Wonder what happened to all these vintage kits when the Ellis Drum Shop closed? Geez... what a shame to work that hard to collect such a wonderful bunch of drums and build a business. So hard to make it go with a small business.

Yeah I hate to see that. Some beautiful kits there...pretty nice styrofoam wig head with nose and glasses too.

Mitch

Tried to look up this store- apparently another victim of our "booming" economy and the "fantastic recovery" from the recent/current recession. Join the club..........

I don't know the story of what happened... but I do know the sign on the door said that after many years in business the owner Paul Ellis was "heart broken" to close the doors. I think too many people, as in customers, just aren't willing to pay extra to keep a small business in operation. If they can save $50 at the chain store then it is a done deal. There are two Guitar Centers very close.

I watched a big chain put my best friends tuxedo rental and costume shop out of business. He lived prom season to prom season and halloween to halloween... it took about two season where a big chain opened a temporary mall store to put out of business.

Really? I heard the recession was over and the economy is growing in leaps and bounds! LoLoLoLo

http://fortune.com/2014/08/07/guitar-center-expansion/

[INDENT]Guitar Center is by far the dominant U.S. specialized musical instrument retailer, with 2013 sales of about $2.2 billion, or five times more than its closest rival, Sam Ash Music, and a 32% share of the market, according to data from Music Trades, an industry publication. But while Guitar Center is targeting annual sales of $3 billion by 2020, its business, like that of the overall industry, has yet to fully recover from the 2008-09 financial meltdown. And that is despite help from the disappearance of countless independent stores and the decision by mass retailers Wal-Mart Stores WMT 0.63% and Target TGT 1.08% to drastically scale back their instrument assortment since then.[/INDENT]

Well Guitar Center sure has confidence the market is growing!

You know it's interesting (or sad) how in my area GC was trying to buy out as many local music stores as possible. We had a GREAT local store. Family owned and bought out by the "Music and Arts" portion of GC. The old store was a goldmine with full staff and decades of experience. Today it's a shell of a store with a few part time kids working it as a first job.