|
We don't sell to BIG BOX STORES WE NEVER HAVE NOR WILL WE SELL TO THE BIG BLOCK STORES. Independent music stores and drum shops are being pushed out of business! Do you care? Better yet SHOULD you care? By Dudley J. Taw, Jr, President & Founder of DUPLICATE X custom drum products. Published in the January 2005 edition of Modern Drummer magazine Note: These are the sole opinions of the author as a paid advertisement and in NO WAY reflects the opinions of Modern Drummer Magazine. I have sat back and watched the very people who built this industry be brought to their knees, if not driven completely out of business. It seems to me that if we, the drummers don't recognize and address this problem, the INDEPENDENT music store and all that it stands for will be a memory in history like the calf skin head. As an AMERICAN manufacturer of quality custom drum accessories, I have watched over the past few years and have listened across the country to the horror stories of the fate theses stores are meeting, one after another after another. I have asked myself, why doesn't someone stand up and do something about it? The answer is no one wants to take the gamble for fear of backlash of the industry and the money behind these large corporations and foreign manufacturers. They can simply run you out of money and take away your livelihood. Now let me introduce myself. My name is Dudley J. Taw, Jr, the president and founder of Duplicate X custom drum products and I AM A DRUMMER! Being a drummer, you know the creature. We are not afraid to state opinions or to stand up with all we have for something we believe in! Teachers like Gene Krups taught me in no uncertain terms that this life is not for everyone. But obviously you have the same dream! WE NEED TO STAND TOGETHER! Over the past 30 years or so, I have worked hard to provide you with quality, innovative drum products that work in any application, manufactured with the finest materials, and backed by my word. I have fought the predators copying my ideas and making a great deal of money doing it! What a shame! It would have been much easier to swallow if they would have built a better product! They could not stop me then nor will I allow them to stop me now! Little did I know then that over a period of years they would ring the industry to the edge of destruction, as one by one the AMERICAN Manufacturer ceased to exist. I am a stand in your face type of guy! Things are simple for me, just black and white. There is right and there is wrong. This is totally wrong. You decide what is right! These big block stores go into an area where an independent has successfully developed his business over the years. They immediately cut prices until they drive that independent out of business, or worse yet if they cannot do it by that method they put a dollar figure on the store and buy them out! Then the prices go up! You certainly cannot blame the independent for selling out! He is faced with closing the doors at a loss or getting something for the years of service he has provided! Which would you choose? By the way, do you have a job? Or did you lose your job, too? Why is it no one gets it? Do you know that we import $400 billion dollars more product than we export? This is more than China, Japan, Canada, Hong Kong, Mexico and South Korea put together. They say that the answer to our economic problems is in technology and service. That the small business creates more jobs than any other avenue. If all of this is true, why don't we get a CLUE! For our own sake we must protect these little independents – we need to spend our money where it counts – to support those that support us and not to fatten the wallets of those who will end up destroying the very people who gave us our starts in the first place. JOIN ME! SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL MUSIC STORE! I DO! - SHOULD YOU? Home History of the Cymbal Adapter Manny's Drum Shop - The Gene Krupa Story What is Ping Resonation? |