Bill Sanders remembers the days when selling pianos made him as ticklish as the keys on the instruments he sold.
"We did $2 million in sales back in the ’70s," said Sanders, proprietor of Sanders Piano & Organ. "We were selling 70 pianos a month. Now it’s maybe 20 or 30."
Sanders said Monday he is closing the last of his three stores, following a nationwide trend of disappearing piano stores.
The best year for new piano sales in the U.S. was 1909, when more than 364,500 were sold. But after gently falling over the years, piano sales have plunged more recently to between 30,000 and 40,000 annually.
The average cost of a new grand piano last year was just over $16,000, and a well-maintained piano can make music for 50 to 70 years.
On Oahu piano stores will soon be down to two: Piano Planet, in the Na Lama Kukui Building in Iwilei, and Mozart Music House, in nearby Dole Cannery.
In addition to Sanders’ three stores, another store that sold pianos, ABC Music in Kakaako, closed a few years ago.
"It’s never been this bad," said Sanders, who has been selling pianos and other instrument on the islands for 43 years.
Sanders said the popularity of electronic keyboards and the ease of online sales have drastically cut into his business. Although he also sells electronic instruments like Yamaha digital pianos, many people come into his shop to try one out, then order it online or go to big-box stores, which can sell them cheaper than a specialty store like his, he said.
Sanders strongly believes that for a piano student, a good acoustic piano will produce better results than a digital instrument. "Ask any teacher which they would prefer," he said.
Joe Lamond, president and CEO of the National Association of Music Merchants, a music products industry trade association, agrees.
"Having all the notes laid out in front of you spatially is really an important way to learn music," Lamond said. "It’s why it’s one of the most important instruments for people to begin on. That’s not going to change."
George Nellas, owner of Piano Planet, says piano dealers have to adjust to modern market conditions. He opened his store just a few months before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, which put a damper on economic activity. His original intention was to sell used pianos, thinking that many pianos sitting around collecting dust could be renovated and resold. But Hawaii’s tropical climate rendered many beyond repair, and others wound up for sale online, bypassing dealers.
So Nellas has adjusted by selling new instruments — he is now the local Steinway dealer, selling its entry-level to midprice Boston and Essex brands along with performance-quality Steinways. He might sell two grand pianos a month, and even fewer upright pianos, which have been "wiped out by digital pianos," he said.
As it turns out, Nellas is also one of the top dealers in digital pianos on the West Coast.
"There was a time when everybody went to the piano store to get a piano," Nellas said. "Nowadays, Craigslist is going to take 20 percent of your business, just because (used pianos) are there and available. Even if they shouldn’t be buying (a used piano), they’re buying it anyway. And then the online, the Walmarts, the Costcos, that’s going to take away another percentage, because you just click and buy it, rather than having to come down here."
Nellas sees a steady flow of customers from sources like military families needing a digital piano to use for their two- or three-year stints here. He said digital pianos are so good now that they make sense for beginners, with touch and responsiveness of the keyboards getting ever more sensitive.
Nowadays he thinks that it’s possible that a youngster might begin on a digital piano and, depending on their drive and talent, might then switch to a grand piano, rather than going to an upright first.
While the trend in piano sales is working against dealerships, there doesn’t seem to be a noticeable decline in interest in learning the instrument.
"There’s no shortage of students, to the point where some teachers have waiting lists or they just can’t take any more," said Ethel Iwasaki, a piano teacher and recent president of the Hawaii Music Teachers Association. "No teacher has said they have trouble finding students that I know."
"Older people are taking lessons, too, rather than just the little ones," she said.
Iwasaki echoed Sanders’ sentiment that teachers would prefer students to learn on a true piano, upright or grand, rather than an electronic keyboard. "The touch is different, even though they say it’s the same," she said of the electronic keyboards, adding that youngsters who learn on them "usually don’t play as well."
Still, she understands why many parents opt for the electronic keyboard. "A lot of people now live in apartments, with their family. The electric piano can be turned off, so that they use only earphones. They can play any time, day or night."
Iwasaki is not surprised that piano sales are down. A good piano, well maintained, can be played for decades and last a family generations. "It’s not like a car," Iwasaki said. Moreover, a family might buy an affordable piano for a beginner but not upgrade unless the youngster shows promise.
Alan Nishimura, proprietor of Mozart Music House, is not troubled by slow sales. His dealership specializes in high-end instruments, like Boesendorfers and Bechsteins, which sell at upward of $100,000. His main business is in tuning and maintaining instruments around the islands and elsewhere.
"It has always been slow for us, the way it should be in regards to pianos," he said. "Dealing with pianos was never intended to be fast and easy, similar to learning the piano."
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
