I love going to all the music stores in my county.
We have a lot of mom and pop stores but we also have a few corporate music stores. I have to admit that I typically shop at the bigger stores just because the prices are fair. I have large sales and you can even buy a lot of their equipment on the internet. I’d like to be able to go into one of the locations I’m negotiating on the price of anything that’s sitting on the floor. It’s kind of hard to do that with small businesses when they have lower margins. Fortunately, a lot of music stores took a beating 20 years ago. A lot of music stores have to pay for extra overhead too. If you have wood instruments you’re going to need proper humidification. It can’t be too dry and it can’t be too wet in the air. So you’re either going to need a dehumidifier or a humidifier depending on the type of climate you live in and where the music stores are located. I know that since I live in a very dry climate, the music stores have to use humidifiers to prevent the wooden instruments from cracking. They’ll get so dried out that they’ll either warp or crack. It’s just a factor of running a music store with wood instruments. Obviously this includes things like acoustic guitars, violins, cellos, and basses. Luckily I don’t even play any of these instruments myself. I typically just play synthesizers and keyboards. I still like to visit the music instrument stores though.