I was looking through some old LA music magazines and papers from the 80’s and saw so many ads for LARGE music stores in southern CA, ones just as large as Guitar Center.  (And I remember the original “Vox Guitar Center” on Sunset in the late 60’s).  Sam Ash, Mars, Hanich, Liers, Coast, Manny’s, Goodman, West LA, Nadine’s etc. – why did only Guitar Center survive?

Of course eventually online sellers like Musicians Friend, Sweetwater, Reverb, and others took business away from brick and mortar stores, but Guitar Center still has 305 stores nationwide!  People have been saying that their days are numbered, that they are in financial trouble, but I’ve been hearing this for over ten years.

No large store except Guitar Center, (not counting small mom & pop lessons stores), seems to be able to survive.  Is their volume pricing really so much cheaper?  And yet the NAMM show is as successful as ever.  Imagine if McDonald’s was the only fast food restaurant or Ford was the only car.  Is Guitar Center a monopoly? Anyone have any insight?