Parking lot promotional tactics.

YESTERDAY ONE OF MY employees brought in a flyer that someone had placed on the windshield of his car in our parking lot. Imagine my surprise to find it was a Guitar Center "In-Store Use Only" flyer. Several of the items from Fender, Martin, Roland, and Yamaha were offered in a "Guitar-A-Thon 3-Day Only Sale," at below MAP prices. When I called the local GC and asked for the manager, I did receive a very weak apology. He also stated that he would send someone down to take them oft" the cars. Needless to say, we had already done that.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

This raises three questions in my mind. 1) Is this what we should expect from Guitar Center's new owner, Bain Capital? (Maybe not. I can't believe they would condone this behavior.) 2) What are the companies with products advertised below MAP going to do? (This one is easy: nothing). 3) Is Guitar Center so desperate for sales they stoop this low? (I won't attempt to answer this one.)

I have heard from several other stores around the country who have had the same flyers distributed in their parking lots. If it gets down to it, I'm pretty sure I can put more flyers in GC's parking lot than they can in mine.

Fred Zeagler

Zeagler Music

Baton Rouge, LA