Can't see how smaller music stores can survive now - and maybe not even some of the bigger stores

hollywoodrox

Germany is very good to the arts. A friend of mine got a grant to do a classical tour ,chamber music I think funded by the state

chris78

I was going to post that I can’t see how some of the recent £7k masterbuilt guitars get sold now, but it appears they still are. Maybe people need something to cheer them or maybe certain people don’t feel that an economic shutdown will affect them?

jpfamps

I think this could be the coup de grace for a huge swath of bricks and mortar shops as people get even more accustomed to online ordering.

I certainly would not want to be a retail landlord at the moment.

jpfamps

RonnieHotdogs said:

Smaller, more nimble retailers with online presence should find it easier to survive than the big shops, less overheads, smaller payroll, less commitments, easier to adapt and change.

If Guitar Guitar had to close for a month and still pay all salaries, it'd get interesting.

I think that's right. I can see smaller shops with low overheads and debt being in a much better position than larger operations, especially those how have taken on a load of debt (and there be a few).

sergio

richardhomer said:

Funnily enough, I bought a pretty expensive camera about three weeks ago. By the start of this week, the price had risen by £275.00 at pretty much every on line retailer. It’s now fallen back to £75 more than I paid.

Most odd - my assumption was that they’d be giving them away.....

Is it made in Japan? The pound has been losing value steadily against the yen for the past month: in February a pound bought you 144 yen, now you get 127. The same is happening for most other important currencies, which in the long term will make every imported thing more expensive: cameras, guitars, food. So in the end when people sell their fancy guitars they may get more pounds for them than they originally paid, but that may buy them less. 

Or the opposite may happen, who knows. There’s a reason why economics is called dismal science...

designerseye88

Yeah its a tricky time. I own a high street retailer and I've had to make some tough decisions over the last few days but i have to say that the reduction in rates and potential for a grant will help. i've had to reduce costs in order to hopefully ride this all out. I don't sell anything music related and im lucky that what i do sell doesn't sell well online anyway but I do feel for music shops of all sizes. I fear unless your a box shifter or a high end boutique vintage type place then the future will be bleak. 
My opinion is that once this virus stuff is all over then people will be very keen to get out and spend and there will be a boost in sales for most areas of business especially the food and drinks industry however I think the demand for items like expensive guitars and high end goods may take longer to pick up. Thats my two cents anyway. 

scrumhalf

Give it a few months of only being able to shop online and things will change when life gets back to normal.

There's a social element to buying things, to say nothing of the freedom of being able to go where you want, when you want, to do what you want after weeks/months of staring at four walls.

Whitecat

chris78 said:

I was going to post that I can’t see how some of the recent £7k masterbuilt guitars get sold now, but it appears they still are. Maybe people need something to cheer them or maybe certain people don’t feel that an economic shutdown will affect them?

There are people with funds who probably imagine that a quarantine of god knows how long means that now is the time. I think the danger is just over the horizon... 

jeztone2

richardhomer said:

Funnily enough, I bought a pretty expensive camera about three weeks ago. By the start of this week, the price had risen by £275.00 at pretty much every on line retailer. It’s now fallen back to £75 more than I paid.

Most odd - my assumption was that they’d be giving them away.....

It’s difficult to tell with Cameras. About 10 years ago the grey market retailers like DigitalRev really hit prices across the sector. I remember buying a 5Dii from them for about £300 less that Jessops or LCE were doing them for. But I think the retailers have pushed the big Camera companies into a more competitive place. You don’t see the grey market deals like you used too. But 2010-2011. There was a massive disparity.

But as someone else said, it may well be a restock situation. 

RonnieHotdogs

Danny1969 said:

RonnieHotdogs said:

Danny1969 said:

The rates on the recording studio I built was £1000 a month .... and you get fuck all for that, not even collection of rubbish. 

did you qualify for small business relief? 

No, it was 3200 sq feet so well over the footprint 

Create other companies who also "share the space", less footage per company and you could qualify, a typical thing is to split your 
existing company into 2 or 3,  it can save the rates but additional returns, accounts, HMRC stuff to deal with.
I feel your pain, Govt should kill all business rates and have a local corp/profit tax instead to make up for it

Rob1742

I will now have more time at home now, a huge amount of more time. I can only see that it will mean I pick the guitar up more, which may well mean more purchases. 

They will have lost sales from certain potential customers, but I think this will be offset by others buying more, or new customers coming into the market.
There are retailers that will be in much worse situations than the guitar shops.

Voxman

Rob1742 said:

I will now have more time at home now, a huge amount of more time. I can only see that it will mean I pick the guitar up more, which may well mean more purchases. 

They will have lost sales from certain potential customers, but I think this will be offset by others buying more, or new customers coming into the market.
There are retailers that will be in much worse situations than the guitar shops.

Perhaps, but guitars and related gear are luxury items and for the vast majority of consumers this means other priorities will need to take precedence. Even those comfortably off will likely become more cautious as Covid19 grabs a firmer hold. 

RustySpanner

I'm going to order a pedalboard from my local shop. 
I'd be lost without them tbh. 

rossi

CeeJay said:

soma1975 said:

I thought it could only survive 12hrs outside the body. Go at opening time before anyone else has touched them!

It can survive for 24hrs on paper/cardboard, and up to 3 days on hard surfaces. I have banned Mrs CeeJay from any Amazon orders for now!
I'm not even picking the morning mail up until the next day!

I spray all incoming everything with Iso Propyl Alcohol as we are self isolating due to dodgy lungs.For once I saw ahead and bought a fair drop before the price went stupid .I use it as a paint thinner so knew all about it .If not stick it in the garage if you have one  for  a few days .

Fifty9

Well I bought a looper today purely because I’m going to be indoors more so maybe some will do ok. ... wonder what this weekend might bring!

prowla

I was looking forward to the car boot season starting soon, but I guess that's off too.

Voxman

prowla said:

I was looking forward to the car boot season starting soon, but I guess that's off too.

I'm afraid that's been given the boot too! 

Strat54

prowla said:

I was looking forward to the car boot season starting soon, but I guess that's off too.

They're talking about everything being pretty much off for a year now. 
I have a lot of friends who are serious buyers of vintage guitars, prices have been rocketing back to their pre-crash 2008 levels again but I can see that happening all over......$80k '54 Strats will half once more. I know one guy who just last month paid $110k for a mint Broadcaster...oops.
Whilst businesses will receive cash to pay workers and relieve business rates, they are not going to be making any decent profits...I hope their lenders will be sympathetic too. Its hard to comprehend the situation. Meanwhile you are all in the queue buying booze because stocks won't last the weekend.

hollywoodrox

Drive by car boot sales 

prowla said:

I was looking forward to the car boot season starting soon, but I guess that's off too.

I'm afraid that's been given the boot too! 

rossi

I think the world we know it has changed.We dont realiize it yet but it took us 20 years to recover from the war and huge Government spending .That was with an America who  had grown wealthier in the war years .This time its shit all over and we are seeing only the first wave of this virus .it will take at least two years to develop a vaccination for it and thats only if it works .It will take years to vaccinate everyone  .On the back of pestilance come famine and war .The four horsemen are off the LP covers and trotting down  our streets .I really hope I am a silly old fart who has read too many history books.