Online music stores "My Rant!"

[Ghostin one]

The last music store I went to told me, "people buy that stuff on the internet".

I figured I'd give the local store a shot, but they've been reduced to stocking only the barest minimum of supplies, and stay afloat with a busy lesson schedule.

They have strings, straps, cords, reeds, valve oil, books and such but that's about it.

 

[cbphoto]

I talked with my local drum store this weekend and he's closing up shop due to the fact that buying online has become so easy and put him out of business. He could beat any quote from these online giants. I absolutely hate this dealing with these blood suckers. Not one of them will give you an out the door price without your full name, mailing address, C.C # and even then they can only ball park the price. Most of these online company have the same owner but use different store names so comparing prices with their so-called competitors is a joke. Its the same owner/company............ How is this not illegal? this is "price fixing"
This is total B.S and i'm calling out 3 of the worst online companies sweetwater, guitar center, musician's friend. They have taken over ebay, reverb, amzon with pure greed. There are no more fair deals online!

I know the shop you've mentioned. They brought it on themselves. I tried for two years to build them a website for free!. Then, when I finally had it up, it took another year to get them signed onto Reverb. Then, when they someone "made an offer" on Reverb, they were angered that the price was so low and removed their entire "store" from Reverb. Christmas 2019 was a bust for them, and that's when they decided to close shop.

Fair deals online? If you look at an online price from Sweetwater or New Hampshire Drum Shop and don't call them before ordering, you're not getting a deal. Every time I call, I get better pricing. Especially on Paiste goodies.

 

[Push pull stroke]

Fair deals online? If you look at an online price from Sweetwater or New Hampshire Drum Shop and don't call them before ordering, you're not getting a deal. Every time I call, I get better pricing. Especially on Paiste goodies.

Good to know.

 

[Old Dog new Cans]

To the OP. . .it's ALWAYS been the COMPLETE OPPOSITE for me. Personally owned music stores (locally), have ALWAYS been way over priced compared to the big box stores. AND, it's STILL LIKE THAT HERE. I'll buy from Sweetwater from here until I'm no longer able to play. Heck, I got calls back from TWO big box stores 2 weekends ago. I didn't even buy anything. They were making sure I was being taken care of after being on hold for an extended period of time. I was pleasantly surprised. The jerk that owns the ONE local store, won't even come out and talk to customers that spend hundreds of dollars.

Rant all you want. It's not the same for everyone.

 

[danondrums]

Owner's of retail who are bitter and just want everything to work the way it did 10, 20 and 30 years ago will not succeed.
One must offer something different than a simple stock of items and thinking that the world owes to them to purchase from their limited stock. They can't compete with a warehouse and those who try are failing and getting a hard dose of reality.

Even guitar center is smart enough to know this and now offer lessons and other services that the internet can't provide.

What I find incredibly detrimental is the store person telling the consumer to go and purchase an item online. These stores, when confronted with a customer who wants something, should have the infrastructure and training to have the employee take over that sale and say "let's order that for you and I'll get it shipped right to your front door." If they can't even do that, they will lose. If they force me to come to their store again to pick the item up, I lose trust in them as they are clearly not valuing my time as they follow the annoying retail rule of simply getting people through the front door in the hopes that they buy something else. I have no time for that archaic trickery.

An owner who blames his failure on others gets no sympathy from me. If one can't rationally understand the world we live in, the direction it's going, the consumer's desire to research products and make very specific selections that fit their lifestyle and needs, then they will very fairly lose.

 

[philrudd]

I'd like to set one thing straight...laziness isn't the only reason to order online. Geography plays a part.

There are a significant number of musicians like myself living in rural settings, where there is no 'local' music shop. I have to drive for a minimum of 45 minutes to get to a music store. With so many online resources offering competitive pricing and, often, free shipping, I'd be crazy to make that trip. I take five minutes online, order what I need, and a few days later it's waiting for me when I come home from work.

Offhand, I'd say that the problem is one of efficiency. They've made online ordering TOO efficient...it's seductive.

 

[MntnMan62]

I'd like to set one thing straight...laziness isn't the only reason to order online. Geography plays a part.

There are a significant number of musicians like myself living in rural settings, where there is no 'local' music shop. I have to drive for a minimum of 45 minutes to get to a music store. With so many online resources offering competitive pricing and, often, free shipping, I'd be crazy to make that trip. I take five minutes online, order what I need, and a few days later it's waiting for me when I come home from work.

Offhand, I'd say that the problem is one of efficiency. They've made online ordering TOO efficient...it's seductive.

And don't forget all the gas and pollutants put into the atmosphere during the hour and a half drive there and back.

 

[philrudd]

And don't forget all the gas and pollutants put into the atmosphere during the hour and a half drive there and back.

Right! The UPS guy was coming my way anyway, why not have him bring it?

 

[harryconway]

I talked with my local drum store this weekend and he's closing up shop due to the fact that buying online has become so easy and put him out of business. .....
This is total B.S and i'm calling out 3 of the worst online companies sweetwater, guitar center, musician's friend. They have taken over ebay, reverb, amzon with pure greed. There are no more fair deals online!

Your reply sounds like your a blood sucking sale reps for one of these companies

I know the shop you've mentioned. They brought it on themselves. I tried for two years to build them a website for free!. Then, when I finally had it up, it took another year to get them signed onto Reverb. Then, when they someone "made an offer" on Reverb, they were angered that the price was so low and removed their entire "store" from Reverb. Christmas 2019 was a bust for them, and that's when they decided to close shop.

Fair deals online? If you look at an online price from Sweetwater or New Hampshire Drum Shop and don't call them before ordering, you're not getting a deal. Every time I call, I get better pricing. Especially on Paiste goodies.

Interesting. OP's story isn't holding up too well.

 

[Push pull stroke]

And if you have very specific needs, a local store is just not an option. I have a copper shell kit, a Jenkins-Martin spun fiberglass, a hollow log kit, and a stave walnut kit. My snare collection is about as obscure and high-end. Probably literally not one of my snares has ever been offered in a physical store, and I’m not sure any of the manufacturers have a dealer network, other than maybe DCP.
I’m not at all picky about cymbal sounds, and I could get ones I like at most stores that carry good used or new cymbals. But drums....the usual ply offerings just don’t interest me.

 

[Mustion]

One thing going against local stores is the increase of options out there now. There is no way for a small store to stock all of the options that the even reasonably well-informed consumer knows about. Recently there was a thread on here about "why do you play Zildjian?" and so many of the older members' responses were something like "because that's what the store in my town had."

 

[Mongrel]

As soon as I saw "Sweetwater" on the list I thought is it April 1...? No other reasonable explanation for the rant other than "attempt at humor"....

Bored drummer or 'Store Owner'?

 

[MrInsanePolack]

I'd like to set one thing straight...laziness isn't the only reason to order online. Geography plays a part.

Sorry, I wasn't trying to imply it's the only reason. It seems to be a huge factor though. I live in the sticks, so im in the same boat. The UPS truck comes up my road quite often too.

 

[Woolwich]

I'll just chip in here, no online store came into existence as a fully formed monolith. They all started out from scratch and survive because of a good business model so criticising them because they're successful isn't really fair. And often when a person buys online, they could be buying from the successful bricks and mortar shop in your town.
I am conflicted on the whole thing though, my wife works in retail and she's seen the downturn in face to face sales, she was made redundant last year, and my local town centre is now like a ghost town. But the genie is out of the bottle and there's no going back I suppose

 

[Old Dog new Cans]

The local store in my town, also lists most of their stock on Reverb as well. It's ALL higher priced than ANY comparable product.

 

[Mustion]

What about (presumably) local stores that do a lot of business online through Reverb and others? I mean Drum Center of Portsmouth, Salt Lake City Drums, Chicago Music Exchange (who are Reverb, I guess)... seems like they're doing it right, but they also have the means to have quite a large inventory as well.

And I second whomever pointed out the absurdity of throwing Sweetwater's name under the bus. They may be a "big seller" but their customer service is second to none.

 

[TomR]

What about (presumably) local stores that do a lot of business online through Reverb and others? I mean Drum Center of Portsmouth, Salt Lake City Drums, Chicago Music Exchange (who are Reverb, I guess)... seems like they're doing it right, but they also have the means to have quite a large inventory as well.

And I second whomever pointed out the absurdity of throwing Sweetwater's name under the bus. They may be a "big seller" but their customer service is second to none.

Salt City Drums gets all of my drum business. Awesome folks!

By the way, MAP pricing is not the law! It's an agreement between the manufacturer and the retailer to not advertise below a set price. The retailer can sell below MAP. You can negotiate a better price in most cases.

 

[Good Karma]

A lot of truth to this so stop whining

 

[MrInsanePolack]

By the way, MAP pricing is not the law! It's an agreement between the manufacturer and the retailer to not advertise below a set price. The retailer can sell below MAP. You can negotiate a better price in most cases.

I never said you couldn't negotiate a better price, and I never said retailers couldn't sell below MAP. MAP is up to the company to decide if they even want it. MAP is part of the federal antitrust laws.

From the net: "If designed incorrectly, a court could find your MAP policy an illegal restraint of trade under state, federal or foreign antitrust laws. The penalty for such a violation can be disastrous – antitrust laws allow claimants to pursue treble (triple) damages and the government may impose additional civil penalties."

If a company sets up a MAP agreement for their product, it IS protected by law.

 

[drumnut87]

no idea what its like in the USA, but here in the UK a lot of drum shops that had been there for 10/20/30+ years have had to close down due to the economy and online retailers forcing them out of business. the worlds changing and brick & mortar shops arent what they used to be. plus theres not many places that can actually afford to keep a lot of stock in, well, stock. one shop i visited had over £1m worth of gear in the shop, but the footfall was getting less and less and even having their shop online wasnt helping as they couldnt match the big boys like Thomann, etc.