
came with open-back tuners also. They weren't nearly as good as the closed
Grovers.

My experience with the closed Grovers is that they stay in tune for days.