RIP GC 1959 to 2021 - Anonymous employee Guitar Center Employee Review

2.0
Feb 21, 2023
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

You'll make a million friends, learn tons of new gear, discounts, decent time off, chill atmosphere.

Cons

Majority of the customers left that shop here are super clueless or rude. The company 100% deserves this due to poor infrastructure and elimination of talented staff. The pay for entry level is absolutely comical, forcing stoned 19 year olds to close 5 Million Dollar stores would be defined as "pathetic" to anyone taking themselves seriously. The store manager does 5 jobs now, forcing them to dedicate time to selling picks and strings, cleaning bathrooms, and shipping warehouse items since hours are so tight. Company has 100% changed since the bankruptcy, cutting corners, laying off employees while blaming Covid as its response, regardless of having one of the best years in sales ever and applying to hit the stock market again. They recently rigged the commission structure by averaging the common sales per hour numbers, causing the majority of sales people to lose 30% to all of their commission checks, again claiming pandemic problems. Majority of talented long term employees have left in disgust, the stores are filthy, and corporate is absolutely clueless. If you're gonna work here, don't take it seriously.

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5.0
Jan 9, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Got to work with so many people

Cons

Long hours during holidays were rough

1.0
Apr 21, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Plenty of capable individual contributors doing real work. - The brand and the business itself are legitimate — the problems are organizational.

Cons

- Senior leadership is politically driven rather than outcome-driven. Strategic initiatives stall out, and leaders spend more energy assigning or shifting blame than actually diagnosing and fixing problems. - Some parts of the org operate on deference to the top. Honest assessments get softened into whatever narrative leadership wants to hear, which makes real cross-functional work difficult. - Senior leaders do not consistently advocate for their own teams. When things get political, self-preservation takes precedence over backing the people underneath, and capable managers end up exposed.

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