Read It and Weep

drumheadquarters.com

Drum Headquarters has been a Maplewood mainstay for 30 years.  Offering a great staff of percussionist professionals who gave private lessons and 4,000 square feet filled with every imaginable type of drum or drum accessory....timpanis, snares, tomtoms, bongos and bass.
A musician's dream world.
Micha became quite a good drummer from the excellent instruction he received there. I loved the place with it's dazzling drum sets and shiny cymbals.

Just walking through Drum Headquarters made me feel it would be worth the effort to learn to beat out a rhythm on the drums.

I talked with the owner, Jim Uding, a few times. He was extremely knowledgeable, always friendly and helpful with whatever I needed. With so many years of experience he was truly a veteran of business and an expert in all things drum related. There were always people in the store and the lesson slots were all filled.  I assumed it was his excellent management and a solid following of loyal music people who made this place so successful. I never considered that Drum Headquarters could be an endangered business.

However, I learned differently while driving home a few days ago.  Trucks backed up to the door were being loaded with all those beautiful drums.  A "For Lease" sign was posted by the sidewalk.

WHAT???!!!  Surely not!  It could not be closing!

But it was.  Why? Must be some family tragedy, serious illness, something other than lack of business.

Their website (click here) with accompanying news story makes it all clear.  Too many of those 'customers' I had seen were using Drum Headquarters as a place of research not commerce. For them it was a showroom where they decided what to buy online. Couple that with the slow economy, it simply was not possible to keep the doors open.

The building that was bustling with people shopping and learning and visiting together while weaving their way amid a maze of drumsticks, books and tamborines, now looks like this:

So what do we do?

Take a while to weep, feel the sadness of a man who worked for 30 years to build and maintain a fine local business and who now must walk away.  Realize the loss to our community both socially and economically.

Then resolve not to so easily shop with a click.  Go out today, before it is too late and buy something from a local vendor and take a minute to thank him.