Dean Sales Representatives

Today I visited one of the remaining “local” stores I had not personally seen: 8th Street Music. They have a small retail store presence in Philadelphia, but sell many instruments on line both through e-bay and amazon.com. The bulk of their sales seems to come through on line sources, and they advertise themselves as the original internet music instrument retailer. Their history appears to support that claim.

So I went to the store because when I have looked for unusual guitars, like the Parker Fly or the Dean Soltero, their store always comes up as a dealer. I was unimpressed by the physical retail store, but I was impressed by the employees within. I had conversations with two of the workers, and mostly spent time with the second. He was able to find a Leslie West Standard, a one-pick-up version of the Soltero for which I have been searching. We talked about guitars, the local guitar market, the market for instruments in Philadelphia, and Dean guitars.

What I learned was that Dean has quality control issues, dealing with Dean is not easy, and the Dean sales representative was given much of the responsibility for the difficulty in selling their guitars. After playing the Dean, I decided that I liked the playability of the neck. But the guitar was poorly set up from the factory, and required some adjustments to the pickup, so it wouldn’t contact the high E string. The guitar was strung with 9’s, and while they certainly were easy to bend, the guitar had a thin tone that might have been caused by the strings. Or it might have been caused by the fact that it was a $600 single-pickup guitar. But I didn’t learn of the price until I was home, because nobody could find out how much it cost! I agree that Dean should provide their dealers with enough info that price should never be an unknown, but it was.

I plan to return to the store, perhaps next week. They have a Dean Soltero, American made, two pickups, in their NJ warehouse, and plan to get it to their store so I can play it. I’ll be interested in its tone, and hearing how much of a difference the second pickup makes in the variety of tones I can squeeze out of the Soltero. In the meantime, it was a nice way to spend an hour this morning. Its just a shame that parking in Philadelphia set me back $13.50 for 90 minutes. Ouch!

Dealer Phone Calls

Why don’t retailers follow through on sales leads? I’ve marvelled at this phenomenon in the past, and it continues to amaze me. After expressing an interest in the Dean Soltero guitar, but wanting more information on the different models, the owner of Springfield Music Store took my name, phone number, and some information about what I was looking to learn. He promised he would talk with his Dean sales representative and contact me.

That was about 2 weeks ago. I’ve not heard anything from him. And at this point, I don’t expect to. Its a shame, as the info on these guitars available on the internet is confusing, at best. I’ve posed questions to sellers on e-bay, but their answers make no sense. So its one more guitar that I won’t be buying any time soon

The last time this happened, I was i the market for a Michael Schenker autographed Dean Flying V, but wanted to see one before spending the $2K+. I had the same result then. In the past, I’ve attributed it to the store owner. But perhaps the Dean sales representative may share in the blame. Except that if the store owner was truly responsive, then he should call me to let me know that he was unable to get me the information.

I think this is taught in customer relations 101. Or Retail Store Management 101. It certainly should be, if it isn’t. its this type of behavior that makes me think I could riun a store better. But I still can’t make the economics work.

Guitar store

Sometimes, even when all the evidence suggests I should give up on an idea, I can’t. i find it is that way with my idea of opening a guitar store So I continue to think of possibilities for what a successful store might look like.

In the last issue of Music Trades, there was a column written about older, but still active, Americans adopting new hobbiew in later life. The example the author chose was of a gardening club, and how many of the people there are there as much for the company and learning experience as because they always wanted to garden. The author wondered if something like that existed for music, and was disappointed to discover that, at least in his big city, it didn’t.

I suspect my answer would be the same. i know it would be if I was answering for my small town of Media. but I also think that my answer would be no for Philadelphia. Since Philadelphia is enjoying an inflow of empty-nesters seeking to enjoy a more urban life, I am thinking that they might represent an untapped demographic of potential customers.

I’ll write more in future posts about what a store might look like. It should help me clarify whether the idea has any legs to it.

Guitar Store Closing

When I first started research on opening a guitar store, events unfolded quickly and easily. I took this as a sign that perhaps this project, unlike some other businesses I had researched in the past, was destined to happen. These past few weeks have seen the opposite: continuing omens of the futility of opening a bricks & mortar guitar store.

The most recent sign came yesterday. Months ago I obtained a sales tax number from Pennsylvania in a surprisingly easy transaction. At the time, I specified that I wasn’t anticipating any sales before November 2007. But I wanted to check with my tax accountant to learn if there was anything I needed to do before the end of 2007 for tax purposes. I didn’t want to wait until my normal appointment with the accountant in March to find out I made a mistake handling this. The conversation went something like this:

Me: I obtained a sales tax number.

Accountant: Why’d you do that?

M: I was thinking of opening a music store.

A: You don’t want to do that. (Followed by a short ramble on the perils of brick & Mortar music instrument retailing)

M: How do you know so much about this business?

A: I handle the accounting for Old Street Address Music .

M: Oh, they want to close their store and just do internet, so that’s why you are so negative.

A: (Pause). How do you know they want to close the store?

And so it went. I learned there are two partners: one 47-years old and one 61-years old. And they make most of their money on internet sales. They also handle internet sales for an outside domain name, where all they do is package and ship the instruments. I learned their inventory management is poor. That they sell mostly to musicians, and have almost no walk-in traffic.

I joked about me buying their store location, if they wanted to sell. But if these people, who have owned this store for 30 or more years, have decided to sell because the earnings don’t justify the expenses, then who am I to think I could do it much more profitably? Admittedly, there is room for improvement to inventory control. But to buy the store, and without the ability to use the store name when selling on the internet, isn’t appealing. And without the internet sales, the economics of this store don’t work well enough for the owners to keep it.

Guitar Business for Sale

The latest issue of my google alerts for vintage guitars included a listing by a business sales agent for a vintage guitar store. I was fast to respond, and indicated serious interest. But 24 hours later, and I haven’t heard anything back.

I am not aware of these listings being a scam, or a phishing expedition. But I have had poor luck with business sales agents returning my-mails on the two occasions I have responded to internet listings of businesses for sale.

Makes me wonder.

Vintage Guitar Market

One of the possible product lines I planned to sell in a music store was vintage instruments. The market for collectible guitars has done well in the past several years, and I have always had a fascination with most things included in Vintage Guitar Magazine.

As part of my market intelligence, I have set up a Google alert for “Vintage Guitar Business”. I receive daily e-mails with links to articles based on those keywords. Mostly, the alerts have been disappointing.  But once in awhile, something worthwhile comes to my inbox.

So while I am glad to have received this link, I am a bit disheartened.  More than disheartened, though, I am glad to know before opening up a store that relies on revenue from selling vintage guitars that the value of these instruments may have already peaked and headed back down. Perhaps my vision of lawyers strolling down town Media on their lunch break and picking up a vintage guitar as an impulse buy will need to be rethought. Certainly I am already rethinking the idea of having a store where a good part of the inventory increases in value every year it is not sold. And I am perhaps more understanding of why I was able to get such a good deal on an old 335 that I purchased on e-bay, well below its Blue Book value.

Unusual guitar retailers

There has been some written lately about the move by big-box retailers like Wal-Mart and Target to sell beginner guitars. I read with much interest articles that described how the low end entry level instruments were being sold at these locations, without any support or sales expertise. The general idea expressed by several retailers in The Music Trades magazine was that music instrument retailers should not race these stores to the bottom. As well, an unfortunate consequence of Wal-Mart and Target selling ultra-cheap guitars to beginners is that many beginners will become frustrataed trying to play an inferior instrument and will never become more proficient at the guitar. They will never realize that it may have been mostly the fault of their $79 guitar, and not their innate music abilities.

So imagine my delight when the latest PBTeen catalog came in today’s mail. Right on the cover are a boy playing guitar and a girl playing drums. At first I thought they were encouraging musical interest and healthy enjoyment of instruments by teens. My delight evaporated when on page 4 I saw that they were selling guitars in a choice of their two favorite patterns: Navy Camo or Blue Bubble. the case, amplifier, and a drum set are also available as separate items.

Business negativity

Flushed with excitement over how smooth everything was moving along with a possible guitar store, this week I ran smack into the “What? Are you kidding?” of my daily existence. Married to an anesthesiologist, this seek I was again reminded of what a large share of everything child- and house-related I perform. And my wife’s hours, which she modified once about two years ago, aren’t going to get any better. So this week I have spent less time contacting guitar dealers or real estate agents, which were the next steps on this possible new venture.

Instead, I bought a beautiful Parker Fly guitar off e-bay. I have been bidding on Parker Flys for several months and was never the high bidder. It was my inability to locate a new Parker locally that first drew me to the idea of opening a guitar store. So buying one is something of n accomplishment. And I simply love the guitar. It is high tech, and unusual, but mostly it fits me well. And I find myself exploring new things, and letting my creativity out to make up things, which I never did on any of my other guitars. So for now, I am a very happy player.

I am also bidding on a Gibson ES-335. Its 1960’s vintage, and I am hoping to win an auction with a high bid less than $10,000. The Blue Book of guitar prices I have pegs the value of this instrument around $12,000, and the auction listing says it’s worth $12,000 in the Vintage Guitar Price Guide, also. I’m not really planning to play this guitar, if I win it. Instead, I view it as an investment, a possible guitar for the wall in a guitar store (should I ever pursue that dream to fruition). And if no store materializes, I can still sell it on e-bay some time in the future, hopefully for more than I pay this week.

Assessing Future Competitive Threats

I have spent much of my free time the past several weeks assessing the current competitive landscape for music instrument retailers in my area. I still plan to make a trip into Philadelphia and visit one major store I know is located there, and which sells guitars on the internet as well.

What I also feel a need to assess is the likely future retail environment. For example, as I was returning from a visit to Accent Music, I passed a large construction zone. The site has already become home to new Target, PetSmart and Home Depot stores, and there were several more large retail stores under construction. The plaza reminded me very much of a plaza in Plymouth Meeting, PA where the Guitar Center store is located. I briefly thought that it would make a nice place to have a guitar store, being close to the expanding population in Chester County. And then I wondered if Guitar Center may already have their eyes on that plaza. And if I knew where Guitar Center was planning to open a store, it might affect where I might locate my store, and what style the store would be.

And so my thoughts for this week are on attempting to evaluate the likelihood that a chain store might locate a new store close to Media.

Naming a New Store

I was quite excited to discover how easy it was obtaining my sales tax number from the state of Pennsylvania. All I needed was a business name to operate under. Faced with the obvious, I chose Media Music. There aren’t any music stores here in Media, and the choice seemed easy, if not especially creative.

Fast forward to this weekend, as I browsed a brochure advertising the Second Saturday art event held in Media. As I perused the stores, I noticed that some stores not directly on the main street, State Street, were participating. before I could even incorporate this into broadening the geographic territory for my potential store, I noticed one store titled “Media Music”, and my pulse quickened.

I was aware of a local recording studio, that also provides music instruction, called Media Recording Studios. And their website, includes the recording studio nature of their business. But it looks like they have the name Media Music mocked up.

Perhaps this is why I was asked by my home theater friend if I had searched the database of fictional and/or business names prior to selecting my name. Of course, I had not and had already selected this name. Now I need a new name, and figure out how to change my existing name. I’m thinking something about “Guitars & More”, perhaps John’s Guitars and More, Media Guitars & More, or some other lead in word to that phrase.