Feels like a top heavy company that pays no attention to employees in the stores. - Anonymous employee Guitar Center Employee Review

2.0
5 Oct 2011
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The people you work with, the vendor reps that stop through and say hey, you meet a lot of cool people with similar interests.

Cons

Working in the stores in general, everybody is spread way too thin. Every year payroll budgets get smaller and smaller, and it's getting to the point that every employee is frustrated on a regular basis. A good amount of customers aren't even being helped because there aren't enough people to help them which is of no fault to the employees. Commission structures changing constantly, which always result in a pay cut for even top performers. An operations staff that has entirely way too much on their agenda, no incentive or motivation to work harder, pay their employees the least amount as possible, and generally take the brunt of every downside of the business. Random corporate employees that demand unimportant tasks to be done in an unconvenient timeline, just because they say so.

Explore other reviews about Guitar Center

5.0
9 Jan 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Got to work with so many people

Cons

Long hours during holidays were rough

1.0
29 Jun 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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