Re: Mesa Boogie + Guitar Center = no more?
It's one of the few amps you can't haggle on in a GC, right?
Correct. Mesa will not allow it. If you ever see a Mesa amp priced below list on clearance, it's because Mesa said it was OK.
Well Mesa aren't really consumer friendly angels either.
They are on the forefront of dictating prices to stores which if I had it my way would be illegal.
They also have an impressive patent portfolio that regardless of how ridiculous a patent might be can't be challenged since doing so is way out of the budget for any musical instrument company (all patent attorneys are buying doing million $$$ jobs for software or biotech companies). At the same time of course the famous Mk design is directly derived from a design made by a competitor (then and now) and some newer designs are directly copying other competitors's products.
I wouldn't be so quick to judge here. For all we know Mesa tried to dictate conditions to guitar center that they say are "ensuring that their products get the right exposure" but in reality wanted to require GC to give Mesa product a straight presentation advantage over other amplifiers.
They don't really dictate prices so much as ensure consistency. Here's how it works: A Marshall JVM410H head has a "list" price of $3400. The MSRP (street price) that most stores will sell it for is $1999.99, which is supposed to give the buyer the illusion of a savings. However, some small independent stores that are way out of the way might charge above that, and right up to list price because there might be no competition in their area and they can get away with it. Conversely, when the amps really do go on sale for 10 or 15% off, now the price is dropped and it's a limited opportunity to save some money. One shop locally i know sells pedals and accessories for full list while slightly discounting the street price on big items, that's normal MO for them.
Mesa views this as giving some shops and even some buyers an unfair advantage over others. By pricing a Dual Rec at $1949.00, and keeping it there, there's no haggling, no sales, no opportunity for a shop to charge more and no reason one buyer will pay less than another.
In addition to that, Mesa was always great at having reps come around and training the employees on the product, more so than most other companies did. I can tell you as a salesperson, this actually made my job easier, because the customers knew you couldn't haggle on those amps, and I could spend more time educating the customer on the value on the product and I didn't waste any time fiddling with the pricing on the amp. Occasionally I'd throw in a strap or some strings to make the deal happen, but only with my boss' approval and that was a pretty rare thing anyways.
