Something Old, Plenty New At Elderly Instruments

CHICAGO Elderly Instruments sounds like the kind of tiny, rustic shop that Garrison Keillor might describe in his weekly "Prairie Home Companion" reports from the fictitious Lake Wobegon. And, in fact, the enterprise started out as a small Midwestern musical equipment store.

But within little more than a decade, the East Lansing, Mich., instrument dealer dramatically expanded its operation, evolving to the point that it has become a significant seller of hard-to-find prerecorded music, complete with a large mail-order operation and a wholesale division.

In 1972, Stan Werbin and Sharon McInturff were attending college in Ann Arbor when they hit on the idea of refurbishing and selling used musical instruments. Werbin and McInturff went on to open their first store in a 10- by 12-foot space. They decided to call the venture Elderly Instruments after seeing an ad that described a vintage Les Paul guitar as "a really nice elderly instrument."

Today, Elderly Instruments is headquartered in Lansing in a 13,000-square-foot structure that houses its retail outlet, which encompasses nearly 10,000 record, tape, and compact disk titles and 2,000 books, in addition to 600 instruments; the warehouse for the operation's wholesale division, Old Fogey Distributing; and an extensive mail-order service, which accounts for 40% of total volume.

One thing has not changed, however, according to Werbin: "A lot of people still think there's a Mr. Elderly."

As befits its acoustic instrumental origins, Elderly Instruments' retail and mail-order business centers on folk, ethnic, and other specialty genres, primarily on independent labels. "We sell a lot of bluegrass, blues, Celtic, and new age music," says Werbin.

Elderly Instruments' expansion began when Werbin and McInturff started selling new instruments as well as used items. Business thrived, and after a year they made contact with independent distributor Rounder in order to carry small quantities of their favorite records in the store.

"It's the best thing you can sell," says Werbin of the personally picked disks. "You can tell people all about them."

By 1975, he relates, Elderly had found itself in the mail-order business, "largely in response to a competitor from Detroit." Werbin and McInturff decided to put out a 32-page catalog that January, but when it finally appeared the following August, the catalog had grown to 100 pages. Mail orders took off and Elderly's proprietors never looked back.

"Mail order is a different way to sell," observes Werbin. "People don't come in and browse, so the importance of keeping titles in stock is more vital than ever."

Elderly Instruments experimented with a number of local distributors before deciding to buy directly from the record companies. Eventually, says Werbin, "we became distributors ourselves." Old Fogey Distributing bowed in 1979, and now services 300 accounts throughout the Midwest — "a lot of mom-and pop stores, and a couple of small chains," says Werbin.

Old Fogey supplies Elderly's retail outlet as well, which Werbin terms "a big advantage, because it's all on the same premises. If we run out of an obscure title, we run downstairs to Old Fogey. There might be only two copies down there, but that's all we need."

In 1983, Elderly moved to its current address at 1100 N. Washington. "It's an old Odd Fellows Hall, a three-story brick structure with a ballroom on top. We'd hoped to do concerts up there, but we don't really want to get into another big venture," says Werbin, who bought out McInturff in 1986.

Visitors to Elderly Instruments' store enter through the hall, which is hung with "oddball instruments" and stocked with cassette racks that will soon include CDs. The main showroom has 2,400 square feet, with a pressed-tin ceiling, creating what Werbin calls a vintage atmosphere "in keeping with our emphasis."

Instruments and accessories are displayed in the showroom, which also includes two separate rooms for the demonstration of electric guitars and keyboards, respectively. Records and books are displayed in the adjacent 40- by 30-foot room, and there are three smaller rooms in which music lessons are given. "We also have a repair shop on premises, with four repairmen," Werbin says.

Elderly's basement is devoted to Old Fogey Distributing, the mail-order business, and storage. Werbin estimates that more than half of Elderly's record and tape sales are through mail order. In general, he says, musical instruments account for 70% of total volume, with albums accounting for 10%.

Mail-order catalogs are published annually, and involve separate publications for instruments, books, and records and cassettes. In keeping with the tradition of selling favorite records, Werbin points out that Elderly also publishes a catalog called "Our Favorites — Recommendations from the Folks at Elderly Instruments."

Elderly Instruments offers a number of specialized services to mail-order clients. Discounts of 10% are offered to customers who order a minimum of $50 worth of records or books. Ordering may be done via order form or telephone, and payment can be made by Visa, Mastercard, or personal check.

Customers who want an idea of what is on the jacket of an album they are interested in purchasing may order photocopies of that jacket, at 20 cents per album (orders of 10-20 will be filled).

"It's a bit of a pain to photocopy," he admits. "When people want a lot of them, it's like pulling a record order. But we realize that the difference between mail order and shopping in a store is that customers can hold the album jacket in their hands, so we continue to offer the service."

Werbin is particularly proud of the "Favorites" catalog, which unlike other catalogs is able, because of its smaller size, to feature blurbs on each recommended album. "It helps people choose records from unknown genres they'd like to try," he says. Categories include "everything from Appalachian dulcimer to zydeco."

Following that same philosophy, the store also has a 24-hour phone line, called "Dial-A-Ditty-A- Day," that offers callers a short sample of recent releases by little-known artists. The service is publicized in the store's mailers.

Even though instruments account for the bulk of Elderly's volume, Werbin says records are "very important. I always try to tell instrument stores that they should carry records because it's through them that music is disseminated."

Published 04-18-1987

Photo by Steve Szilagyi
Record department staffers Brian Hefferan, left, and Chris Reitz, manager.