Crane’s is done

Hattigol

TTony said:

mark123 said:

Are we not all guilty of searching and buying off the internet at the best price we can find ?
If you found a new baja tele for £499 posted or your local shop had one for £549.00 what do you do? support your local shop and lose £50 ?
 In the 80's it was go to your local shop and buy what they had .Its not just guitar shops all local high streets have for sale ,to let ,closing down sale shops ,everyone is shopping on their laptop/phone ,or tablet 
We are all guilty i'm afraid 

Yes, yes, yes.

We all scramble for cheap, cheap, cheap, and bemoan the lack of local shops, and fail to see the irony.

We all argue that stuff should be delivered free, complain about crap delivery drivers, and fail to see why one leads to the other.

You get what you pay for.  You don't get what you don't pay for.  Only then do you realise what you've lost.

Totally agreed @TTony but what's the solution?

An online sales tax seems sensible but would mean we all paid more. If we all voted for that, it'd surely be the first time any direct tax increase won a popular vote...

Chalky

HAL9000 said:

mark123 said:

Are we not all guilty of searching and buying off the internet at the best price we can find ?
If you found a new baja tele for £499 posted or your local shop had one for £549.00 what do you do? support your local shop and lose £50 ?
 In the 80's it was go to your local shop and buy what they had .Its not just guitar shops all local high streets have for sale ,to let ,closing down sale shops ,everyone is shopping on their laptop/phone ,or tablet 
We are all guilty i'm afraid 

Certainly guilty when it comes to books, CDs, etc. However with guitars I’ve only ever bought from bricks’n’mortar stores - mainly because two supposedly identical guitars will not feel the same. OK, I know DSR are on my side but buying guitars online will always have an element of luck about it, and I’m happy to pay a bit more to be able to try the actual instrument I’m buying.

i do wonder if bemoaning the closure of high street shops is a bit like complaining about the disappearance of the blacksmith. The world is changing and we shop differently than we used to. The high street won’t disappear but it will change. Our town centre now has plenty of coffee shops, restaurants, nail bars, hairdressers, etc - essentially the things that internet shopping can’t provide. The town centre is still busy; it’s just busy with different things than it was a decade ago.

This is the truth.

30-40 years ago, changes to daily life were viewed positively, indicators of progress and improvement.

Today, changes are viewed as automatically negative, everything that 'ceases to be' is a loss, and folks just want things to 'stay the same'.

Its funny the way that being Anti-change is now respectable - it used to be seen as "You're getting old before your time!"

paganskins

That’s half a dozen plus people out of a job just before Christmas, sad times

I’m due to go in today to pickup up a guitar that’s had some work done. 

TTony

Chalky said:

Its funny the way that being Anti-change is now respectable - it used to be seen as "You're getting old before your time!"

It's respectable here because the people in the debate are generally of that "old before your time" generation

Hattigol said:

Totally agreed @TTony but what's the solution?

Can you solve evolution? 

The High St merely reflects society's demand and changes in shopping habits. 

In many French villages, you'd still go into your local shop to buy your bread - daily.  In most English villages, there's no longer a village shop.  (Nor a Post Office, nor a pub, nor ...).  I'm not saying one is right, or better.  The difference reflects the different values of the different societies.  

From my perspective, we value cheap rather than good (use the Bread example again).    And that applies to pretty much all of us in one way or another. 

We - being guitarists who perhaps value knowledge and experience of guitars - may bemoan the loss of guitar shops in the high streets, but we're quite happy to buy our books from Amazon because they're cheaper and get delivered next day. 

Whereas the bookists are still mourning the loss of High St book shops since Amazon put them out of business by offering cheaper prices and next day delivery.


If there is a solution, it's that guitar shops need to become more interesting places.  They have to make an advantage out of what makes them different rather than accepting the difference (ie the high street presence) as  a disadvantage (ie the costs of the high street presence!).  But I've little idea how they might do that ...

p90fool

TTony said:

In many French villages, you'd still go into your local shop to buy your bread - daily.  

That's been legally enforced since the revolution though. 

martinw

Hattigol said:

TTony said:

mark123 said:

Are we not all guilty of searching and buying off the internet at the best price we can find ?
If you found a new baja tele for £499 posted or your local shop had one for £549.00 what do you do? support your local shop and lose £50 ?
 In the 80's it was go to your local shop and buy what they had .Its not just guitar shops all local high streets have for sale ,to let ,closing down sale shops ,everyone is shopping on their laptop/phone ,or tablet 
We are all guilty i'm afraid 

Yes, yes, yes.

We all scramble for cheap, cheap, cheap, and bemoan the lack of local shops, and fail to see the irony.

We all argue that stuff should be delivered free, complain about crap delivery drivers, and fail to see why one leads to the other.

You get what you pay for.  You don't get what you don't pay for.  Only then do you realise what you've lost.

Totally agreed @TTony but what's the solution?

There isn't one, in my opinion. On a large scale, most people don't give a toss. People are, in the main, greedy, lazy and selfish.

What is easy us to solve it for yourself. Opt out. Its all in your head. Buy fewer things, buy quality, pay more. Have less cheap crap shipped from China on your behalf, thus pollute less too. Concentrate on people and experiences instead of trying to fill the void with acquisition.

Ironically, the internet makes it easier to seek out artisan makers and smaller retailers. For example, my wife recently bought a UK hand made leather handbag that will last her a lifetime. It was a lot of money, but way less than a designer bag from China, and represents great value for money. Not trendy of course, and how many will follow that example in our society these days?

Even on this forum, how many will say that they'll have 1 or 2 really nice guitars, a hand built amp ( ) bought locally, then stop buying and focus on playing? Not many.

Here endeth today's sermon! 

p90fool

@martinw you're right of course, and I've ditched 8-10 cheap guitars in favour of three good ones, and two decent amps. 

As a member of a gigging band though, we still need a ton of cheap Chinese PA and lighting tat to stay on the road - there's no way on earth we could afford to gig with "good" stuff. It might last longer but the initial outlay is horrific. 

prowla

The High Street has many issues, including business rates, car parking availability & extortionate charges, lack of imagination.

Simply blaming the internet for everything is just a lame get-out.

preston61

I was sad when Cranes in Cardiff closed down, they were always my preferred place to go to try stuff (and I bought at least 2 guitars and an  amp there). One of the managers there ended up in PMT and he's a top bloke. 

I can't imagine it'll be long before Gammlins, which is next door to PMT, closes as well, however due to the employed personal there I won't be disappointed in the slightest (I don't like anyone losing theirs jobs, so I'm not pushing for that, I just think they're knobs)

Henrytwang

mark123 said:

Are we not all guilty of searching and buying off the internet at the best price we can find ?
If you found a new baja tele for £499 posted or your local shop had one for £549.00 what do you do? support your local shop and lose £50 ?
 In the 80's it was go to your local shop and buy what they had .Its not just guitar shops all local high streets have for sale ,to let ,closing down sale shops ,everyone is shopping on their laptop/phone ,or tablet 
We are all guilty i'm afraid 

If buying a Baja Tele it’s probably a good idea to go to a real shop. I bought a new one on line and it weighed a ton making it uncomfortable to play. Shame really as it was quite a nice guitar otherwise, I sold mine on eBay but would like another, I’m reluctant to buy again on line in case I end up with another boat anchor and I’ve not seen one in my local guitar shop.

Jonathanthomas83

preston61 said:

I was sad when Cranes in Cardiff closed down, they were always my preferred place to go to try stuff (and I bought at least 2 guitars and an  amp there). One of the managers there ended up in PMT and he's a top bloke. 

I can't imagine it'll be long before Gammlins, which is next door to PMT, closes as well, however due to the employed personal there I won't be disappointed in the slightest (I don't like anyone losing theirs jobs, so I'm not pushing for that, I just think they're knobs)

I agree, re:Gamlins staff, they are abominable. However, they won't close any time soon, and don't expect them to...unfortunately, they own the building, which, in Cardiff, is good going.

thermionic

I’ve always found the staff in Gamlins fine. I prefer supporting a shop like that for things like strings and cables, although I’ve bought a guitar and an amp there as well. They’re well-stocked with Fender spare parts and have been knowledgable when I’ve asked about some obsure replacement part.

I used to work in Swansea and often popped in to Cranes at lunchtime with a guitar playing colleague. Quite a large shop, but it seemed most of the stock was entry-level stuff. There was talk of the Cardiff branch opening above the old store to deal with high-end used guitars, but that never happened.