Umanov guitars closing- rant!

[Teijo K.]

Interesting and varied responses. Thank you.
Internet sales are here to stay, that's for sure, this was just an opinion piece.
I know N. America is a big place, and everybody does not have access to great stores. A fact of life, and for them, mail order is a blessing. Same for lefties. The last store I worked in had close to 2000 guitars on the walls. A great bass dept. we stocked three lefty basses, at $200, $700, and $2K.
I glad I live near enough to some truly great stores. Not many brands I could not get, great staff, and great service departments.
Yes, I will gladly road trip 200 miles to play an instrument I am considering. When I order my next Alembic, I will fly there.
Cheers y'all!

North America is one thing, but try Finland for gear shopping.

 

[rogerbmiller]

It's been stated both in this thread and in the article I mentioned above that he owns the building. So while he may be struggling with taxes, maintenance or mortgage costs, it has nothing to do with a lease.

Didn't see that but good for him. Surely he will make more renting that space than he ever could running his store.

 

[ptg]

Interesting and varied responses. Thank you.
Internet sales are here to stay, that's for sure, this was just an opinion piece.
I know N. America is a big place, and everybody does not have access to great stores. A fact of life, and for them, mail order is a blessing. Same for lefties. The last store I worked in had close to 2000 guitars on the walls. A great bass dept. we stocked three lefty basses, at $200, $700, and $2K.
I glad I live near enough to some truly great stores. Not many brands I could not get, great staff, and great service departments.
Yes, I will gladly road trip 200 miles to play an instrument I am considering. When I order my next Alembic, I will fly there.
Cheers y'all!

Just curious as to where you live that has good music stores...I'm jealous!

 

[Paulabass]

North America is one thing, but try Finland for gear shopping.

Hi! I've heard. Being of Finnish descent, I have lots of Facebook friends there. I've never been, but I plan to, but not to buy a bass

 

[James Collins]

Internet is the best thing that has happened to music industry from my perspective.

When I was a kid just starting out with a bass, we had one small music shop in town. The owner was drunk all the time, selection was tiny with one bass you could say was good, a Fender Jazz. The owner kept it overpriced so it would not sell, because he needed it for his own gigs.

Then another shop opened that had good personnel, but basses were mostly cheap copies of whatever from far East. One of the salesguys there were a sort of a keyboard guru, but that really didn't help us bass players. by then I had already started making my own bass guitars, and I actually did some basic setups for those abominations for them out of being too kind I guess.

Fast forward to my current location and a music shop that kept me waiting for a set of flats for six months. It was allways "just about to get here, so if you buy online now we are left with a set absolutely no other bass player wants to buy". Again poor selection of basses, although better than the shops had 20 years ago. I stopped going to a certain shop because the owner had a selection of racist and misogynist jokes instead of bass guitars, that shop is no more.

Internet shopping doesn't naturally kill just the bad shops. But I for one am more than willing to let the ones go peacefully that I had the misfortune to use back in the day. Well I was kind a sad to see the one go where at least the salesmen were nice. Although I didn't buy a lot gear from them since they did not have a lot to buy. But at least they had good coffee all the time when I popped in to see them, and usually couple of basses or guitars that needed a setup or something.

I recently went to 5 stores looking for tape wound strings. 3 thought I meant flat wound and had never heard of tape wound. 1 didn't stock them. 1 stocked them, but had sold the single set they carried recently. If I wanted to get it from them it would be a week, or I had infinite selection from Amazon and got the strings within 2 days. The benefit to a local shop is stuff is available right now. If stuff isn't available right now, it just cost me time and effort trying.

Also, I normally don't want bothered when I shop by sales associates. I also hate the people that go into the stores with no intention to buy anything, and play as loudly as possible so that I can't hear myself play. I have literally been in a store and had someone start playing louder when I was trying out an instrument.

 

[Paulabass]

Also, I normally don't want bothered when I shop by sales associates. I also hate the people that go into the stores with no intention to buy anything, and play as loudly as possible so that I can't hear myself play. I have literally been in a store and had someone start playing louder when I was trying out an instrument.

When they try to play along, tuned to a slightly different version of A=440, is worse than too loud. You can fix loud. You can't fix stupid.

 

[rogerbmiller]

Of course. More than likely, he's eyeing a sale. That would probably yield a nice retirement account.

Yep. There is a carraige house around the corner on 23 Cornelia Street that was being rented by Taylor swift for $38K per month. It is for sale now at $24.5MM.

I don't think 273 Bleeker is as spacious as the buildings on that row don't have the same depth, not does it have the architectural cache or the indoor pool, but either way the space is worth thousands of dollars per square foot.

 

[Jeff Scott]

The world has changed ...... I don't see it as better.

I know lots of people who feel exactly the same.

...how did Kodak miss the digital camera?...

It's especially tragic that Kodak missed the impact of the digital camera *because they invented it*. What they missed was that the digital camera (and increasingly phones with digital cameras) would wipe out the cash cow of their global empire by taking away the demand for film, or more likely they didn't want to believe that the easy days were over...

Yeah, Kodak shot themselves in the foot when they invented digital imaging.

 

[mellowinman]

It's not just the music stores.The whole concept of local retail stores is on the endangered species list.

Every now and then I go into one of those dinosaurs, and as I wait in a long line, and watch a severely underpaid employee sweat out the abuse of the impatient customers, I remember, "I could have probably shopped online," and then next time, I do so.

Retail is over.

And it died a natural death.

I will take THE NEXT BIG THING.

 

[mellowinman]

It would be nice if you actually read my posts (122, 117). I get tired of repeating myself.

Then don't. No one forces you to. I'm ahead of you though, and don't bother reading it.

 

[Fat Freddy]

Me to local music store assistant....

"Do you stock Mesa Subway cabs?".....

"Yes we do".....

"Could I try a 15 and a two by 10 combo please?"....

"No....we only have Fender Rumbles out for demo".....

"Why is that?".....

"Theres no demand for the Mesa stuff".....

My brain.....

 

[Gorn]

It just occurred to me that maybe a lot of fans of the personal touch at small shops are guitar players too. I don't play guitar. I don't want to play guitar. Music shop employees generally don't know squat about basses but they all seem to know guitars.

 

[guy n. cognito]

Every now and then I go into one of those dinosaurs, and as I wait in a long line, and watch a severely underpaid employee sweat out the abuse of the impatient customers, I remember, "I could have probably shopped online," and then next time, I do so.

Retail is over.

And it died a natural death.

I will take THE NEXT BIG THING.

Bricks and mortar Retail isn't dead. In fact, online retail is only accounting for about 8.2% of total retail sales right now. Retail is evolving, however, and retailers can no longer bank on being the only game in town. Specialty retailers will have to focus on customer service, location, and mix in internet sales to continue to be valid.

 

[Fender_Bender]

North America is one thing, but try Finland for gear shopping.

Yeah but where else can you camp out in a sauna, hit yourself on the back with branches, and then jump into a frozen lake ?.

 

[Fender_Bender]

I know lots of people who feel exactly the same.



Yeah, Kodak shot themselves in the foot when they invented digital imaging.

Hipsters will get into shooting on film, mark my words .

 

[alaskaleftybass]

I am a fan of the herbal ice tea.

I like a big fatty rib-eye. And I probably shouldn't be eating them.

 

[rogerbmiller]

Bricks and mortar Retail isn't dead. In fact, online retail is only accounting for about 8.2% of total retail sales right now. Retail is evolving, however, and retailers can no longer bank on being the only game in town. Specialty retailers will have to focus on customer service, location, and mix in internet sales to continue to be valid.

I agree retail is evolving and somewhere way back when in a discussion about GC I cited the Apple store. They crush just about all retailers in sales per square foot. New model and it works great.

And I would imagine that clothing retailers are still doing just fine because many people want to see, feel, and try on clothing before they buy.

But how do market level stats measure up when it comes to music retail? Or other specialized businesses that inherently have to carry a lot of SKUs.

Reminds me of the computer superstore like CompUSA. That used to be the go to place if you needed anything. But direct sales from makers and a number of other changes turned that model upside down.

Lately I’ve been stopping in and out of stores like Staples, RadioShack, and any other store that sells computer related accessories to try and find a 5G WiFi dongle for my PC which is 2G. None of them carry it so I’ve been forced to go on the Internet to buy it.

One would think guitars are a little bit like clothing or most people would still insist on the tactile experience but that seems not to be the case. I guess there’s enough uniformity in what people seek such that they are price shoppers. I mean a strat is a strat right?

 

[Jeff Scott]

...Retail is over...

Only in certain categories. Just wait until something breaks (say, your toilet valve and you need to run out to your local big box home center. Oh , they went belly up because of the internet, now what?!?!? I have to order the parts online and wait a day to get it......................

 

[Fat Freddy]

One would think guitars are a little bit like clothing or most people would still insist on the tactile experience but that seems not to be the case. I guess there’s enough uniformity in what people seek such that they are price shoppers. I mean a strat is a strat right?

Thing is...In many cases you can order your bass/guitar online...Try it at home and back it if you don't like it.....

Custom stuff is different of course but yer run of the mill Fender stuff is no problem....

 

[Gorn]

Lately I’ve been stopping in and out of stores like Staples, RadioShack, and any other store that sells computer related accessories to try and find a 5G WiFi dongle for my PC which is 2G. None of them carry it so I’ve been forced to go on the Internet to buy it.

I don't think there's one in the city but the Microcenter in Queens probably has them.