Independent to Independent: ABA Talks Localism With Music Merchants

Though independent booksellers and independent musical-instrument retailers work in disparate industries, the two groups have common ground: They are facing intense competitive challenges from chain stores and mass merchandisers. Independent booksellers have responded with a number of initiatives -- from Shop Local movements to the Book Sense marketing program -- that have provided tools to help them compete with mega retailers.

The one-year-old Independent Music Retailers Association (IMRA) -- seeing similar challenges facing its members -- asked ABA COO Oren Teicher to speak at its first annual meeting, on Thursday, July 26, in Austin, Texas, at the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) Summer Trade Show. Among the topics discussed during Teicher's presentation were the burgeoning Shop Local movement, independent business alliances, antitrust issues, and the Book Sense marketing program.

"The primary topic [of Teicher's presentation] was about ABA's involvement in the Shop Local marketing campaign," said Bill Stevens, administrator of the NORCAL Music Coalition (a regional association of locally owned Northern California music merchants), and an IMRA member. "This is of great interest to our members ... to be able to do something like that at a grassroots level.... Everyone was very enthusiastic about what Oren had to talk about."

Teicher told BTW, "ABA's hope is to do what it can to assist burgeoning groups of independent retailers, by bringing their members together with ABA bookstore members through participation in independent business alliances and Shop Local efforts. My presentation to IMRA was part of this effort."

After only a year in existence, IMRA boasts some 70 members, and 35 people attended its first annual meeting.

Stevens told BTW that the time was ripe for an independent musical instrument retailers association. "We're having the same problem as booksellers," he said. "Mass merchandisers [such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy] are getting into our business," selling beginners' instruments. The largest chain is Guitar Center, with about 200-plus stores nationwide, which, Stevens noted, has just been sold and may become a privately owned business. The largest online retailer of music instruments is eBay, though "that's mainly used gear," he added.

"Shop Local is something we're interested in," Stevens said, though he acknowledged, "It's all in an area new to our members. We're association neophytes, and we're just trying to provide our members with information."

Aside from the Shop Local movement, at last Thursday's IMRA meeting, Teicher spoke briefly about ABA's experience with antitrust issues and the Book Sense marketing program.

Teicher noted to BTW that, with between 5,000 and 6,000 independent music merchants in the U.S., opportunities abound for cross-marketing and merchandising efforts between musical-instrument retailers and ABA members. --David Grogan