It is sad indeed. I play around the corner from Umanov every Monday. I have been in there often for little things I need before a rehearsal or a gig.
That said, we have a little more than Fedex to blame here.
First and foremost, most people in this country don't quite fathom the cost of having ground level retail in NYC. It's expensive. Matt likely had a long terms lease that came up. And his tiny space in a prime rea of the West Village would easily fetch $30K per month. This is why that block, once replete with record shops, head shops, coffee shops, etc. is now lined with 16 Handles, Starbucks, Grom, etc. Those are the only folks that can afford the rent.
Second, I don't always hear such great things about Matt. Sure if you are Steve Earle he will take care of you, but there are plenty of stories where someone buys a vintage piece from him and just gets clobbered, or gets a ton of attitude when they come back to him years later to sell it through him. And that model might have worked inthe good old days, but once the internet came around, who needed Matt to sell your stuff and take 25%? And on the sell side he charges way too damn much for stuff. For example, he had a white Fretless 83 Jazz bass in the store. RW board, missing the bridge and PU covers. Ok condition. Asking price was $3250. I had a crispy clean 78 with OHSC that I bought for 1650 and sold for about the same a few years later. Not everyone feels the need to price shop, but not everyone is a price taker either, especially when there are viable and credible alternatives.
Lastly, and this is kind of a follow up to #2 above, the internet didn't just hurt local stores because of price. Selection is a part of it too. Matt's store would never have been big box and that is fine. His niche was older instruments. But I see way more appealing stuff on Reverb, GC Used, and ebay than I do it Matt's store any day of the week, especially, as a bass player. As a bass player, unless you want a worn 70s J or P bass that he is asking way too much for, there is next to nothing for you there. How many people are walking the NYC streets in the market for that? And why would people from elsewhere make his store a destination to make a purchase, with no guarantee they can find what they want, when they can do it form their living rooms? And if you think about it, these other places to shop haven't really taken anything away from Matt. They have just blown a used musical instrument market wide open that didn't exist before. So now instead of just the "my son didn't stick with music lessons so his starter guitar is for sale" price point and the "hey instead of a car buy a 67 so and so because Matt says it will only go up in value" price points available for used and vintage shoppers, literally everything that once was is available again.
Like I said, it is sad and I would much rather have Umanov on Bleeker than I would a Panera Bread Travesty, but there are a lot of forces at work here. We can't just blame GC and MF and
Sweetwater.
