Static Live Magazine July 2020

Lights Out
in C-ViLLa
By Randy Pepper
On March the 11th my wife and I were on our way
to Asheville, North Carolina for a Guitar Show and a
weekend away. When we got 30 miles from Asheville
I received a call from the show promoter saying
that the show had been canceled due to the current
Coronavirus. We went on and checked into our
hotel and the next morning got up and we had an
impromptu guitar show with about 30 dealers getting
together in a small conference hall. We made the best
of what we had, knowing that this virus could go on
for months and months and could kill us as retailers.
But some others didn’t have the luxury of a last minute
Guitar Show to make some very needed cash to ride
the storm out, Guitar shops and music stores all over
the country have now shuttered their doors because
of the virus and many didn’t know how to adjust to
selling online to ride the storm out or they just said
“this is the last straw” and ended up closing.
Guitar sales have suffered the last few years (as well
as most music retail) as the decline of the rock star
persona has shifted to DJs and rappers, making most
musical instruments a thing of the past. Then the
C19 virus came and many thought this would be the
end for many shops, including the Guitar Center,
since they have been in deep debt for a while. They
have survived but many other small shops have not,
and every day we see a new store closing. Plus, many
more stores are saying they cannot survive any longer
and are throwing in the towel. I’m not saying it was
just music related places there were affected by the
coronavirus; there are many other forms of retail that
did not survive as well. You see, many places were
considered essential but unfortunately music was not
one of them. So while pawn shops and hobby stores
were able to stay open, guitar shops and music stores
were not. Local places like Z music in Flagler Beach
closed their doors, as well as McCabe music in Santa
Monica California both citing the pandemic as the
cause or the final blow. This makes it very important
to support your local small independent music shops
during this time because unfortunately the virus is still
out there and the longer it lives, the closer we are to the
end of brick and mortar music retail.
Randy Pepper is the owner of the Guitar Attic in Holly Hill
and a freelance guitarist for hire.