A disapointing dinosaur... - Lost In Marketing Guitar Center Employee Review

2.0
Feb 16, 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great employee discounts on gear. Events were well-run (Drum-Off, etc).

Cons

Everything else. Very traditional, old-fashioned company despite target audience. Technologically outdated systems and frameworks - literally impossible to make meaningful improvements to in-store or online experience. Most employees promoted from the stores - meaning major axes to grind against people without traditional retail backgrounds and with college degrees. Incredible redundancy and disorganization on teams. Some hostile workplace stuff - and poor behavior by certain execs. Note this review was from a few years back. Maybe it's gotten better.

Explore other reviews about Guitar Center

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
Jun 29, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Employee discounts are the biggest reason why people work here, as the discount is really good.

Cons

Your experience working at Guitar Center will largely depend on which store you work at. Some stores have a good management team and employees and are fun to work at. But a lot of stores do not have a qualified management team and they have a staff that is not fun to work with. My location needed a new store manager and instead of promoting the ops manager who knew the store better than anyone else and was with the company for 15+ years working at multiple locations, corporate instead promoted a customer service lead who had been with the company less than 2 years and didn't have management experience. These are the people that corporate decides so often to run their stores.

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