Guitar Center is Proof That Big-Box Retail is Ending

Guitar Center's recent business woes are indicative of a bigger problem across the industry. Standard & Poor's cut Guitar Center's debt rating to junk status because it doesn't expect falling sales and disappointing profits to improve anytime soon, retail analyst Eric Garland writes on his blog. Guitar Center is indicative of all of the problems with traditional big-box retail, Garland writes. "Guitar Center has the remnants of an inferior business model, one that prizes huge brand names, big volumes, low wages and nonexistent character," he says.