No Roland Keyboards At Guitar Center

[shakiroin]

Hi people,

I visited Guitar Center today at Greenville SC Location looking for a keyboard.

I was surprised they only carry Korg, Yamaha and Casio. Sales person won't give me an explanation why
they don't carry any Rolands no more.

Went to another big store nearby, and the same situation, the actually told me they tried to order
some Boss damper pedals and they were told by Roland that those pedals will be on back order till february.

Anyone knows what's going on ? Is Roland not selling anymore keyboards ?. To me is like going to a Car dealer and not seeing any toyotas.

 

[happyrat1]

Actually nothing surprising about that. Manufacturers will often offer dealers sweetheart pricing for exclusive contracts and probably Roland's offer wasn't sweet enough.

Then again I'm certain if you look around town you'll probably find an authorized Roland dealer somewhere in your area.

Take a look at the dealer locator they have on their website. That will usually point you in the right direction.

http://www.rolandus.com/dealer_locator/

After all when you go to a new car dealer, you don't really expect to find Hondas, Toyotas, Mercedes and Fords all at the same dealership do you?

 

[Ted Nicoson]

Strange ! Guitar Center's online catalog still lists the entire Roland line and the local GC store still has the Juno-Di and Gi and both the Fantom G6 and G8 in stock and say they can have any of the rest of the Roland line (including the Jupiter 50 and 80) onsite within 24 hours from their central warehousing store or you can have it today if you are willing to drive about 35 miles to that store.

 

[shakiroin]

Thanks for your prompt answers, The link happyrat1 posted is actually inaccurate, I called the 3 biggest dealers in the area and they don't keep roland keyboards in stock.

The guy at GC in greenville SC checked the online catalog, and told me that they may order It but they don't keep any Rolands on Display. I just checked with GC in Charlotte SC, same deal, they don't stock or display rolands.

 

[happyrat1]

To be fair, a lot of pro high end keyboards are special order only. When you consider each one can cost the dealer up to and over $2000 a piece to keep in stock they prefer to devote their limited floor space to the hot sellers that sell for less money and have a good turnover.

I bought a floor demo Kurzweil this summer from a dealer out west and got a $200 discount mainly because it was a floor model. Then again if I were to guess judging by the firmware version on the keyboard that unit had been sitting on the floor as stock for at least a year if not longer.

That's a hell of a long time for a dealer to move stock especially with razor thin margins these days.

Then again one good thing about guitar center is that I believe they sell with a no quibble 30 day money back guarantee so you could order in any keyboard they might carry and try it out at home without fear that you got stuck with a lemon.

 

[shakiroin]

To be fair, a lot of pro high end keyboards are special order only. When you consider each one can cost the dealer up to and over $2000 a piece to keep in stock they prefer to devote their limited floor space to the hot sellers that sell for less money and have a good turnover.

I bought a floor demo Kurzweil this summer from a dealer out west and got a $200 discount mainly because it was a floor model. Then again if I were to guess judging by the firmware version on the keyboard that unit had been sitting on the floor as stock for at least a year if not longer.

That's a hell of a long time for a dealer to move stock especially with razor thin margins these days.

Then again one good thing about guitar center is that I believe they sell with a no quibble 30 day money back guarantee so you could order in any keyboard they might carry and try it out at home without fear that you got stuck with a lemon.

I understand that, but again my question is why GC Can afford to keep Korg, Casio and Yamaha's in their limited floor space but Roland ? I know I can order a keyboard from ZZounds or American Musical and may be cheaper than GC but I just want to avoid the hassle of driving back to return something I may not like and ordering another one blindfold.

 

[happyrat1]

My guess would be that the Korgs, Yamahas and Casios either sell quicker than the Rolands and/or they have a better markup than the Rolands.

Either way chances are all dealer decisions are based on the bottom line.

 

[dspellman]

My guess would be that the Korgs, Yamahas and Casios either sell quicker than the Rolands and/or they have a better markup than the Rolands.

Either way chances are all dealer decisions are based on the bottom line.

Pretty much this. Guitar Center carries Gibson guitars, of course, but it's very rare to find the Gibson Axcess (a smooth-neck-heel guitar with or without a Floyd trem) on their walls It's a $3K guitar. They routinely carry the two most popular of the three Variax model guitars as stock items. When I wanted to pick up the JTV-89F (the third model that they don't usually stock), I was told it was a special order item.

I've found all three Korg Kronos X configurations at my local GCs, but almost never a Roland (there are seven GC's within driving distance of me here in LA).

Limited floor (and wall) space means that GC will usually stock the low-hanging fruit; the items that will turn over most quickly.

 

[Ted Nicoson]

Hey, shakiroin !

I saw this same subject on another forum the other day. That guy was looking for a Roland BK9. Nobody had one in stock for him to try, but they could order it in. Anyway, the discussion spread beyond Roland and Guitar Center, and I got the idea that most of these places are cutting back to just the lower priced MOTL and entry level stuff. Aside from the fact that it is time to be clearing the shelves of the stuff that does not move well and load them up with the big holiday sellers, I am getting the feeling that just maybe this economy is not recovering quite as well as we thought it was. This will be something interesting to keep an eye on.

 

[dspellman]

Probably several factors.

The economy still has a couple of major bubbles yet to burst and "recovery" is more political and stock market press than actuality. Employment figures don't take into account those who have exceeded their EDD allotments or who are seriously underemployed (aerospace engineers flipping burgers).

We've been continuing a trend away from live music. Clubs feature DJs, mixes and karaoke. Guitar bands don't crack any Billboard Top Ten lists (dominated by chick singers and the occasional hip hop artist, neither of whom have musical backgrounds that are guitar-centric) anymore. Music is less often a generational thing or even a clique thing -- the MP3 player has given everyone his own personal mix.

Guitar Center corporate is financially wobbly. They've eliminated a lot of mom and pop stores over the years, but they themselves are teetering financially. Some lines may not be providing credit or inventory to GC any more. Keyboards have never been the largest component of GC sales, and shelf space (room space?) is in competition with whatever GC can turn over most quickly.

And finally, the Baby Boomer generation, which fueled all of this in the first place, has begun to move toward retirement planning. The first of them has already turned 65 and the rest will be doing so over the next dozen years at the rate of about 12,000 per day. There are about 78 million of them who will likely be shelving their fantasies of rock stardom as the reality of arthritis and fixed income and a massive transfer of wealth (greater than any in the history of the world) begins to come clear.

 

[Joe Garfield]

I heard this from an employee at Sam Ash, when I started talking about the differences I felt between the two stores: Guitar Center does not own the stock that is in their stores, or in other words they have not yet paid in full for the merchandise they display. Most of it is in the store on credit. So if this is true, maybe Guitar Center doesn't have a credit deal with Roland for keyboards or something like that, but they still could be an authorized dealer.