Hey you. Out there in the cold, getting lonely getting old, can you feel me? What are you doing to cope with Corona? What are you doing both professionally and personally? What changes have you made? What are you doing, right now?
We are doing the exact same things that we imagine all of you are doing, trying to navigate an extremely difficult situation, attempting to adapt the best we can and trying our best to keep both the business and our dreams afloat. That is the blunt truth behind raising our prices.
There's no graphics or gotchyas or fine print or any other noise with this post, simply a recognition of three things :
- Raising prices created an immediate demand lever in the short-term.
- That demand lever immediately stopped on April 1st (no foolin').
- We have no clue what the future holds.
If you're a barista, or a musician, or bartender, or automotive employee, or waitress, or movie usher, or teacher, or work any of the other millions of jobs that have been instantly affected by Coronapocalypse (hash tag #FukCorona, hash tag #DontSayHashTagBeforeYouHashTag), then you understand the severity of the situation. That severity affects our family too, both personally (we cannot risk seeing our 92 year old grandmother right now, and she is totally isolated) and professionally, and both in severe ways.
While this plan to raise pricing was put into place long before Corona, we had to make the difficult decision to move forward with it, in the shadow of this shutdown, especially here in our area of Michigan (one of several areas now deemed by FEMA as a disaster area). We're also trying to help our fellow musicians by donating 19% of our proceeds to the Michigan Musician's Relief Fund for the duration of the Michigan shelter in place shutdown.
Does Amazon or GM or Walmart tell you as either employees or customers any of that with this amount of transparency? No. Should we have posted this message? (Shakes magic 8-ball. Unclear. Ask again later.) What we do know is that whoever remains with us on this new journey as we move towards the future will certainly be the tribe we've always hoped to find.The Hate 💔
Some will find our communications offensive and insensitive (Frick those squares! JK. Kinda).
1st email : You guys fucking suck.
2nd email : Stupid fucking advertising seeing as how you can't fulfill orders.
3rd email : Fuck off!
An acutely articulate, persistent and loquacious lad named Bryan 👏
Thank you for the response. I am shocked —as a proud owner of three other of your grips—I never received an email about the increase. —but more than double is unbelievable —ESPICALLY during this time of world recession!! I will let all my social media followers know of such a price gouging!! Sad —VERY sad. Best wishes to you and company!!
~ Tony, Saint Petersburg FL
This one hurt, a lot. I mean, a LOT a lot. 💔 A very bigly much lot. 😢Many an internal chat was had about Tony and his very understandable perspective and thoughtful email. We're sorry. We love you Tony. We need Tony! ❤️Come back to us Tony, if you feel so inclined in the future. I know it's not you. It's us. Please stay safe.
Your raising your prices during this Pandemic?!?! You are a bunch of ASSHOLES!!! I am officially blocking you and will never buy your product again! Grow up and act like a professional company in your emails and not some valley school girl. I can't believe you actually wrote and emailed out the below! I'm embarrassed for you and will be blocking you after this!!!
~ Keith, currently in the 2nd stage of GripGrief, presumably
Like gag me with a spoon to the totes max Keith. I can't even. Byeee!👋
The Love ❤️
Some will laugh and virtually high-five us (from six clicks apart please) and send love notes of support and appreciation (thank you dearly for those).
Keep the dream alive. Best of luck to you and your family. I love what you guys are doing. I just bought one and am stoked. Keep up the great work.
~ Ben, Hanahan SC
Just purchased my 6th grip, waiting to be shipped. Love your f—cking s—t. Was tempted to buy more, ran out of guitars. Raising prices is a necessary evil for any company, you do what you gotta do! Good luck and keep on grippin’
~ Corky, Port Charlotte FL
Dear GuitarGrip family (and bearded guy!), I'm so sorry you are in the "danger zone". I just wanted you to know that as bleak as things are, you managed to make at least one person smile with your emails, even if she is "across the pond" as they say! Stay safe, all of you. Best of luck for the future of your company, I'll (metaphorically speaking) see you on the other side!
~ With regards, Corrina (UK) (Fellow artist, musician and nerd)
Awesome! Thanks for the laugh! Thanks for having a great sense of humor and spreading the cheer! I love your products. I have about 8 around my house. That also means I have too many guitars hanging..but if the world is coming to an end..I must have my guitars.
~ Lisa, AL
The End 🏁
To wrap up, we have no idea where this ship will land after the storm. Our sincerest hope is that we do find shelter and the ability to move forward and recover however long that takes and however difficult it is. It is also truly important to all of the Ryan family + bearded homeless marketing guy; that you and your family are safe, remain that way, and hold on to hope of finding shelter from the storm.
