PORT ANGELES — A longtime employee of Strait Music has taken over management of the store that has sold musical instruments and provided repairs on the North Olympic Peninsula for 33 years.
Proprietor Sam Perkins, 42, of Port Angeles has worked at the store at 1015 E. First St. for the past 15 years.
His former employer, Marty Kaler, who opened the business in 1983, retired; Kaler’s last day was Feb. 29.
Not willing to let the musical instrument store disappear, Perkins decided he would take a shot at running the operation.
“I am tired of seeing things go by the wayside, end and be gone,” Perkins said Saturday. “There is too much of that.”
Kaler said he couldn’t imagine picking up the pieces and starting over with a different career.
“Having been threatened with it being closed made me think about things,” he said.
“I thought, ‘Well, I will take a shot here.’ ”
Perkins said this is a very exciting time.
“I am doing a lot, but it is not burning me out. It is new to me, this whole thing. I am working for myself, so I am learning all sorts of stuff.”
Dedicated fans
Keeping the store open will be good for the dedicated fans who have shopped there throughout the years, Perkins said.
“They want to come here. They want us to stay here and we want to be here,” he said.
Perkins is not undertaking this endeavour alone.
Leo Bidne, 61, has stayed on as the proprietor of Strait Music Recording, which is a music studio in the rear portion of the store.
Bidne, who has been working at the store for nearly 20 years, also repairs instruments and music equipment and has expanded into the video market.
“We have two businesses, but we are helping each other out quite a bit because he is my friend and I am going to help him,” Bidne said of Perkins.
“He has been doing this so long, and is really good at it, and should have a chance to give it a go.”
Originally, Bidne said his plan was “to open up some little hole-in-the-wall and become Geppetto. But when this came up, we were already here.
“My biggest concern was I wouldn’t be able to afford this place just as a repair shop. Having a retail store makes a lot of sense, and it makes a lot of sense for me to be in one.”
Online competition
Perkins said his biggest competitor is online instrument retailers.
“We will try to match prices as much as we can, as much as is reasonable,” he said.
And, he said, he can offer customer service not available online.
“It can be hard to find the right answers or guidance with things online. If we don’t know the answer, we try to find it somehow,” he said.
Additionally, a local store allows shoppers to pick up items the same day as opposed to waiting for them to be shipped through the mail.
“One thing about being online is you really can’t try five guitars out in five minutes to decide which one you want to get,” Perkins said.
“We are right here.”
Bidne agreed.
“There are a lot of things you can’t really buy that way, like service and help and answers,” he said.
“And you can’t get your product the same day.”
GoFundMe
To generate the capital needed to keep the store open until a bank loan can be finalized, Bidne has created a GoFundMe account online at www.gofundme.com/73rvz9hm.
As of Wednesday, $1,535 had been donated.
The bank loan, Perkins said, would be used to purchase the leftover merchandise from Kaler, purchase the brand name and acquire new merchandise to fill the store.
“Hopefully, I will be getting a loan approved here pretty soon,” Perkins said.
In the meantime, Perkins and Bidne say, their landlord, Howard Priest, “has been very helpful and supportive.”
For more information about the business, call 360-452-9817 or visit www.straitmusic.net.
________
Reporter Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56650, or cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.
