How much does it cost to open a guitar store?
More than you’ll recoup. It’s almost impossible to run a profitable guitar store, especially now that musiciansfriend.com exists. Simply put: If you charge low enough prices to compete, you will not be profitable. If you offer great customer service, the people buying the guitars won’t care enough to pay more for the product. Now, if you’re an outstanding luthier with a fantastic reputation and the ability to turn around repair jobs very quickly, you might be able to make enough to stay in business, if you’re in an area where there will be plenty of work for you. Sometimes I, too, dream of such things. But I have enough friends who have tried and failed to know better than to do it.
There is a local guitar shop in my hometown that is an interesting case study. They are on a busy street, in a densely populated town of 40,000 affluent 20 somethings right across the river from NYC. Exclusively vintage/used, with a repair business. They are also directly next door to a competing guitar store that also sells used guitars and offers repairs, strings and lessons. Yet there is almost no-one in either store, ever I asked the first store’s owner a couple of years ago what gives, he said his business is almost 100% internet/eBay based, the storefront acts as a place for inventory, repairs, and the occasional purchase. He seems happy enough and even has some employees, though I think most of them work for free just to hang out.
