Buying a musical instrument for a child is an expensive proposition for many families. A drum set can run $1,500; a saxophone can set the family budget back $1,200.
In many cases, the child ends up moving on to other interests after playing the instrument for only 18 months. Those are some of the statistics that have convinced Grow Biz International to expand its Music Go Round chain in the Chicago area.
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Music Go Round specializes in re-selling quality used instruments at about half their original price. Some 15 stores are planned in the Chicago area in the next two years.
An Arlington Heights store opened in June, and a Bucktown store debuts next week. Locations in Skokie, Niles, Bloomingdale, Orland Park and Cicero are scheduled for this summer.
When it comes to selling used stuff, Minneapolis-based Grow Biz should know what it’s doing. Its Play It Again Sports chain sells used sports equipment. Its Once Upon a Child chain offers “previously owned” kids clothes.
With lots of school districts cutting back music programs as a desperate way to trim expenses, expanding a string of stores selling used instruments may not seem a wise retail strategy.
But that tide may be turning, says Richard Brill, a spokesman for Music Go Round. Buoyed by private philanthropy, New York City schools are bringing back orchestras that had been dropped during budget crises, the New York Times reported in May.
California’s education commissioner has proposed a $200 million plan to restore arts education. And recent surveys of education budgets in cities around the country found money for music and arts was being restored.
Maybe investing in used trumpets and oboes isn’t such a bad idea after all.
Shop ‘n swap: Shopping centers are changing hands in Chicago as fast as Grant Park is hosting summer festivals. During the first half of 1998, more than 30 Chicago-area centers 50,000 square feet or larger were sold, approaching the 1997 record of 40 sales in an entire year.
While numbers may be up, the buyer profile remains the same, according to George Good, a senior vice president with real estate firm CB Richard Ellis who tracks the sales.
REITs and pension funds continue to scour the market for larger centers with stable tenants. Both Stratford Plaza in west suburban Bloomingdale and Deerbrook Mall in north suburban Deerfield were acquired by pension funds earlier this year.
That’s a double-edged sword for retail tenants. They can expect professional management from their rich new owners, but they shouldn’t look for flexible rents. The new owners need to earn a return for their investors.
That’s entertainment: It was an unlikely pre-game event for the recent World Cup championship match between France and Brazil: 300 models marching around the field wearing haute couture gowns from Yves Saint Laurent’s 40-year career.
At the end of the 15-minute revue, which was accompanied by a recording of Ravel’s “Bolero” and 100 drummers beating on oil cans, the models formed themselves into a giant YSL logo.
Soccer fans took turns screaming and watching in awed silence, while Laurent gazed down from a private box with his guest, Catherine Deneuve.
It was a truly incongruous meeting between the worlds of sports and fashion. Perhaps the Chicago Bears could try something similar–picture American fashion icon Calvin Klein parading a bunch of his models around Soldier Field at halftime.
Minimalist fashion might distract the fans from the minimal offense. It’s worth a try.