Quest for Keepers

[Danley]

I agree that G&L has a bit of a 'resale problem' - but on the low end, they're mostly equivalent in resale to a Fender where you can get the lowest price US guitars for ~$600 used if you look hard enough (Legacy/American Standard Strat etc.) I can't say I pay enough attention on the more expensive models to know what a Custom Shop Fender really goes for, but I have seen some amazing deals on Custom Shop G&Ls up front. Yet at the lowest end, I think the 'resale problem' is a symptom of Fender leading G&L, and consumers not seeing much of a difference (or equal value on balance anyway.)

[glvourot]

I wonder if G&L simply doesn't understand the Internet.

Any business in 2019 that doesn't sell their products directly to their customers through an online portal, is already behind the curve.

Since G&L appear to be genuinely disinterested in have any kind of proper dealer presence I think they would be a perfect company to sell direct to consumer. There are three listed for British Columbia and one of them I know for sure only ever had one guitar in stock ( a Fallout ) and then stopped carrying G&L altogether although they are still listed as a dealer.

I do follow their instagram feed and I like the content. The only new model I would want to buy would be a Doheny V12, I rarely go to the States these days so who knows when I will get to try one out. We have to accept the fact that G&L wants to remain small and keep a periphery presence. Maybe they will find a Telex machine in Leo's lab to take orders on.

[Danley]

I think G&L has more than a periphery presence - Tributes are downright common, and the company is known and has a good reputation. I was going to comment on their limited dealer presence - until I recalled recent experience, and looked at their list of dealers to notice it’s actually grown vs. last time I looked. Maybe it was just vastly out of date before, but it does seem like any music store I pop into has a decent selection of New G&L-branded instruments. That said, I’m sure their leverage over dealers isn’t like Fender etc. - who more stores around me are actually dropping due to stringent requirements (my closest music store has a bitch/moan over Fender - they don’t carry G&L, yet.)

[glvourot]

Periphery is actually being kind. Its actually more like non existent , at least north of the the 49th parallel. 2.5 million people in metro Vancouver and zero presence. I do envy your access to inventory , especially the old ones.

[Danley]

I’m sure most of their sales in the area are still from Musician’s Friend/Guitar Center Online/eBay anyway, despite having at least two/maybe three local mom/pop shops carrying them - and a few GCs. Odd - dealers seem more plentiful proportionally in other states though.

[ChrisPbass]

I wonder if G&L simply doesn't understand the Internet.

The top ten sites on the internet are split between search engines, social networking, and online shopping, with the growth being predominantly centered on the online shopping sites. The data shows that even pornography is less utilized than online shopping.

Any business in 2019 that doesn't sell their products directly to their customers through an online portal, is already behind the curve.

G&L has interested customers all over the world - even in places where there are no G&L dealers. Even on this forum the majority of purchases are being made online. That's not just the way the future is heading, that's the way it's been for a few years now, and increasingly more so as the days go on.. Any marketing strategy that continues to ignore the potential to sell directly to the public online in this day and age, is ignoring what will (or rather, must) eventually become their main generator of income.

Treating the Internet as nothing more than an advertising platform, is like jumping on an F-15 then driving it on the ground to your destination. It can be done - but man you are wasting it's potential.

THIS. or they are doing GREAT business and don't want to grow.
Seriously...you are so dead on.

[tomanche]

If they create their own direct online, they must establish warehouse space and hold substantial inventory, and staff to run it. That takes time and money. Musicians Friend, Sweetwater, etc. are already set up to do that efficiently, plus stores that list on Reverb, etc. Easier to supply inventory to those dealers than to manage themselves, handle returns, etc.

It's also possible (as noted) that they are selling enough instruments to keep them at their current size and capacity. Many builders (e.g., Collings) recognize that quality becomes more difficult to manage beyond a certain size.

[DanDoulogos]

If they create their own direct online, they must establish warehouse space and hold substantial inventory, and staff to run it. That takes time and money. Musicians Friend, Sweetwater, etc. are already set up to do that efficiently, plus stores that list on Reverb, etc. Easier to supply inventory to those dealers than to manage themselves, handle returns, etc.

It's also possible (as noted) that they are selling enough instruments to keep them at their current size and capacity. Many builders (e.g., Collings) recognize that quality becomes more difficult to manage beyond a certain size.

I agree that if they opened a direct-to-customer storefront online, they would need to invest in more inventory space, since their business would grow.

But I don't agree that growing larger as a company necessarily means a drop in quality or service. The quality of these guitars is not determined by the size of their building or the number of their employees, it is determined by their own standards and quality control. If they maintain the same standards and quality control, they can grow as large as they want without suffering for it.