Location, Location, Location

My guitar instructor wants to open a music instrument store in the site of the soon to be ex-Swarthmore Music Store. He believes that there will be some people that will return to the store and for whom we will have an opportunity to make a new, and much better, impression. Since the store is leaving, he thinks that we may get a good deal on the rent if we are willing to move in quickly, thereby keeping the store from sitting empty for a long period, and also because he knows the owner of the building. His motivation is also partially due to a severe disliking of the current proprietor, and a desire to make it work when the prior manager is giving up. Also, the existing store had a good teaching business and, although we hear it has dwindled, may be easy to resuscitate. A teaching practice is an important component for most music stores.

I am not so thrilled. While my prospective partner has a large inventory of jackson guitars with which he can partially stock the new location. I would need to invest in inventory to augment his existing supply. As well, we would split the remaining expenses 50:50. My concerns are:

• My partner and i have tried to sell his Jackson guitars as a partnership since last September. Our experience was unproductive: we sold no guitars jointly, and I sold none. most of my ideas were either put on hold, not accepted, or asked to be reworked.
• The location of this venture is the same one that my partner has spent the past 18 months explaining why it is a bad location for a store.
• I have a vision for what a music store that I am passionate about looks like. I am not sure my partner has a vision, but if he does, it is very different from mine. Or at the very least, this venture is not what i see as my successful guitar store.

So now all that is left is to explain that to my partner.

R.I.P. My Least Favorite Music Store

I’ve written before about Swarthmore Music, the store I love to hate. I had considered trying to buy it, believing that it was so mismanaged that it had great potential for improvement. I never followed through with that because afgter talking to a few people with worthwhile opinions about this type of thing, they assured me that it had so much bad will built up over the past 15-20 years that I would be foolish to try and buy it.

So it was with mixed feelings that I learned that the store is either as a) being sold or  b) most likely being closed and the inventory moved into another store owned and operated by the same owner.