What's Happening in Champaign, IL…

Guitar Center, a chain of stores that sells musical equipment of all kinds, is slated to open its first Champaign location.

The new store is slated to take over the former Dress Barn location at 712 West Town Center Boulevard; Dress Barn relocated to Market Place Plaza.

Guitar Center has over 200 stores nationwide, and carries a selection of guitars, keyboards, drums, amplifiers, live sound equipment, recording gear, and lighting and gear for DJs. The new store will have 20 to 25 people on staff, and will begin interviewing applicants for the positions once a manager has been chosen.

Guitar Center goes back to 1959, when a man by the name of Wayne Mitchell bought a small home organ and appliance store in Hollywood, California. He renamed it The Organ Center approximately two years later, and subsequently moved it to a new site. He then opened a guitar store at the old location. Since the store sold Vox amplifiers and guitars, it was known as the Vox Center.

By the late 1960s, it was obvious that amp and guitar sales were stronger than the sales of organs, and the store became the Guitar Center. By 2002, there were 100 locations across the nation.

The manager of the new store could work with a business card printing company to make certain employees have attractive, up-to-date cards for their use.