[Milkman]

Yes he has a lot of high end recording gear and is pretty knowledgeable in that respect.
Its been a a couple of years since I've talked to him, when I last played for him so I don't have all the inside scoop in his plans, but I can see that being something he'll offer.

Would his initials be D. T. by any chance?

If so, he's a talented guy and I wish him the best of luck.

 

[Guitar Jack 101]

A niche store with a business plan to match might work, but not a run of the mill store or one that tries to be everything, especially with L&M 15 minutes away.
there is a small store near a L&M here, but it seems to be a bot more specialized, with pedal and string brands you can’t find at L&M, with Sire and Yamaha among their brands.
but who knows?
Does he have a sound business plan?
so many people don’t think of that, ir don’t do it well, and fail without being a small player near a big one.

But........ The substandard customer service I (& many others) got from L&M in Calgary found it handy to have other music retailers close by. Why buy from a place when the next door competitor offers better service? Not asking sales staff to worship the ground I walk on, or jump thru hoops, but to be ignored or greeted with hostility/contempt when they finally get off their lazy condescending duffs to see if I was worthy of their time is/was inappropriate. That was (& possibly still is) what's routine for L&M Calgary. With small retailers I've never had that problem & found that they were most accommodating. Being customer oriented along with good customer service should be the standard, not the exception. Small businesses are more conscious of that.🙃

 

[guitarman2]

Would his initials be D. T. by any chance?

Yes

If so, he's a talented guy and I wish him the best of luck.

100%. If he had someone partnered that understood business and he listened to him\her, he'd be unstoppable

 

[guitarman2]

But........ The substandard customer service I (& many others) got from L&M in Calgary found it handy to have other music retailers close by. Why buy from a place when the next door competitor offers better service? Not asking sales staff to worship the ground I walk on, or jump thru hoops, but to be ignored or greeted with hostility/contempt when they finally get off their lazy condescending duffs to see if I was worthy of their time is/was inappropriate. That was (& possibly still is) what's routine for L&M Calgary. With small retailers I've never had that problem & found that they were most accommodating. Being customer oriented along with good customer service should be the standard, not the exception. Small businesses are more conscious of that.🙃

I don't find those experiences here in the local L&M that you do. Sales staff are fairly decent. They are friendly and are very helpful getting me set up to try guitars, getting cable, headstock tuner, pick, etc. For the most part I know the gear better than most of the sales staff and I'm fine with that. I just want to be left alone to try out whatever I'm there for, and they do that.
What most mom and pop shops can't compete with L&M in is price, the in house financing terms ( many times a year zero percent interest) and 30 day return terms.
The only experience I had with an L&M in Western Canada, was in the mid 80's at the Edmonton store. I bought a Tele and had the tech put in a middle strat pickup. I remember the experience was a great one. Considering I was a road musician and was only in town for the week (playing cook county saloon) they put me head of the line and got it back to me in a couple days.
There was a privately owned music store here in Brantford that I dealt with since 1973. But when I started dealing with L&M he just couldn't compete with them in so many ways. He was a great guy and I wanted to buy from him but it just didn't make economic sense. He ended up retiring a few years ago and Long and McQuade bought the store.

 

[Guitar Jack 101]

I don't find those experiences here in the local L&M that you do. Sales staff are fairly decent. They are friendly and are very helpful getting me set up to try guitars, getting cable, headstock tuner, pick, etc. For the most part I know the gear better than most of the sales staff and I'm fine with that. I just want to be left alone to try out whatever I'm there for, and they do that.
What most mom and pop shops can't compete with L&M in is price, the in house financing terms ( many times a year zero percent interest) and 30 day return terms.
The only experience I had with an L&M in Western Canada, was in the mid 80's at the Edmonton store. I bought a Tele and had the tech put in a middle strat pickup. I remember the experience was a great one. Considering I was a road musician and was only in town for the week (playing cook county saloon) they put me head of the line and got it back to me in a couple days.
There was a privately owned music store here in Brantford that I dealt with since 1973. But when I started dealing with L&M he just couldn't compete with them in so many ways. He was a great guy and I wanted to buy from him but it just didn't make economic sense. He ended up retiring a few years ago and Long and McQuade bought the store.

While I really liked the product line that L&M Calgary carried, their sketchy low caliber level of customer service even dates back to when they were Keen Kraft (on 11th Avenue) back in the late 1970's. I would have really liked to have developed an on going repeat customer/merchant symbiosis with them, but due to their sales staff & the lazy condescending attitudes they had, that never happened. I've been to the Victoria BC store & the exact opposite applies. Eventually; an acquaintance of mine opened up his own music store in Calgary (circa 1998) & the majority of his customers were folks like me who L&M Calgary blew off. I always dealt with the owner & he treated me very well. He treated all his customers very well. His business thrived!! What a put off to a customer to have a sales person imply that their doing one a huge favor by eventually getting around to doing their job. I don't believe that the shoddy customer service I've mentioned is official L&M company policy. It's an agenda by the staff that flies under the radar making it undetectable, & upper management is unaware of what actually goes on. IMO.... Stuff like that is too adolescent for my likes. It's like being accepted or not accepted by a self proclaimed "in crowd." Oh well some folks are just stuck in that realm.🙃

 

[zontar]

But........ The substandard customer service I (& many others) got from L&M in Calgary found it handy to have other music retailers close by. Why buy from a place when the next door competitor offers better service? Not asking sales staff to worship the ground I walk on, or jump thru hoops, but to be ignored or greeted with hostility/contempt when they finally get off their lazy condescending duffs to see if I was worthy of their time is/was inappropriate. That was (& possibly still is) what's routine for L&M Calgary. With small retailers I've never had that problem & found that they were most accommodating. Being customer oriented along with good customer service should be the standard, not the exception. Small businesses are more conscious of that.🙃

I have always good customer service at Long &McQuade, helpful, friendly, available , etc.
There was one time they had limited availability, but the roof was leaking after a was worse than normal storm, and they had to move stuff so it wouldn’t get damaged. They stayed open and had someone at the counter and stuff, but there were other customers already being served, so I had to wait, but so what, I understood.
5hey get fantastic marks from me.
(I have never been employed by L&M, and I am not a big spender there, don’t have the means to be.)

the smaller store I mentioned also has excellent customer service. Which in the OP, is needed to have success.

 

[zontar]

While I really liked the product line that L&M Calgary carried, their sketchy low caliber level of customer service even dates back to when they were Keen Kraft (on 11th Avenue) back in the late 1970's. I would have really liked to have developed an on going repeat customer/merchant symbiosis with them, but due to their sales staff & the lazy condescending attitudes they had, that never happened. I've been to the Victoria BC store & the exact opposite applies. Eventually; an acquaintance of mine opened up his own music store in Calgary (circa 1998) & the majority of his customers were folks like me who L&M Calgary blew off. I always dealt with the owner & he treated me very well. He treated all his customers very well. His business thrived!! What a put off to a customer to have a sales person imply that their doing one a huge favor by eventually getting around to doing their job. I don't believe that the shoddy customer service I've mentioned is official L&M company policy. It's an agenda by the staff that flies under the radar making it undetectable, & upper management is unaware of what actually goes on. IMO.... Stuff like that is too adolescent for my likes. It's like being accepted or not accepted by a self proclaimed "in crowd." Oh well some folks are just stuck in that realm.🙃

Totally different from my experience, and they go back a while.
When I was a scruffy looking high school student and not rich, they were good, as were two other stores, neither is around in that form anymore-one was bought by L&M, the other merged with a store that focussed on school bands and stuff that later merged or morphed into something else.)

What is the other store opened in 98?
I might know of it.

in any case most of my customer experiences in music stores anywhere have been positive ones.

Worst was a small storefront for a music school in a mall. (Well that doesn’t include pawn shops)

 

[Guitar Jack 101]

Totally different from my experience, and they go back a while.
When I was a scruffy looking high school student and not rich, they were good, as were two other stores, neither is around in that form anymore-one was bought by L&M, the other merged with a store that focussed on school bands and stuff that later merged or morphed into something else.)

What is the other store opened in 98?
I might know of it.

in any case most of my customer experiences in music stores anywhere have been positive ones.

Worst was a small storefront for a music school in a mall. (Well that doesn’t include pawn shops)

The store I dealt with from 1998 until I left Calgary in 2009 was Music Center Canada.🙃

 

[Bigsby1967]

I can list a number of guitar stores that have closed:
Class Axe
Ring Music
Cask Music
The Guitar Shop
The Acoustic Shop (closing)
Scarborough Music
Encore Music
Probably more I’m missing

Some of these are due to retirement but no one is filling the gaps left.


Opened:
The Guitar Haus
More?

I wish your friend the best, I love local shops and think they are an important community hub but frankly, bricks and mortar retail is dying.

 

[MarkM]

We have 2 L&M stores in Saskatoon, good staff in both, maybe one or two wankers. I don’t spend a pile of money at either. I know what I want for the price I want it because I do my research. I mostly buy used off Kijji. Might ry trading some equipment surplus to my needs with them.

 

[zontar]

The store I dealt with from 1998 until I left Calgary in 2009 was Music Center Canada.🙃

At one point they had three or four locations.
Their website at some points indicated it was a franchise.
now there’s one location, but they just moved, haven’t been to the new one yet.
they were friendly enough and all, but I did see a fake Les Paul in one.

 

[Guitar Jack 101]

At one point they had three or four locations.
Their website at some points indicated it was a franchise.
now there’s one location, but they just moved, haven’t been to the new one yet.
they were friendly enough and all, but I did see a fake Les Paul in one.

MSC started off with its location a few blocks south of Westbrook Mall (Calgary) & by the mid 2000's the owner even added a recording studio that he gave me the grand tour of. In 2011 I visited Calgary & I went to MSC to stock up on strings (to beat the provincial sales tax here in BC) & by then it had changed hands. The second store may have been up & running when I was a Calgary resident. As for it being a franchise, to the best of my knowledge (at it's start up) it was an independent retailer. If it wasn't...... It's initial proprietor went thru great lengths to make sure that substandard customer service didn't even remotely apply. Regarding the fake LP you mentioned...... In MSC I can't say I ran into that, but I did come across a LP Custom that had notable build issues/deficiencies that was going for top dollar. Not IMO a MSC issue, but a Gibson issue.🙃

 

[zontar]

MSC started off with its location a few blocks south of Westbrook Mall (Calgary) & by the mid 2000's the owner even added a recording studio that he gave me the grand tour of. In 2011 I visited Calgary & I went to MSC to stock up on strings (to beat the provincial sales tax here in BC) & by then it had changed hands. The second store may have been up & running when I was a Calgary resident. As for it being a franchise, to the best of my knowledge (at it's start up) it was an independent retailer. If it wasn't...... It's initial proprietor went thru great lengths to make sure that substandard customer service didn't even remotely apply. Regarding the fake LP you mentioned...... In MSC I can't say I ran into that, but I did come across a LP Custom that had notable build issues/deficiencies that was going for top dollar. Not IMO a MSC issue, but a Gibson issue.🙃

The Westbrook location was one of the ones I was aware of and visited. But it hasn’t been in business for years.
There was one way down south on Mcleod, it moved to a less southern location, and recently more north.
there was one on 32 Ave NE. It closed down a few years ago.
The current website seems to be a new overall owner, without a bunch of locations.
but thanks for sharing part of music store history. I find it interesting.

 

[Guitar Jack 101]

The Westbrook location was one of the ones I was aware of and visited. But it hasn’t been in business for years.
There was one way down south on Mcleod, it moved to a less southern location, and recently more north.
there was one on 32 Ave NE. It closed down a few years ago.
The current website seems to be a new overall owner, without a bunch of locations.
but thanks for sharing part of music store history. I find it interesting.

Of further historic interest....... In the 90's....... There was a small guitar shop located on 14th street (Calgary) & 5th avenue NW (bottom of the hill, top of the hill was the Jubilee Auditorium) that was called the Alberta Guitar Company. It's owner, handled/did the modification on my CBS era Strat where the 3 post neck to body attachment was altered to a 4 post neck to body attachment. I had that done in 1997. The guy who did the work was in the thick of the CBS Fender years & had done many 3 to 4 post change overs along with correcting build deficiencies that were common to CBS Strats. I was in my mid 30's back then & the guy who worked on my Strat was likely around the age I'm at now. He mentioned to me how interest in guitars in the 1990's wasn't where it was in the 1960's or 1970's. The under 30 crowd were more interested in computers & not as interested in guitars. Sadly...... A short time later.... The AGC closed due to lack of business. A casualty of the ever changing retail landscape.😓

 

[zontar]

Of further historic interest....... In the 90's....... There was a small guitar shop located on 14th street (Calgary) & 5th avenue NW (bottom of the hill, top of the hill was the Jubilee Auditorium) that was called the Alberta Guitar Company. It's owner, handled/did the modification on my CBS era Strat where the 3 post neck to body attachment was altered to a 4 post neck to body attachment. I had that done in 1997. The guy who did the work was in the thick of the CBS Fender years & had done many 3 to 4 post change overs along with correcting build deficiencies that were common to CBS Strats. I was in my mid 30's back then & the guy who worked on my Strat was likely around the age I'm at now. He mentioned to me how interest in guitars in the 1990's wasn't where it was in the 1960's or 1970's. The under 30 crowd were more interested in computers & not as interested in guitars. Sadly...... A short time later.... The AGC closed due to lack of business. A casualty of the ever changing retail landscape.😓

A friend of mine and I were thinking back to different music stores we’d been to over the years, and sometimes we can remember the names.
there was on location that had three different stores in it over time, not all consecutive though.
one of those stores had a location down the block that he didn’t remember, but if I looked up my old receipts I could show him.
one of them I remember because of a vintage guitar calendar I still have hanging up from years ago.

 

[Guitar Jack 101]

A friend of mine and I were thinking back to different music stores we’d been to over the years, and sometimes we can remember the names.
there was on location that had three different stores in it over time, not all consecutive though.
one of those stores had a location down the block that he didn’t remember, but if I looked up my old receipts I could show him.
one of them I remember because of a vintage guitar calendar I still have hanging up from years ago.

Another long gone music shop from Calgary is St.John's Music. They were on 11th ave SW close to 14th street SW (south side of the Bow River) where after seeing Eric Clapton & Mark Knopfler play the Saddle Dome (autumn 1988) I bought a well priced & an unusually well crafted/built off the shelf Squier Strat a few days later. The following year, I bought a Kramer Ferrington from them too. I'm old school in the sense of going to a music store to take in the sights, sounds & to actually play a guitar that I may have in mind for purchase. IMO..... Buying on-line by looking at published specs along with photographs doesn't hold any appeal for me & for all I know could end up buying a dud. By today's standards I'm likely in the minority when it comes to down to in person guitar shopping.🙃

 

[zontar]

Another long gone music shop from Calgary is St.John's Music. They were on 11th ave SW close to 14th street SW (south side of the Bow River) where after seeing Eric Clapton & Mark Knopfler play the Saddle Dome (autumn 1988) I bought a well priced & an unusually well crafted/built off the shelf Squier Strat a few days later. The following year, I bought a Kramer Ferrington from them too. I'm old school in the sense of going to a music store to take in the sights, sounds & to actually play a guitar that I may have in mind for purchase. IMO..... Buying on-line by looking at published specs along with photographs doesn't hold any appeal for me & for all I know could end up buying a dud. By today's standards I'm likely in the minority when it comes to down to in person guitar shopping.🙃

St John’s is still around, and has been for quite some time.
That location shut down, and maybe they had a period of inactivity, but they’ve been around for a very long time.
They have often had more space devoted to band instruments, but seem more even these days.
at one time they had almost the same address as Long & McQuade, just L&M was 58. Ave SW, and St.John’s was 58 Ave SE. but same number.
Both moved further east on 58th a few years ago or so. St John’s moved a bit further, just east of Blackfoot.

 

[Guitar Jack 101]

St John’s is still around, and has been for quite some time.
That location shut down, and maybe they had a period of inactivity, but they’ve been around for a very long time.
They have often had more space devoted to band instruments, but seem more even these days.
at one time they had almost the same address as Long & McQuade, just L&M was 58. Ave SW, and St.John’s was 58 Ave SE. but same number.
Both moved further east on 58th a few years ago or so. St John’s moved a bit further, just east of Blackfoot.

Okay........ I remember St. John's Music had also moved more into downtown to a shopping plaza on 10th ave SW that also had a long gone general retailer named Consumers Distributing. Finding a place to park was difficult. That's when I started buying guitar stuff at Mother's Music on 14th street & 17th ave SW. The plaza on 10th ave SW I mentioned was diagonally across the street from what was then Gulf Canada Square (head office Gulf Oil) that eventually became head office for Canadian Pacific Railway.🙃

 

[k-rod_66]

I can't remember what the name of the music store he had in Brantford. It would have been back in the late 90's - early 2000's. It was on Charing Cross, near the KFC. He had leased a good sized building with an upstairs and downstairs. It was his IT computer school, which I taught at. Originally the school took up both upstairs and downstairs. When he opened the music store, he moved all the computer school upstairs and had the music store down stairs.
The one big event he had was he hired Michael Angelo Batio to do a guitar clinic. It took place outside in the parking lot.
I remember the best guitars he had were a couple of high end Deans as he carried that line. There were some other off brands that weren't bad. Can't remember. He couldn't carry any main names, as at that time Pat Alonzo and Brantford music center had it all tied up.
Martin told him he'd have to be in business for at least 5 years before they'd even consider it.
I honestly hope that he pulls it off.

was it called Nelson's??

bought all kinds of piano lesson books and sheet music there 1974 to 1990.

 

[MarkM]

was it called Nelson's??

bought all kinds of piano lesson books and sheet music there 1974 to 1990.

I have a couple folders with Nelson’s Music on them for sheet music, don’t recall where I got them?