Explorerlover wrote
Gibson >☹
That sums it up nicely. ?
Seriously - The "Lifestyle brand" corporation that was once Gibson feel that SA does not move enough of their ridiculously overpriced, badly manufactured guitars with the G-name on the headstock, so they also won't supply the Epiphone brand, which they
could sell thousands of each year. It's not worth their effort if we as a country can't make their stockholders rich(er).
We're not alone in this - a few years ago they stopped selling to something like 3/4 of the US stores because those stores couldn't or wouldn't stock certain models. They even cut off some stores that specialise in high price-ticket guitars (and which
were moving the more expensive Gibsons) because those stores didn't want to stock the Epiphone brands (which I can understand - if you're a car dealer specialising in Ferraris, Laborghinis, Porshes and the like, you wouldn't want to be forced to stock Fiat Unos). For the most part, the dealers said "O.K." ...and started stocking lots more PRS and Fender Custom Shop models.
One wonders if they may be rethinking their strategy in the current economic situation. Somehow, given that their response to the lower sales was to jack their prices up (they are not alone in this - big F did the same earlier this year), somehow I doubt it.
