When Hoover Music Co. opened in 1912, music by Irving Berlin was popular, and blues and jazz was an underground movement in big cities.
The Springfield music store celebrates 100 years in business this month, and while it’s now wholly focused on music and musical instruments, officials recall more diverse times. Hoover Music has sold electronics and appliances – even greeting cards – to stay open, say members of the Hoover family, which has owned the store for four generations.
Today, the store sells musical instruments, accessories and sheet music, and staff instructors provide music lessons.
“It’s where the serious musicians go,” says Dennis Kraber, a longtime customer and musician. “When I go in there, I know I’m dealing with professionals, and I know all of the staff. It is a family atmosphere.”
Herbert L. Hoover opened the store as H.L. Hoover Music on McDaniel Street where he sold instruments and gave music lessons.
In 1937, the store moved to South Avenue, and four years later, Hoover died and his son, Paul, took over the business. He changed the name to Hoover Music and Books and diversified the inventory to include books, greeting cards, records and appliances. He also added stringed instruments to make up for the brass shortage during World War II.
In 1967, Hoover changed the name to Hoover Music Co. and moved the store to its current site, 440 S. Jefferson Ave. He passed the business to his sons, Kenny and James, in 1978. Kenny died in 1999, and James passed the reins to his son, Brian, in 2000.
Current store manager Cheri Norton claims Hoover Music sold the first Victrola, record player, radio, television and VCR in the Springfield market, but the store closed its electronics department in the 1970s and eventually also stopped selling records, adapting to the changing times of big-box stores.
Between 2006 and 2010, store sales hit a rough patch as revenues dropped 18 percent in that time. Declining to disclose revenues, Norton says last year’s sales rebounded by 4 percent, and officials expect a 15 percent revenue increase in 2012.
School service routes represent a large portion of that increase. In 2007, Hoover Music brought back the school routes that Norton says were introduced in the 1950s and discontinued in the 1980s as the store cut back to survive the economic decline of Springfield’s downtown.
The school service routes, which include selling or leasing band and orchestra equipment and accessories, as well as servicing and repairing instruments, now account for 65 percent of the business. The service routes include 60 schools as far north as Warsaw, east to Houston and beyond Mountain Home, Ark., to the south.
John Devos, co-director of the Reeds Spring High School band, says a Hoover Music representative visits the school weekly.
“Our school is very committed to not having students pay a lot for the music programs,” Devos says. “The route service makes it very convenient, and the school discount makes it very nice for us and for the students.”
Devos says doing business with Hoover Music is like doing business with neighbors, literally. “Our rep lives in my neighborhood in Nixa, so I can take instruments that need repaired to his home, and he will bring them back to me at the school,” Devos says. “They have a very relaxed way of doing business – very service oriented.”
Norton says Hoover Music offers in-house, zero percent financing on rent-to-own instruments for students, with a policy that allows parents to return the instrument at no charge if students decide not to continue.
Students also can trade in starter instruments for an upgrade for full credit if they trade within the first year. After the first year, they receive 70 percent of the purchase price, if the instrument is in good condition. “We feel that helps motivate students to stay in band,” Norton says.
Norton says 34 percent of revenues come from in-store sales, and sheet music makes up about 10 percent of those sales. “It is a dying trend, but since we are one of the last ones that carry sheet music, it is one department that has increased even in hard economic times,” she says.
Hoover Music has about 23,000 pieces of sheet music on hand. Norton says many teachers find the store more convenient than ordering online, as they do not have to pay shipping, and the schools receive discounts up to 30 percent, depending on the publisher.
Lessons, from piano to harmonica, bring in about 250 students per week, but Norton says they only account for 1 percent of business. Instructors are contractors who rent one of the nine lesson rooms for $2 per 30-minute lesson. The average cost for students is $18 per lesson.
Showing the signs of the times, Hoover Music staff members use Facebook and Twitter to notify students when lessons have been changed or canceled. The company also began selling inventory through its Web site last month.
The store has invested $20,000 in marketing and prizes for its anniversary celebration, scheduled March 29–31, with drawings on the 31st for Springfield Cardinals tickets, a hybrid bike, a trip to Memphis and a guitar.
Brian Hoover says he expects the store to continue to change with the times, but he has no current plans for expansion.
“We’ve sold lots of things over the years, and I’m sure things will change over time – they always have. Things are working right now, so we’ll just continue doing what we’re doing.”[[In-content Ad]]
