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Turnkey in Administration.

D

Dravinian

100k smug liberal points
Apparently while looking to get a new piece of equipment and looking at shops in London where people I knew were to get it, I have noticed that the Group that run Turnkeys has gone into administration.

If you go to their site you can't order anything and there is a fair amount of information about what has happened, although it takes a moment to realise as the site looks 'apparently' normal.

Didn't hear much about that :(
 
soundcontrol,britains biggest music shop chain has gone to the receivers also,which is having a reeeeeally negative knock-on effect with the smaller distribution companys who relyed on their business.
 
Almost everything in the Turnkey shop on charing Cross Road has been sold off, it's pretty nearly stripped bare.
 
loud 1 said:
soundcontrol,britains biggest music shop chain has gone to the receivers also,which is having a reeeeeally negative knock-on effect with the smaller distribution companys who relyed on their business.
Click to expand...

yeah Sound Control own Turnkey, most of the shops they own are closed and their website is not accepting orders.
 
Well I saw this coming. I dont know about Turnkey, but as a gigging musician I'd pop into sound control for regular accesories and they were always out of stock of the most basic things,or didnt stock much of a range of others. So my money went to HotRox or Foulds in Derby.

The pricey guitars were never competitive enough and so I'd go elsewhere for big purchases. I mean there was the odd bargain, but last year they were selling Gibson SG's for £1099 when Coda & Peter cooks were doing them for around £750. Its easy to blame the internet, but they seemed to gamble on customers buying guitars on Hire Purchase which in the current economic climate is a bit fooking silly.

I feel sorry for those who have lost their jobs.
 
It's part of a pattern... there's a thread somewhere about Jessops... it's too hard for High St retailers to compete with those who trade web only. Examples, from the last couple of days: I was quoted £39 in a shop for something available fro £11 inc postage from ebay or amazon, and, in a completely different field, £9 plus 3 weeks wait for something that cost £1.50 plus 50p post and was delivered next day.

When it was a few geeks that browsed retailers to choose the goods and then ordered them cheaper online it wasn't a massive issue: now that most of the of the population does that they're all being squeezed, and the specialist ones are being hammered. Holding stock and having knowledgeable staff costs money, and we're gouing to have to get used to them simply vanishing.
 
Dravinian said:
Apparently while looking to get a new piece of equipment and looking at shops in London where people I knew were to get it, I have noticed that the Group that run Turnkeys has gone into administration.

If you go to their site you can't order anything and there is a fair amount of information about what has happened, although it takes a moment to realise as the site looks 'apparently' normal.

Didn't hear much about that :(
Click to expand...

Yes I have been noticing that the software and synths/outboard window dressings in their charring cross road shop have been being replaced by hardware instruments etc as live music continues to expand. No one needs outboard now that Ableton live and Logic's Main stage can run on cheap (reliable) laptops. I'm a teacher at a college and a couple of years ago we had 500 music tech students now its a third of that! It's all part of the same process of the (software-based) mulitmedia-ization of music creation.
I wonder if music is any better for it considering companies like Apple are allowing anyone to use gigs and gigs of royalty-free samples that can be transposed or 'MIDIfied'
in minutes? No wonder a shop of 'tech-consultants' started to shift towards more human technology!
Me?
I was born that way!;-}
 
i tried out a bass in turnkey the other day, plugged it in and found the electrics were shot.

to his credit, the salesman immediately gave up on his 'oh-yeah-great-instrument' type salesman speech, said 'ungh, piece of shit' and wandered off scratching his arse.
 
newbie said:
It's part of a pattern... [...]

When it was a few geeks that browsed retailers to choose the goods and then ordered them cheaper online it wasn't a massive issue: now that most of the of the population does that they're all being squeezed, and the specialist ones are being hammered. Holding stock and having knowledgeable staff costs money, and we're gouing to have to get used to them simply vanishing.
Click to expand...

The independent booktrade is equally feeling the pain - so many shops have already hit the wall. Independent record shops also... probably killed off more by the internet than the monolith chain stores. As the saying goes, 'use it or loose it'.

*I have to agree that the service at Turnkey wasn't too hot - It was a pretty busy shop and lots of timewasters and windowshoppers passing through, no doubt - it must be easy to get fed up with punters in that kind of a set up.
 
ska invita said:
Do you reckon pirated VST technology has had a hand in this?
Click to expand...

In the case of Turnkey I think their having a rubbish store staffed with people with no clue of what they were selling didn't help. Sound Control I couldn't comment on.

In London there are so many better options and it's no loss in the long term to anyone but the employees.
 
onthebrightside said:
In the case of Turnkey I think their having a rubbish store staffed with people with no clue of what they were selling didn't help. Sound Control I couldn't comment on.

In London there are so many better options and it's no loss in the long term to anyone but the employees.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately so.

Great for testing kit, no so great for buying it...
 
I ordered something off the Turnkey website two weeks before they went bust. Had an email through saying the item was not in stock and then nothing. Had to google to find out what happened, nobody with outstanding orders was even notified. Needless to say the money had already been taken out of my account, but no product ever surfaced. Spoke to someone from the shop who confirmed they had gone bust and that I wouldn't get what I ordered. Great. In the end my bank actually sorted out a full refund for me, so thumbs up for my bank (amazing - I know).
 
I didnt find out untill today when I went into central especially to buy something from turnkey. I rolled up and the shutters were down with no info on what had happened.
 
Turnkey was a horrible shop to go in though. Dark and dingy and stunk of BO, almost as bad as the smell wafting out of Games Workshop onto New Oxford Street.
 
I used to use the Sound Control downstairs in Virgin on Oxford Street quite a bit and they had some great mail order deals (I got my Mackie 6ch mixer for just £99 from them.)

Real shame to see 'em go.
 
IME Sound Control were rubbish.

I tried the Southampton store more than once. Crap staff, disinterested staff, and off the shelf, one size fits all sales techniques. Not that much in the way of interesting guitars, no deal for cash. It was like shopping at
Currys.

I try and spend my £$£$ at smaller or independent shops, who may even remember the guitar/pedal I bought last time.
 
Never used Turnkey. hav hheard plenty of bad things from those that have though. Apparently they used to be good way back whe, before being taken over or something.

Soundcontrol have shut quite a few of their shops. The one here in Bristol's still going. I've bought plenty from their in the past but have equally gone elsewhere for better prices or stock. usually the internet.
 
I went to Turnkey once asking for one thing. They saw I wasnt %100 sure about what it was I was trying to buy and tried to flog me loads of stuff I didnt want or need.
Another time I went in and someone actually asked me weather I wanted to buy the thing I had asked to see or weather I was just "waisting time"
I'm not sad it clsoed down.
Full of rude cunts if you ask me.
 
Every time I saw something on the website that was a decent price I used to jump on the tube and go down there. Whenever I got there it would be "out of stock". Cheapest price among all the shops for certain gear but never in stock. Was just a ruse to get you in there and spending I think :/
 
Bumpity Bump.

I need to buy some kit as a present for someone. I'm thinking of either a new midi keyboard or some vst's. Is there anywhere in town (centrally ideally) that still has this kind of gear that I can have a listen to and decide which is the best for his needs? I know I can look it all up on line, but I need to really hear it and (in the case of the midi keyboards) play it myself to check it would be right for him.
 
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