Used to be a great company - Anonymous employee Guitar Center Employee Review

1.0
9 Dec 2015
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The employee discount is pretty good at 10% above standard cost on items. The GAIN program also allows employees to purchase gear directly from vendors usually at a lower cost than employee pricing. The general culture of lower level employees is also pretty good, as I have made some of my best friends working here.

Cons

Where to start? Low pay, even after you have moved up the chain a couple of links. Local HR is a joke with HR staff that you can tell hate their jobs, and the quality of work they do shows. Directors and Managers who don't listen to their staff and keep pushing sales concepts that they themselves cannot do, or never have done. To put it bluntly, it is a boys club the further you move up, and you are not promoted by the hard work you put in, but more by who they like better. A CEO who has directly admitted that he only takes on jobs like this for 2 years to fix the problems, and then moves on.

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.

See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All