Washburn Piano's Tucson store is going out of business, a victim of the dismal economy. Steinway Piano Gallery Tucson is moving up to the Foothills, propelled by that same economy.
"I can tell you the piano business all over the U.S. is pathetic," said Ed Hermanson, chairman of Phoenix-based Washburn Piano Co.
Washburn Piano Co. has several stores in the western United States and is closing those in Anchorage, Alaska, and Seattle, and as well as in Tucson. The three Phoenix-area stores and those in Albuquerque and El Paso remain open.
Washburn already closed its Tucson store at 5725 E. Broadway and is having a going-out-of-business sale at a smaller temporary location, 6061 E. Broadway. The sale started this week and is expected to last through the holidays.
Nationally, sales of all acoustic pianos declined from about 80,000 units and $550 million in sales in 2005 to just over 60,000 units and about $424 million in 2007, according to NAMM, the International Music Products Association, in Carlsbad, Calif.
People are also reading…
But John Simon, the owner of the Steinway Piano Gallery Tucson, said he's doing well at the high end of the market.
Simon's store, which just finished the moving sale at its store at 2850 E. Speedway, is moving his booming business to a 6175-square-foot space in Gallery Row at North Campbell Avenue and East Skyline Drive. The store will feature performance space and offer for sale "high-end" art by local and national artists, Simon said.
The Steinway moving sale set sales records, and Simon said he expects, even with no open showroom until late December, that the old store's 2008 sales figures will top 2007's.
Besides the Steinway line — from $21,000 for an upright to $113,000 for the Steinway Model D 9-foot concert grand — Simon sells Steinway's less- expensive Essex and Boston lines — which start at $4,000 for an Essex upright and top out at $18,000 for a Boston baby grand.
He said the handmade Steinways are an investment, because they are among the few pianos that appreciate in value. Typically, he said, a Steinway piano will increase in value to 4.3 times the purchase price in 20 years.
So for buyers who can afford an investment-grade luxury, Simon said a Steinway becomes more, not less, attractive in hard times.
Not so for Washburn, a company started 56 years ago in Seattle.
The situation in Tucson is even worse than in some other markets, Hermanson said, because Washburn was a relative latecomer to this market and sold only the Baldwin, Samick and Sohmer lines. He said the prestigious and more expensive Yamaha and Kawai pianos were already represented by other Tucson-area dealers.
Hermanson is not, however, completely giving up on Tucson. His Exxel Corp. is developing a 52,000-square-foot retail center just up the street from Simon's new Steinway store and art gallery, but it won't have a piano store, Hermanson said.
Simon said he had planned to build an elaborate Steinway piano-sales gallery and performance space at Steam Pump Village, on North Oracle Road, in Oro Valley, but massive building-material price increases after Hurricane Katrina and some delays killed the project.
Foothills move key for Steinway
Follow local business news and trends at www.azstarbiz.com