UK Music Retail -Kette PMT in die Verwaltung eingebaut und dauerhaft alle Geschäfte mit sofortiger Wirkung schließen

Ah this is shit news. The same link shows that GAK went under in April, I didn’t hear about that either.

The margins in music shops have always been shit and the carrying cost of their stock has always been very high. I think the prices on the name brands of Squiers and Epiphones have been quite aggressively lowered in recent years (adjusting for inflation), it’s very hard to make money when the biggest section of your customers are buying £150 guitars that you only make £30 on but need to also find the space to store for weeks. And half your potential customers are buying them from Amazon instead.

Feels like there should be less of a focus on super-budget instruments now or it’s going to take out all the brick and mortar shops. I don’t think it’s too much of a problem if entry-level guitars start at £200 rather than £100, it’s still not prohibitive compared to almost every other lifetime hobby.

Sad to see them go, I haven’t been able to play guitar for around ten years due to surgeries and JUST got back into things last year, and a PMT had the guitar I’d wanted for 20 years somehow in stock (Tom DeLonge ES 333). Was great heading back in there.

This leaves just GuitarGuitar and Gear4Music for big brands now, doesn’t it?

But there have been lots of closures in the last few years. PMT, GAK, JG Windows and lots of indies.

I’m lucky that I have a really got independent guitar shop near me that still gets a lot of custom, when I was last in picking up a 12 string Squier, they had several people coming and going, either buying or getting repairs/set ups. I could have saved about £20 on mine if I bought online, but they did a quick set up and checked it worked before contacting me for pick up, which is something online lacks. Shame my local doesn’t sell synth/keys stuff, although my wallet is lucky because of it.

Rock bands are dead as a musical format which can’t be helping

Such a shame, having a music shop available is such a lifeline.

I used the one in Northampton quite a lot, and tried to make a point of buying things in there even if they were a few quid cheaper somewhere else online, because the value of having a physical shop over that small amount of money would hopefully pay itself back if I ever needed a new microphone/string/cable last minute on the day of a gig when I couldn’t edit for online delivery.

Now I think about it, both of my main basses, my first digital piano and all the accessories, and my effects unit were all bought from PMT.

Sad to see them go, they were always so nice and enthusiastic about their work, and music generally.