What do you look for in a music store?

[Kaura]

I'm thinking about opening my own music store. I know what I like to see in a local music store. What attracts you to a local music store?

Also, I've been working in music stores since I was 16, so i'm not really interested in hearing "you know how hard it is to run a music store today?" Yes, I do.

Having the guitars on shelf in tune or at least set up decently. I remember trying a Jackson Kelly in a store one time and the action was set so low that the strings wouldn't ring at all and I mean like dead mute.

Also, a good up-to-date website is a must these days, even if you're not offering online shopping. I mean, sometimes it's fun to go to a store and see what they have to offer but if I'm looking for something specific then if I don't see your shop offering what I have in mind when I google a certain product then there's a 99% I'll just end up using Thomann or any other major online shopping site.

 

[ShredmasterD]

Best of luck! We need more sole proprietor music stores!!

Honesty and integrity. Stand behind the products, honor the customer. While instruments are commodities, they are more than that. Many stores do not have reverence for instruments and treat them as merchandise. It is a joy to walk into a store where things are neat and clean and the sales staff is knowledgeable about what they sell and are not dismissive or pushy or clueless. Also, the used section; clean that stuff up. If knobs are falling off, strings are rusty and that old Peavey amp has beer stains and brown cigarette smoke stains, it’s disrespectful to a customer to sell it in that condition. Yes Guitar Center, that is You I am talking about. Treat the customer like a person, a musician and not a chump or a profit generating money battery. If the location location location is right, and people are respected and you give them what they want ,success should come

 

[budda]

Re: setups and dead strings, shit happens. You have to tell staff it needs doing.

 

[LiveOVErdrive]

Hella used gear. Used to have a local spot in San Jose I'd head to like every week because they always had new (used) stuff in - stuff I wouldn't find in guitar center every day. Old synths, weird 70s japanese guitars, old obscure 80s amps I'd never heard of. Great stuff.

 

[_MonSTeR_]

First it's worth me just saying I live in the UK, so our views on "distance" how far we'd travel to visit a store are perhaps skewed by the fact that our whole country is tiny in comparison... but that fuel prices are usually much higher

Most of the time for strings and plectrums and so on, I buy online or just go to the local store whilst I'm in town. I'll not make a special trip for these things.

To actually make a deliberate journey of more than say, an hour in the car, specifically to visit a music store, I usually tag on a visit to that town in a bit broader sense and take the family out for lunch whilst we're there etc. This means that to be what I'd call a "feature store" rather than a "local store" it needs to be welcoming to everyone, not just the "actual" guitarist it needs to have somewhere for the family to sit, a couple of armchairs, maybe somewhere where you can make folks a coffee? That sort of thing. It has to be a nice place to actually "visit".

As well as being a nice place to visit, the staff have to be very carefully selected as well (if it's not just you) you have to develop a "culture" for your business that builds customer relationships or folks will go back to buying online I might be old and not know the latest gear, but as Hollowway said, "be honest" and don't hype things up to sell them.

Lastly, success breeds success. So keep your stock desirable and don't let it sit for too long. There is a store not far from me that is currently slowing down. They owner's been running music stores for 40 years and is semi-retired so I don't blame him! But everything he has in stock is amazing and a bit of a "wow" piece, custom shop fenders, interesting EBMMs some choice PRSi that sort of thing. The guitars he sells are all used but they're all great and it seems his stock stays of a constant level of "prestige". A few years prior he ran a similar business for a national chain but it was effectively the chain's "used" section almost contracted out. The stock there seemed to decrease in quality, people traded in Korean guitars for the Japanese and American guitars he had in stock. Then the MIK guitars went, but lower quality/cost Made in China guitars came into replace those. Eventually the store seemed to implode because the stock stopped being a feature of the store and became a liability.

Not sure if this info will help, and I wish you all the best if you decide to go forwards with this

Oh.. and... lastly lastly, I'm not sure if it's the same in the US as it is in the UK, but if you want to understand customer service to prospective customers, visit a Lexus dealership. That changed my understanding of customer experiences.