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Author Topic: Musicians Friend dropping Behringer.  (Read 27747 times)

Taylor Hall

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Re: Musicians Friend dropping Behringer.
« Reply #10 on: June 05, 2014, 01:04:29 PM »

Can't we just lock this thread and divert traffic to the existing threads on the matter?
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David Parker

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Re: Musicians Friend dropping Behringer.
« Reply #11 on: June 05, 2014, 01:48:25 PM »

What makes you think Behringer was their largest selling brand? Low cost?

maybe not their largest, but definitely a big one, especially since the popularity of their new digital mixers
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John Roberts {JR}

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Re: Musicians Friend dropping Behringer.
« Reply #12 on: June 05, 2014, 02:47:58 PM »

maybe not their largest, but definitely a big one, especially since the popularity of their new digital mixers
Not their largest anymore...  8)

We'll never know exactly what happened...

Not sure I really care, other than as a observer of economic trends. A pizza chain who specialized in mall food courts just went through bankruptcy remarking about an usual drop off in mall traffic this year.

This is an interesting time for bricks and mortar. Especially B&M with tons of debt. 

JR
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Tim McCulloch

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Re: Musicians Friend dropping Behringer.
« Reply #13 on: June 05, 2014, 03:21:28 PM »

Not their largest anymore...  8)

We'll never know exactly what happened...

Not sure I really care, other than as a observer of economic trends. A pizza chain who specialized in mall food courts just went through bankruptcy remarking about an usual drop off in mall traffic this year.

This is an interesting time for bricks and mortar. Especially B&M with tons of debt. 

JR

Sbarro's?  It's their SECOND bankruptcy.
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David Parker

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Re: Musicians Friend dropping Behringer.
« Reply #14 on: June 05, 2014, 03:41:33 PM »

Not their largest anymore...  8)

We'll never know exactly what happened...

Not sure I really care, other than as a observer of economic trends. A pizza chain who specialized in mall food courts just went through bankruptcy remarking about an usual drop off in mall traffic this year.

This is an interesting time for bricks and mortar. Especially B&M with tons of debt. 

JR



guitar center is both and can't make it, brick and mortar and internet. What about musicianfriend, they are internet only, and they are dropping behringer too? I realize the two are at some point connected, but still, they have the best of both worlds
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John Roberts {JR}

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Re: Musicians Friend dropping Behringer.
« Reply #15 on: June 05, 2014, 03:46:42 PM »

Sbarro's?  It's their SECOND bankruptcy.
yup... I don't follow the company, Another angle on mall traffic is a decline in some of the classic magnet store chains. Sears is closing more stores so every one of those could be bad news for a mall. 

Maybe we need to turn the Malls into paintball ranges.

JR
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John Roberts {JR}

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Re: Musicians Friend dropping Behringer.
« Reply #16 on: June 05, 2014, 04:10:22 PM »

guitar center is both and can't make it, brick and mortar and internet. What about musicianfriend, they are internet only, and they are dropping behringer too? I realize the two are at some point connected, but still, they have the best of both worlds

I recall being pretty impressed with the guys running GC but that was years ago and they have probably changed ownership/management more than once since then.

It looks like they may have drank too deeply from the easy borrowing available before the housing bubble collapse in 2007-8. The original guys are probably long gone, now with GC being run by sharp pencil types. 

MF is wholly owned subsidiary of GC so are likely treated as one account for corporate credit lines.

GC looks like a valuable brand/asset... and from all reports was adequately capitalized. This may have been a negotiation over payment terms that blew up, while I do not expect retail to be very strong.
 
JR

PS: From my experience in manufacturing it is difficult to fund rapid growth internally when operating on slender (manufacturing) profit margins. While Behringer appears to be the strong hand here, somebody has to fund all that growth they are experiencing lately. At a minimum I would not expect them to be very generous about payment terms. 
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Andrew J Beard

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Re: Musicians Friend dropping Behringer.
« Reply #17 on: June 05, 2014, 05:16:07 PM »

I was the last Live Sound Buyer at Musician's Friend from 2009-2011 before all Musician's Friend functions were moved to the GC headquarters in LA and the company ceased to exist as a separate entity. All of the problems between Behringer and GC/MF began in 2009-2010 when Behringer chose to close their warehouses in the US so Behringer would have no US tax presence. This forced us to start buying container-direct only and only one large order could be placed once a month. Behringer continued for almost two years to give us inaccurate PO information, change our costs (even in transit), and discontinue products with no warning which we were advertising which lead to huge backorders and customer dissatisfaction. At that time GC chose to drop most of their significant business with Behringer and switch to Alto; I chose to de-emphasize their products and focus more on other brands. Credit hold is common in MI since large purchase orders cause it automatically. Sure, Guitar Center is having their issues but you can be assured that Behringer caused this and GC has tried to make this relationship work for too long.
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Re: Musicians Friend dropping Behringer.
« Reply #18 on: June 05, 2014, 05:20:29 PM »

I was the last Live Sound Buyer at Musician's Friend from 2009-2011 before all Musician's Friend functions were moved to the GC headquarters in LA and the company ceased to exist as a separate entity. All of the problems between Behringer and GC/MF began in 2009-2010 when Behringer chose to close their warehouses in the US so Behringer would have no US tax presence. This forced us to start buying container-direct only and only one large order could be placed once a month. Behringer continued for almost two years to give us inaccurate PO information, change our costs (even in transit), and discontinue products with no warning which we were advertising which lead to huge backorders and customer dissatisfaction. At that time GC chose to drop most of their significant business with Behringer and switch to Alto; I chose to de-emphasize their products and focus more on other brands. Credit hold is common in MI since large purchase orders cause it automatically. Sure, Guitar Center is having their issues but you can be assured that Behringer caused this and GC has tried to make this relationship work for too long.

Thanks for the info.  Wonder if any of the hired apologists at B********** will comment....
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Bob Leonard

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Re: Musicians Friend dropping Behringer.
« Reply #19 on: June 05, 2014, 06:28:03 PM »

I was the last Live Sound Buyer at Musician's Friend from 2009-2011 before all Musician's Friend functions were moved to the GC headquarters in LA and the company ceased to exist as a separate entity. All of the problems between Behringer and GC/MF began in 2009-2010 when Behringer chose to close their warehouses in the US so Behringer would have no US tax presence. This forced us to start buying container-direct only and only one large order could be placed once a month. Behringer continued for almost two years to give us inaccurate PO information, change our costs (even in transit), and discontinue products with no warning which we were advertising which lead to huge backorders and customer dissatisfaction. At that time GC chose to drop most of their significant business with Behringer and switch to Alto; I chose to de-emphasize their products and focus more on other brands. Credit hold is common in MI since large purchase orders cause it automatically. Sure, Guitar Center is having their issues but you can be assured that Behringer caused this and GC has tried to make this relationship work for too long.

Finally some accurate information from the source. Thank you Andrew. I'll chime in here by saying that the Boston area GC's seemed to have "de-emphasized" the Behringer connection long ago. There never were big displays of "B" gear on the Boston area floors and many products were on wait lists or not available.
 
I don't like every salesperson to have ever worked at GC, but I do like GC and MF for many items. For pro sound I have Charlie Tappa, the best of the best, but other than that even the Mom and Pops in the area are often less than helpful.
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Re: Musicians Friend dropping Behringer.
« Reply #19 on: June 05, 2014, 06:28:03 PM »


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