Notes, in the scenario you described my business spidey sense tells me that what they did was a move to cut operating costs, where they may have felt that selling items geared toward one specific demographic was overhead that was wasted. Thus the metamorphosis toward it being a "Musician's Friend" type store. Like "Why have a store for JUST woodwinds and brass and another store that sells everything including that redundant merchandise?" That, of course, leads to Johnny the kid just out of high school replacing Joe the old guy with more years in the world of woodwinds that Johnny has been alive, because Johnny will work for minimum wage and Joe will not. Yep, it stinks, but yep, it's business.

I worked as a bench tech in a Gateway store. Gateway's powers that be decided they had to get rid of the overhead those stores was costing them. However, they understood that they still needed bricks, and not just clicks, so they pulled a slick (but in my eyes unethical) move and bought eMachines. Those computers were somewhere between doorstop and boat anchor. Made in Indonesia with whatever parts they could buy cheap and just horrible performance. Gateway then went to Best Buy and said "WE now own eMachines, and here's what YOU are going to do. If you want to continue to sell eMachines, you are also going to sell Gateways. If you won't stock and sell Gateways, we will no longer supply eMachines so you have that cheap loss leader computer to draw people in so you can upsell them." Best Buy had no choice but to roll over for them.

I was once in a Best Buy store, and some kid selling computers told a customer that eMachines were made by Gateway. I could not let that go. I stepped in and said "Excuse me ma'am but eMachines are not MADE by Gateway. Gateway owns eMachine, but they are still made in southeast Asia with what amounts to spare parts and they are AWFUL computers. It will be here at Geek Squad more than it is in your home. This is one area to NOT skimp. Gateway is a far better computer and it would really be a smart move to pay the higher price for the better computer." Then I turned to the kid and said "I need to talk to your manager. NOW." He came over, I took him aside and asked "HOW DARE YOU have your kids on the floor tell customers that eMachine is made by Gateway? eMachine is STILL made in Indonesia and they are still awful computers. Gateway owns them, but Gateway does NOT make eMachines. That is extremely deceptive and a horrible way to do business. It's bad enough to bait and switch like you do but to outright lie to customers this way is despicable." He asked me to leave the store. I refused. He called police. I told them why he wanted me to leave. They told him that I could stay and maybe they shouldn't lie to customers that way. I made some calls, got some names, and sent some emails, and that manager was gone in a month.

That is an example of how business acquisitions can go bad. I seriously doubt that Sweetwater would turn to that. Chuck Surack is a long time man of god and I doubt that he would ever deceive people that way. A parent company can own businesses but man, does Pepsico actually MAKE the tacos at Taco Bell?