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Dawsons are in administration... again.


Kiwi

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  • Kiwi changed the title to Dawsons are in administration... again.

Yup.

 

said it before and I’ll say it again…

 

it could’ve been great - there were opportunities while I worked for them (2003-2014) and they made crap choices.

 

some great friends lost their jobs (again) today.

 

a shame. A real shame.

 

If the main man would’ve listened to me and a few key others In 2010 ish…but…nope.

 

The guy who took the reigns was a really odd guy…he had no knowledge of MI sales and eventually it went belly up. 
 

They then got rinsed by KPMG (asset strippers) - and then a seemingly well intentioned local small time retailer got in over his head.

 

Was never a “cool” place to work - but Jesus it made huge amounts of money. Huge.

 

At points - it was amazing. Have made some of my best friends through working there.

 

Hope the 48 can find something.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Specialist shops are getting fewer and farther apart. It's even worse for orchestral instrument players. There's only a handful of specialist saxophone shops in the country. String players are a little better served with shops often a sideline of a luthier. Quite a few instruments - e.g oboe, bassoon - there is only a very small number and these are often run out of someone's home as a high street presence is just too expensive. 

 

One of the issues is music shops usually require a large footprint to have practice rooms to enable people to try instruments etc. This means their business rates are very high. Business rates need to be completely overhauled as the current model just doesn't work. Small independents in high streets get caned and multinationals in out of town business parks get tax breaks...  

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28 minutes ago, OliverBlackman said:

The thing I don’t get is why these chain stores all sell more or less the same stuff. PMT, Andertons, GAK, Guitar Guitar - there’s not much that they individually specialise in. Yet the independent stores that have a niche seem to get by - albeit with much lower overheads.

For the exact same reason many cover bands play the same material - it is what the punters want. Believe me, I ran a small guitar shop for two years with no Epiphone or Squier product. Everyone loved the Godins, Arias, Gordon Smiths et al but didn't buy the b*gg3rs.

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I was only thinking the other day in town that the Dawson’s seemed to be keeping odd hours , it was closed on the weekend but then open in the week . 
As they are keeping the Chester store, I guess they had some stuff to sort out.

Without trying to sound clever , I do buy anything (new) music related from the store if I can. 

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3 hours ago, OliverBlackman said:

The thing I don’t get is why these chain stores all sell more or less the same stuff. PMT, Andertons, GAK, Guitar Guitar - there’s not much that they individually specialise in. 

Because they all buy the same stuff 😉 

PMT, Andertons and GG are also part of a buying alliance/group/consortium called "GAP":

Is it time to start showing some of the big brands the door? | Music Instrument News

 

That was back in 2018. Not sure if this is still the case though.

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3 hours ago, zbd1960 said:

One of the issues is music shops usually require a large footprint to have practice rooms to enable people to try instruments etc. This means their business rates are very high. Business rates need to be completely overhauled as the current model just doesn't work. Small independents in high streets get caned and multinationals in out of town business parks get tax breaks...  

I totally agree. This is sadly the big flaw in modern retail. Business rates are crippling and not driven by market conditions. Even before Covid many small town high streets were awash with empty shop units and post-Covid even cities are now the same. Little niche shops, especially those selling low cost items have to shift a lot of stock before they can cover rent, rates, insurance, taxes etc., just to break even, let alone earn a decent income. 

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4 hours ago, OliverBlackman said:

The thing I don’t get is why these chain stores all sell more or less the same stuff. PMT, Andertons, GAK, Guitar Guitar - there’s not much that they individually specialise in. Yet the independent stores that have a niche seem to get by - albeit with much lower overheads.

The thing is, sites Basschat is a microcosm of the bass world. The vast majority of players, especially at the beginner to intermediate levels, are familar with Fender and Gibson and they are still seen as being the instruments to buy. So they will buy a Squier or Epiphone to start, and progress to Fender and Gibson.

A lot of people aren't aware of brands like Sadowsky, Lakland, and Sandberg.

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19 minutes ago, Doddy said:

The thing is, sites Basschat is a microcosm of the bass world. The vast majority of players, especially at the beginner to intermediate levels, are familar with Fender and Gibson and they are still seen as being the instruments to buy. So they will buy a Squier or Epiphone to start, and progress to Fender and Gibson.

A lot of people aren't aware of brands like Sadowsky, Lakland, and Sandberg.

Good point, online forums like BC and TC are cool places to hang out and chat but clearly not representative of the wider bass gear buying market. I remember Sterling Ball once saying in the EBMM forum that people have great new product ideas but EBMM has to be very careful and cannot make them all as otherwise this would guarantee him a new career in hospitality: "Do you want fries with that?" 😉 

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1 hour ago, Eldon Tyrell said:

I remember Sterling Ball once saying in the EBMM forum that people have great new product ideas but EBMM has to be very careful and cannot make them all as otherwise this would guarantee him a new career in hospitality: "Do you want fries with that?" 😉 

He's already got a career in hospitality - competitive BBQ-ing. 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/user/bigpoppasmokers

 

 

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9 minutes ago, Kiwi said:

He's already got a career in hospitality - competitive BBQ-ing. 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/user/bigpoppasmokers

 

 

Cool stuff. Watching the video made me hungry.

Did not know there was something like competitive BBQ-ing.

Guess Sterling is just a competitive guy, "hungry" for success 😉   

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A shame, I think we'd all like to buy from somewhere over here.

 

The recent Musik Productiv offers with the Ashdown stuff, of which I purchased,  was crazy. I'd have paid a bit more from the UK if it could have got near.....but to be cheaper from a British brand overseas? No wonder places are in trouble!

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8 hours ago, Lord Sausage said:

Eventually Thomann will become OCP.

 

Tbh I've  never really been a fan of Dawson's. In the 90's there was a Dawson in a town near me but me and my mates used to use the independent music shops. You could get better stuff at better prices. I found the service and atmospheres in those shops was better too.

 

Got to agree with this. Dawsons were all over the North West of England in the 90's, but the prices never seemed to be that competitive, and the service seemed non existent. If you were after a keyboard though, they would fall over themselves to help. I always got the impression that guitars were kind of a side line for them. I knew a few people who swore by Dawsons though. 

 

It's still a sad state of affairs that yet another established name in musical instrument retail has hit the wall.

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9 minutes ago, Daz39 said:

You think competitive bbq is mad, check out pro-Cornhole league. They’ll put anything on tv.

I quickly checked a video on YT. Well, interesting. Not my cup of tea but so are many other "sports". I mean curling is not only a sport but also part of the Winter Olympics. Let's see when Cornhole gets added to the Summer Olympics. Maybe already for the Olympics in LA in 2028? 

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4 minutes ago, Jus Lukin said:

I can't see cornhole getting anywhere near the hallowed rings.

You never know, man, you just never know. Maybe one of the cornhole fans is super loaded and "convinces" the Olympic committee that cornhole really needs to be added to the LA Olympics. 

Maybe this list will go to 11 soon 😉

The ten weirdest events in Olympic Games history: from pistol duelling to poodle clipping | British GQ (gq-magazine.co.uk)

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