Exhausting retail work with inadequate incentives and difficult clientele - Sales Associate Guitar Center Employee Review

2.0
Oct 8, 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Excellent employee discount; purchase goods at cost. Extremely relaxed atmosphere. Open enrollment in employer provided insurance.

Cons

Low, complicated pay scale (for sales associates) that is poorly explained by supervisors. Excessive emphasis on menial activities that take time away from sales (cleaning during and after shift, logging instrument repairs, arranging displays, etc.). Clientele that are often ignorant and rude, who also expect you to know every nuanced thing about their favorite instrument, band, accessory, etc., or you perpetuate their "corporate musician" stereotype. Primitive and cumbersome operating system used to check out customers ("Green screen"). Lack of professionalism, ambition within the sales associates.

Explore other reviews about Guitar Center

5.0
Jun 25, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Very flexible with hours working.

Cons

Difficult to stray away from Hal Leonard curriculum sometimes, but may be different now.

3.0
Jul 1, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Sweet deals and discounts Coworkers are very pleasant to work with Good as extra income Good for aspiring musicians to network with experts of the industry

Cons

Obsolete softwares Scheduling system software that is thenmost imperative tool as of it will be the backbone of a lesson lead for your team of instructors success it's also somewhat obsolete amd constantly crashing both IT and Upper management are aware. IT is very diligent and pleasant to work with but Upper management expects their lessons lead to work and deliver at 100% capacity while they continue to have an operating system that only works at 75% capacity, just beware of that and if you're willing to work under those conditions. With that put there go at your own discretion. Nobody gets Christmas/winter holiday vacation time off, also go at your own discretion on that one especially if you have kids and family looking for work-life-balance.

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