What's going with Just Drums? Store closing?

dat yeti

dat yeti

Senior Member
The online site says its closing down for good and offering dealer cost on what seems like most things. Bummed out as I was just now going to buy something I had favorited awhile ago and its out of stock. http://www.justdrumsonline.com/

Any body know what happened?
 
Just saw that notice yesterday. Quite a shock. Seemed like they were doing ok. I wonder what happened. Shane seemed like a good guy. Any info?
 
I'll tell you exactly what happened. Trying to compete with big box stores because the majority of the cats that go to these places (Proper Drum Shops or PDS) want to grind a salesperson down to where they make a penny on a sale. How can they keep their doors open? They can't! So when you go toting in a catalog with the 90% markdown on all the gear, know that you're putting a nail in the PDS's coffin.

I see people on this forum (and others online) pissing & moaning about not getting a better deal on a piece of gear and how they want to go unwind the sale they made because another place has it for $5 cheaper.

So this is what happens when buying a piece of gear becomes a sport, for lack of a better word. You get fewer and fewer drum shops. REAL drum shops. Oh there's Guitar Center but what do they have in their store? A few electronic kits set up that are beat to hell? Where's the acoustic kits? "Oh man it gets too crazy in here with the acoustics set up and we can't hear the phone..." Or you get the employee whose retail experience went from Mc D's > Wal-Mart > GC who knows zilch about drums and only wanted to work there "because it's fun".

Besides GC will not have most of what you need in there in the first place but "can order it for you". Yeah, right. I could have done that from behind my computer and I'd have bought it from Sweetwater because they really do care and are almost sorry they can't have a store in your area.

This is a sore spot with me because I live in San Diego, CA population three MILLION +, and I have to drive as far as Orange County to go to a PDS. It's just so wrong. When they got into a war with Sam Ash back in the late 90's over territory is when it all went to hell. Then the vulture capitalists got hold of it and drove it further into the ground and THAT is why you can order online from them because suppliers are afraid to extend to them credit lines. And that sucks. Hard.

And if I hear "Well why don't YOU open a PDS?" again I'm gonna poke out the person's eyes with the eraser end of a pencil. I don't want to open a store. I want to SHOP at a PDS. I'm a player, not a salesperson!

*Note: Thursday night I went in to the GC in my area and it took me THIRTY MINUTES to get two bottles of cymbal cleaner because they were so understaffed.

/rant
 
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LOL Billy!

If it makes you feel better I shop at AZDrumshop all the time.

I know exactly what you are talking about and it is beyond irritating. There are only a couple shops in the Phoenix area and I think maybe we're down to 3 across an entire huge city with 5 million +.

Might I add that a lot of people who get interested in drums are complete idiots and buy all the sound percussion crap they can afford at that time. They are also the type to make half of the terrible ads on craigslist selling their POS kit that isn't even worth the scrap metal for $20. Meanwhile they ask 500 and never go away .... /rant.

Unfortunately I never shopped at just drums as they seemed like a cool place. Just got around to buying something I wanted to and noticed they had it out of stock and the closing part. Such a shame. I've noticed all the small music stores in my area closed unless they are a big chain like music and arts. Milano's family store is the last one left I think, but not sure how they are doing.
 
dat yeti said:
LOL Billy!


Might I add that a lot of people who get interested in drums are complete idiots and buy all the sound percussion crap they can afford at that time. ...
Click to expand...

When I bought my acoustic drum set (Gretsch, BTW) this "complete idiot" also bought Sound Percussion Hardware. You know why? At the time (even now, actually) it was all I could afford. And even though it's cheaper than the other more distinctive brands, it's worked well for me. Just because it's cheap, doesn't mean it won't work.

I take good care of my cheap SP stuff, and it's served me well.

Have a nice day.
 
Billy Ray is right.

When the internet and e-commerce was brand new, many guys opened little online only shops. They had no over head, because they didn't have a physical store. They didn't need much of a warehouse because they would drop ship. But the only way to compete was on price, so they would start selling things for pennies on the dollar to under cut everyone else.

Which started the race to zero. 1/2 a dozen online shops became a dozen, all trying to under cut everyone else. And as Billy said, shoppers made it into a sport, trying to find the lowest price. Many regular stores struggled to complete.

Eventually, others started to fight back with price matching, and their own online shops, and using their leverage of being an established store to put the squeeze on the little online only shops.

Guitar Center bought Musicians Friend, and several other retailers, and then created a centralized warehouse in Indiana. Guitar Center expanded East, Sam Ash expanded West.

And the other big factor was Amazon. You can now go onto Amazon and buy music gear. Their prices may or may not as good, but it's tough to complete with their name.

So if you're just a little operation, without the name of an established retailer, and all you can do is compete on a price, eventually, you price yourself to near zero profits. Then it's hard to stay in business.

Add in, the proliferation of small manufactures who sell on "endorsement" deals. I.E, all the small cymbal cymbal companies that say you can be an official endorser if you buy a full set of cymbals direct. OK, said drummer has a nice new set, and their name on a website, but a retail store lost a sale. Even if that's only a faction of sales lost, when an entire business is based on selling on fractions of a dollar margins, it makes an impact.
 
mmulcahy1 said:
When I bought my acoustic drum set (Gretsch, BTW) this "complete idiot" also bought Sound Percussion Hardware. You know why? At the time (even now, actually) it was all I could afford. And even though it's cheaper than the other more distinctive brands, it's worked well for me. Just because it's cheap, doesn't mean it won't work.

I take good care of my cheap SP stuff, and it's served me well.

Have a nice day.
Click to expand...

What I believe he's referring to is when rather than buy 1 or 2 really nice cymbals and a decent four piece kit, new players go out and buy loads of crap drums and cymbals.
 
Thanks Billy. I didn't have to type all that. It's the same across the board - local drum shop, local dive shop... Local "experts" aren't appreciated because people become "internet experts" looking for YouTube instruction and purchases instead of getting propper lessons from a local pro - that keeps them employed and in the area. You reap what you sew. Learn to appreciate your local shops - but do it fast.
 
BacteriumFendYoke said:
That's sad. The founder is a member here and used to contribute an awful lot in the early days. I'm sorry to hear the store is closing.
Click to expand...

Who is the founder?
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