when i was a kid, growing up in santa barbara, we had a cool shop called mike's drum academy, and i bought everything from him. he moved a couple of times (one block away each time), and over the years, i purchased several drum sets, tons of cymbals, and consumables from his fine establishment. he always had numerous drumsets and cymbals on display, from entry level, to top of the line, from numerous manufacturers. i assumed that that was the way it would always be. i ended up moving far away, to a musical wasteland, which actually had a well stocked music store. too bad the proprietors are buffoons, truculent and hard to work with. "they don't make that" is a standard reply to my various queries. i tried. "show me a catalog, and i'll show you that that is available". well, whaddaya know it IS available. i ended up spending thousands of dollars with m/f, because their service and willingness to please were a refreshing change from this ma and pa hellhole i had been trying to deal with. fast forward 10 years, and my beloved drum shop in cali has changed hands, bought by my good friend george. i stopped by whenever i was in town, and i noticed his stock dwindling with each visit, finally down to a couple of gretsch kits, and that was it. he said all the major manufacturers had unrealistic minimum orders anymore. interesting. and depressing. so, here you have a well established small shop that can't do business because the drum makers are demanding large minimum orders, further strengthening the internet giant's domination, and now, maybe the giants aren't doing so well. my friend's shop survives now solely as a teaching establishment. i feel a pang of guilt, having contributed to the situation, but the small shop here gave me little choice. i still avoid them like the plague, as do almost all locals up here, which makes me wonder how the heck they stay in business.