alparrott
Diamond Member
I live in the smack-dab middle of Washington State, and my metro area has two small local music stores (Seattle is about three hours away and there's all the Guitar Centers you could want, as well as that 5-Star Shop MikeM was talking about). My two local stores are night and day from each other in terms of quality, customer satisfaction, and price structure.
The one I frequent is a Pearl, Gibraltar, Ziljian, Sabian, and (just recently added) Yamaha dealer. The staff there is fun, knowledgeable (most are musicians themselves), and always willing to match price, order in an item, or help with a selection. They have a decent selection of sticks, heads, and parts on the floor, and can order in items fairly quickly. (They ordered an LP Everything Rack and a clamp-on Trap Table for me and got it within two weeks.) They also offer lessons in their back rooms and generally contribute positively in many ways other than sales to the local music community.
The other one is a joke. The selection of drum items aside from drumsticks is poor. They are Tama, Zildjian and Gibraltar dealers, but they only stock a very small amount of items on the floor. Their customer service is of the "say hello and go back to sleep" variety. The drumsets they have set up are either used and beaten up, or assembled incorrectly. The prices tagged are MSRP and they offer "discounts" that maybe bring the price down to 150-200% of street value. I went in there yesterday for no good reason and saw a pair of New Beat 14" hats priced at $552. The sign on the display said "All cymbals 25% off". That still leaves the set at $414. I just Googled average price for those hats at $330.
It's no wonder that the "good" shop is frequented by all sorts of musicians, from the gigging semi-pros like me to schoolkids out to get their first musical instrument. I only go elsewhere if I want something that they do not sell (such as my DW pedals). In fact, they started carrying Yamaha Drums in part because of my suggestion that they do so. The other shop... well, I'm not sure who frequents it. I've never seen any serious musicians in there.
I don't often see the need to go to GC or any other shop over in Seattle. I do stop in the 5-star shop every now and again, because it's like a candy store, and I don't have any experiences like Mike talks about where I was told not to play; in fact, the owner himself (for whom the shop is named) invited me to side-by-side two sets to demonstrate the difference a KickPort makes (still not sold, however). But, I do agree, prices are weird there. I won a Facebook promo for 50% off a purchase of drumheads. When they rang up my order, at 50% off it was more than what Interstate Music would have charged at full price. What the...? Thanks, but no thanks, sorry.
If you're in a market like mine, I guess the way you choose to run the business will determine if you succeed or fail. However, I can totally see how the big box music stores might be forcing the little stores out of business in a larger market, especially if they don't take their survival seriously. As for me, I'm very happy with my local store and will continue to go there for as long as they continue doing business the way they are now.
The one I frequent is a Pearl, Gibraltar, Ziljian, Sabian, and (just recently added) Yamaha dealer. The staff there is fun, knowledgeable (most are musicians themselves), and always willing to match price, order in an item, or help with a selection. They have a decent selection of sticks, heads, and parts on the floor, and can order in items fairly quickly. (They ordered an LP Everything Rack and a clamp-on Trap Table for me and got it within two weeks.) They also offer lessons in their back rooms and generally contribute positively in many ways other than sales to the local music community.
The other one is a joke. The selection of drum items aside from drumsticks is poor. They are Tama, Zildjian and Gibraltar dealers, but they only stock a very small amount of items on the floor. Their customer service is of the "say hello and go back to sleep" variety. The drumsets they have set up are either used and beaten up, or assembled incorrectly. The prices tagged are MSRP and they offer "discounts" that maybe bring the price down to 150-200% of street value. I went in there yesterday for no good reason and saw a pair of New Beat 14" hats priced at $552. The sign on the display said "All cymbals 25% off". That still leaves the set at $414. I just Googled average price for those hats at $330.
It's no wonder that the "good" shop is frequented by all sorts of musicians, from the gigging semi-pros like me to schoolkids out to get their first musical instrument. I only go elsewhere if I want something that they do not sell (such as my DW pedals). In fact, they started carrying Yamaha Drums in part because of my suggestion that they do so. The other shop... well, I'm not sure who frequents it. I've never seen any serious musicians in there.
I don't often see the need to go to GC or any other shop over in Seattle. I do stop in the 5-star shop every now and again, because it's like a candy store, and I don't have any experiences like Mike talks about where I was told not to play; in fact, the owner himself (for whom the shop is named) invited me to side-by-side two sets to demonstrate the difference a KickPort makes (still not sold, however). But, I do agree, prices are weird there. I won a Facebook promo for 50% off a purchase of drumheads. When they rang up my order, at 50% off it was more than what Interstate Music would have charged at full price. What the...? Thanks, but no thanks, sorry.
If you're in a market like mine, I guess the way you choose to run the business will determine if you succeed or fail. However, I can totally see how the big box music stores might be forcing the little stores out of business in a larger market, especially if they don't take their survival seriously. As for me, I'm very happy with my local store and will continue to go there for as long as they continue doing business the way they are now.
