Is Guitar Center headed for insolvency?
Is Guitar Centre an “essential” business? Not according to the Kansas City Health Department. After defying the city’s stay-at-home order by continuing business in its 700,000 square-foot warehouse, the retailer was ordered by Kansas City Health officials to suspend further operations. That’s according to Music Trades News.
Stay at home
The industry publication reported that Kansas City code enforcement personnel, along with the Kansas City police, had to show up to the instrument retailer’s warehouse to shut down all activities. The stay-at-home order issued by Mayor Quinton Lucas on the 24th of March to battle the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, allows only “essential” businesses to carry on running. It appears that the company was in violation of that order.
Is Guitar Centre an “essential” business?
Guitar Centre has maintained that it counts as an essential business, but hasn’t quite specified how it fits that criteria. The management also argued that the highly automated facility follows a strict cleaning regimen, and is staffed in a way that makes it possible for employees to maintain the recommended 6-foot distance. Unfortunately for them, city officials were not convinced.
Kansas City spokesperson Chris Hernandez stated that the company did not qualify as an essential business. Spokesperson for the Kansas City Health Department, Bill Snook, said that the retailer had already received two previous warnings from the city before finally making the decision to close its facility.
The cost of shutting down
The warehouse employs about three hundred people in three shifts, and processes orders from all of Guitar Centre’s online platforms including Musician’s Friend, GuitarCenter.com, and Woodwind&Brasswind.com. The company has already had to furlough 9000 employees last month, and has been plagued with debt. According to Music Trades News, it also seems that the company has stopped payment to vendors at the moment, in a bid to save money. Is that an indicator that Guitar Center is headed for insolvency?
As of now, all operations in the Kansas facility have been suspended. We’ll keep you up to date.
Edit: Guitar Center reopens. You can read more about it here.
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11 responses to “Is Guitar Center headed for insolvency?”
Meanwhile pot dispensaries and liquor stores are deemed essential.
Exactly, how freakn ridiculous. Its absolutely unfair that everybody and their dog is deemed essential but they arent. How is freakn alcohol essential ??? You can still freakn by beer my gosh !!!!
The Kansas City officials are idiots. 700.000 sw ft with 100 people per shift that is 7000 square ft per employee. There are those of us that have to stay at home and tried to order a guitar to help make it through this period. The sam city official are cpnsideting liquor stores as essential businesses. Elect idiots and this is what you get
As a person who plays instruments, yes, it is essential business 😂 it is extremely important for my mental well-being to have my instruments.
And as a musician myself. I say at this point no because there are so many peoples Health and families that are at risk. There are to many people dead because we want fellow the rules that are place until this mess is over. Uses what you got to make it though!
If you think lots of people are dying now, wait until the severe global depression kicks in.
“In order to save the village it was necessary to burn it to the ground.”
Willing to bet there’s an AMZN FC in Kansas City that’s still running… looks like GC didn’t make the correct “contributions”
Self induced great depression.Trillion dollar endless wars…but we destroy ourselves from within.Eliminate 1,000 jobs to save 1 life…lol
This is a lie because the warehouse is now open woooo. I love the guitar center life
As a guitar center employee in Rialto Ca I must say that we have done a great job in maintaining our distance from each other and we have also maintain our workplace a safe environment. Now I don’t care what people say we are guitar center and we ain’t going no where………..
GUITAR CENTER FAMILY 2020
we came back today. orders are again moving out of the KCDC
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