Triple play for musicians

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This article was published 26/08/2019 (2427 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Kildonanites, get ready to rock: Musical instrument retailer Long & McQuade is opening a new store in North Kildonan today.

The two-storey location at 1074 Henderson Hwy., formerly a River City Sports, will become Long & McQuade’s third store in Winnipeg and its 84th overall. The North Kildonan Long & McQuade will be roughly half the size of the chain’s flagship Winnipeg location on Pembina Highway.

Despite its smaller size, the new Long & McQuade will sell almost all the same types of equipment as the flagship store, including electric and acoustic guitars, bass guitars, drum sets, brass and woodwind instruments, recording equipment and DJ gear. A few specialized items, such as high-end classical instruments and the most expensive recording equipment, will remain at the Pembina Highway store.

‘One of the really nice things about our company is, we’re 100 per cent run by musicians. So we get it… People are not only welcome, but encouraged to try everything that we have in stock.” — Derek Emery

Like other Long & McQuade locations, the North Kildonan store will offer gear for rent.

“You can come in here and pretty much rent any type of product that you need, whether it’s a guitar, a drum set, keyboard, recording equipment,” said store manager Derek Emery.

“We rent everything from the entry-level $25-a-month guitar to J45 Gibsons and other professional-level guitars and recording equipment and PA systems.”

The store will have 10 full-time staff upon opening, including a guitar technician. Emery said those employees will welcome the kinds of window shoppers one tends to see in musical instrument stores, who want to noodle around on a guitar or attempt a Neil Peart solo on an electronic drum set even if they’re not buying.

“One of the really nice things about our company is, we’re 100 per cent run by musicians,” he said.

“So we get it, it’s a welcome atmosphere for people to come into. People are not only welcome, but encouraged to try everything that we have in stock.”

The second storey of Long & McQuade’s new store is dedicated to music lesson rooms, where private and group lessons will be taught by private contractors vetted by the store. Private lessons start at about $24 for a 30-minute session, Emery said.

Clark Tauber owns Tauber Music School, which has a location across the street on Henderson Highway. He said he’s not concerned about competing against Long & McQuade in the music lesson space, explaining that his school offers some types of lessons that Long & McQuade doesn’t, such as Yamaha and Little Mozarts programs geared towards younger children.

“We’re different businesses,” said Tauber. “They’re retail with a music lesson service, we’re strictly education, that’s our specialty and it always has been.”

Long & McQuade president Steve Long said he’s confident the Winnipeg market can support a third Long & McQuade store.

“One of the interesting things that we’ve found over the years — and this is even before the internet was around — is having the store there with the equipment will actually create a market,” said Long.

“We have very enthusiastic customers. By having the product accessible to people, we know that the business will go up. And sure, it will take a little bit of business away from our other stores, but I’m very confident, based on the experience we’ve had over the years, that we will be bringing other business in.”

Even in the era of online classified ads, Long said, used musical instrument trade-ins are a key part of Long & McQuade’s business.

“In our industry, the products have a fairly long life, like 50 years sort of thing. So a lot of times, people will buy something and then they’ll decide they want something different, but their old piece will still have a lot of value,” he said.

“People always say, ‘Yeah sure, you can put it on Kijiji,’ but it’s a bit of a quagmire. People don’t really know what the things are valued… With us selling used equipment, everybody’s guaranteed they’re being treated fairly.”

Long described the Prairie provinces, and Winnipeg especially, as a “very, very musical community.”

“All the people, they love their music there. You can see a lot of great bands that have come out of Winnipeg over the years, going right back to the Guess Who and Burton Cummings… I think Winnipeg’s a really musical market.”

solomon.israel@freepress.mb.ca

@sol_israel