GAK gone bust...

[Killerfridge]

1 hour ago, Lozz196 said:

Not too far from Guildford……

True, but even as someone from Guildford, I always enjoyed popping in when down there; they always had some more obscure stuff than Andertons (i.e. Phil Jones Bass amps)

[fretmeister]

2 hours ago, Lozz196 said:

Not too far from Guildford……

 

If GAK have £30M turnover but will sell for £20M then there's a shit load of debt somewhere.

 

Andertons don't need to take that on.

[AndyTravis]

It’s a trade that’s been on the wane for a long time.

 

It seems Less kids are picking up instruments, when I started - it was the crest of the Britpop era and it must’ve been a booming time in the industry.

 

The internet unit shifters started taking out the shops with lower overheads so didn’t need to generate as much profit to operate.

 

Amazon, same or next day delivery on strings/cables etc - sort of where the bread and butter of guitar shops lies.

 

I did it for 11/12 years and got out in 2014 - it was definitely going downhill then.

 

I think the company I worked for lasted for another 4/5 years…

 

I’d assume GAK will continue to operate online if the shop side goes.

 

The second hand market is saturated - stuff seems to be sticking around more. So if fewer people are buying used, I’d say the same goes for new.

 

People have less money; I know I do after energy prices jumped and mortgage deal ended…
 

It’ll be survival of the fittest I suppose - much like supermarkets killed off the local bakers and butchers…of course there are still small pockets with loyal fans or something unique to offer…but the general public…will just nip to Asda.

 

Convenience.

 

Ramble over - hopefully they get sorted, I know Gak was originally the place people would ask us to price match, scalping prices all over the show…4% margin on a USA strat…but, there are peoples livelihoods at stake, that’s not ok.

 

 

[ezbass]

2 hours ago, Lozz196 said:

Not too far from Guildford……

Yeah, but it's the M23, coupled with the horrible corner of the M25. 

 

I've heard from a friend, who is a GAK regular and lives just outside Brighton, that the sale/closure is for 'personal reasons'. Of course, those reasons may be debt related.

[fretmeister]

14 minutes ago, AndyTravis said:

I

 

...scalping prices all over the show…4% margin on a USA strat…but, there are peoples livelihoods at stake, that’s not ok.

 

 

is that all?

 

Blimey!

 

That's just madness! Why would you bother? Might as well have a pizza van instead.

[AndyTravis]

4 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

is that all?

 

Blimey!

 

That's just madness! Why would you bother? Might as well have a pizza van instead.

There was a point where if we matched another retailer on a Gibson Les Paul standard, we would’ve lost £100 ish.

 

Now think how long you work with a customer who’s looking at spending £1600-£2k (quite a lot of the time people want talking through options and making sure it’s ‘right’)

 

That was pre “Gibson Europe” and Rossetti (Former UK distributor) used to run all sorts of weird and wacky buy 4 get one free type bundles - so nobody ever paid the same prices…it was mental.

 

But yeah, Fender, Yamaha and anything to do with recording - that was 5-15% margin.

 

I think we got up to 22% on fender, then they got done for price fixing 😏

 

The whole thing about “what’s your best price” and “how much for cash?” Just used to drive us mad - “Chuck us in a strap, some strings…you’ve got a deal; I’m spending £1500…sweeten the deal” - we would always be scraping through on next to nothing to remain competitive.

 

Its trying to have unique stuff that people actually want…we tried G&L as an alternative to Fender; we’d sell 30 fenders to 1 G&L…by which point, they’d been discontinued in a sale and we’d make as little as we did on the fender. Same with Tokai when we couldn’t make on Epiphone/Gibson.

 

 

 

 

[fretmeister]

I've never worked in a guitar shop but I did 9 months in a car dealers.

 

Used to get people coming in demanding 20-25% off for cash on a new car when there wasn't even 10% in them at full price. They'd never believe us. There wasn't even that much in most of the used cars after the service / MOT / replace a tyre / valet stuff that was needed before a trade in was ready to be sold. Half the time it was more sensible to run the trade in down to the local auction in whatever state it was in.

 

Main Dealers make their money on the finance packages and not on the cars. The cars are really just a way to get the punter to need credit.

If there was ever a 0% special offer on a car that was a clear indication that the maker had made far more than needed and needed to get rid of them fast.

 

It became a bit of a joke. There was a Ford special edition Fiesta that had a 4 year 0% finance offer with only £100 minimum deposit. When Ford announced it the reaction in the sales team was "So - it's a piece of shit then?"

[BigRedX]

Low margins are in all sorts of retail sectors.

 

I have a friend who used to work in sales for an Apple reseller. For something like an iPod the profit to the company wouldn't even cover the cost of his wages while he took the phone call to make the sale.

[Steve Browning]

2 hours ago, fretmeister said:

 

If GAK have £30M turnover but will sell for £20M then there's a shit load of debt somewhere.

 

Andertons don't need to take that on.

The guy who has the highest stake in the business (majority shareholder in the topco) is listed as having the occupation of investor).

[Russ]

4 hours ago, AndyTravis said:

It seems Less kids are picking up instruments, when I started - it was the crest of the Britpop era and it must’ve been a booming time in the industry.

 

The internet unit shifters started taking out the shops with lower overheads so didn’t need to generate as much profit to operate.

 

Amazon, same or next day delivery on strings/cables etc - sort of where the bread and butter of guitar shops lies.

Guitar Center in the US has been going through this. Basically, they're in the middle of repositioning themselves - they've realised that people can buy cheap guitars, accessories, strings, consumables, etc online, so they're refocusing on stocking higher-end stuff, the sort of stuff that people want to try before they buy. It's the high-end and specialist places that seem to have longevity in this business - for instance, The Gallery has been a fixture in Camden for 30-odd years at this point, and they sell almost exclusively high-end and custom gear, and only for bass. 

 

The market for musical instruments has also changed a fair bit - overall sales are lower than they were 10 years ago, but the demographics have significantly widened. A lot more girls are picking up the guitar these days, for a start. A lot of people who were drawn to electronic instruments in some of the more dance-oriented genres are also picking up guitars too, especially acoustics. The amp market seems to have fallen off more than the guitar market, and that's largely because of the rise of modellers (Helix/Axe-FX/Kemper/Headrush, etc), IEMs and silent stages. 

 

Incidentally, there's no such thing as a silent stage if your drummer is playing an acoustic kit!  

[BigRedX]

9 minutes ago, Russ said:

Incidentally, there's no such thing as a silent stage if your drummer is playing an acoustic kit!  

 

Even the sound of the sticks hitting the pads on an electronic kit is surprisingly loud.

 

My girlfriend can tell what song I'm practicing from the acoustic sound of the strings on a solid bass guitar.

[Bone Idol]

The guys in the shop were ok but over the years I've heard many horror stories about what goes on in the depot from people who had worked there.

I remember some 15 years ago, the guitarist in my band bought a Fender Twin amp from Gak but they only had the display item at the shop, so they asked him to drive up to the warehouse to collect it... 15 years on... and they still haven't charged his credit card for the amp!.... He'll be sad to see them go I'm sure!  

[fretmeister]

31 minutes ago, Bone Idol said:

The guys in the shop were ok but over the years I've heard many horror stories about what goes on in the depot from people who had worked there.

I remember some 15 years ago, the guitarist in my band bought a Fender Twin amp from Gak but they only had the display item at the shop, so they asked him to drive up to the warehouse to collect it... 15 years on... and they still haven't charged his credit card for the amp!.... He'll be sad to see them go I'm sure!  

 

No drama. A claim would be statute barred now, as long as he doesn’t do something silly like admit the debt or offer to pay even a quid.

[Beedster]

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

 

Even the sound of the sticks hitting the pads on an electronic kit is surprisingly loud.

 

 

Yep that was a surprising lesson, drummist turns down his electronic kit but it's still just as loud! 

[Russ]

40 minutes ago, Beedster said:

 

Yep that was a surprising lesson, drummist turns down his electronic kit but it's still just as loud! 

Plus, that "thwop" of wood on rubber is not a pleasant sound!

[Dad3353]

10 minutes ago, Russ said:

Plus, that "thwop" of wood on rubber is not a pleasant sound!

 

Time to invest in a more modern system..? 

 

 

 

Edited Thursday at 17:17 by Dad3353

[Mediocre Polymath]

GAK was a "shop of dreams" for me when I was a teenager. Their website was where I'd go to ogle basses and wish I had more money.

 

When I actually had money though, their way of doing business put me off pretty fast. I tried to order most of my first grown-up gear from them back in the late 2000s, but they used a godawful courier who nicked or broke most of the stuff they shipped. The store also had an annoying habit of selling you stuff they didn't actually have, then stringing you along for months before giving you a refund.

 

I remember that when Andertons first popped up in the 2010s their website made GAK's look like a Geocities page.

 

[SH73]

Ordered a few things from them in last few years, they even ordered a Fender bass for me from Europe. Always great customer service. I remember going to the shop off chance, nice store. Shame, real shame.

[Terry M.]

2 hours ago, Mediocre Polymath said:

 

I remember that when Andertons first popped up in the 2010s their website made GAK's look like a Geocities page.

 

They've been in business since 1964. Are you referring to a different retailer?

[Mediocre Polymath]

2 minutes ago, Terry M. said:

They've been in business since 1964. Are you referring to a different retailer?

Apologies, what I meant was when Andertons made their push to get into the online business in a big way. Not sure when that was exactly, but I remember them starting to show up in sponsored search results and the like in the early to mid 2010s, I think around the time that Lee Anderton took over the business and started making changes.

[fretmeister]

Website no longer available.

 

https://gak.co.uk/

 

[LowB_FTW]

1 minute ago, fretmeister said:

Website no longer available.

 

https://gak.co.uk/

 

That's not the kind of message your site would have if it was just being revamped.

 

Mark

[Downunderwonder]

The potential new owner of a store would like to have some inventory included in the sale I guess.

 

I really can't see the store being worth diddly if the website keeps the brand, and vice versa.

[BabyBlueSound]

Nooo, I loved them!

 

Hope the Rumble 40 I bought from them a couple months ago doesn't crap itself now 😅

[fretmeister]

45 minutes ago, BabyBlueSound said:

Nooo, I loved them!

 

Hope the Rumble 40 I bought from them a couple months ago doesn't crap itself now 😅

 

 

There's a guy on another forum who needs a return! Hopefully it's just something he doesn't like rather than something broken. And / Or that he paid with credit card.