West Lebanon
The musical instrument store that has been a fixture in West Lebanon for more than three decades will close its retail location on Monday and henceforth sell instruments only online, said owner Doug McKelvy, who has operated the store since 2003.
The reason for the switch is familiar among small retail stores.
“We’ve been doing online sales for the past year and half and at this point we are seeing decreasing store sales and increasing internet sales,” McKelvy said. “It’s that simple.”
McKelvy said he got a “gentle push” to make the decision to close the physical store when costume store CostuMania in Colonial Plaza signaled its interest in moving across the parking lot and into Blue Mountain Guitar’s larger space adjacent to LaValley Building Supply. McKelvy said he weighed swapping store locations with CostumeMania, but given the trend with walk-in customers he decided instead to “drop the overhead and see what happens.”
Mark Young, owner of CostuMania, who sold the tuxedo part of his business last year and moved his store to the far end of the Colonial Plaza building, said he needed to move to a larger storefront because “we’re running out of space.” His costume business is growing, he said. “It’s not only Halloween,” Young said. “It’s become a year-round business.”
At Blue Mountain Guitar, McKelvy said he’s noticed a demographic shift in retail customers.
“Most of the people coming into the store have been my age, 55,” McKelvy said. “But younger people aren’t shopping in stores. They shop online. So it just seemed to make sense that rather than shut the business we’d go entirely online and see what happens,” he said.
Mckelvy will now warehouse instruments and operate his e-commerce business out of his home, a converted inn, in New London, N.H. He will also relocate his instrument repair workshop and PA system rental business there.
Although the store has had its own e-commerce website, McKelvy said, online sales didn’t “really start to take off” until Blue Mountain Guitar affiliated with online retailer Amazon. Now, a shopper can compare the models and prices of Blue Mountain’s inventory of guitars, drums, amps and other musical equipment with that offered by other retailers.
Amazon gets a cut of the sales — a frequent complaint among small retailers who partner with the online giant — but it also provides businesses like Blue Mountain guitar with a far broader potential customer base. McKelvy said that, so far, the arrangement “has been really good for us.”
McKelvy credits Tyler Geno, of Plainfield, who joined Blue Mountain Guitar a year ago, with helping to navigate the technology and make the store’s transition to the web.
“He’s moved to full partner at this point,” McKelvy said. “He’s got a real knack for merchandising.”
John Lackard, who has worked at Blue Mountain Guitar for 20 years and also plays in a band with McKelvy, will not be staying with the store because he lives in Randolph and the 64-mile (one way) commute to New London would be too far.
“It is very sad because he is a great employee and friend,” McKelvy said.
McKelvy is the third owner of Blue Mountain Guitar, acquiring the business from Jim Eibner in 2003, who in turn bought it in 1985 from Craig Hauser, who first opened the store in 1980, McKelvy said. The store originally was located in Colonial Plaza and moved into the LaValley’s center in 2002.
John Lippman can be reached at 603-727-3219 or jlippman@vnews.com.
