Location helps Music City Inc. tune in to success

Music City, which is located near Best Buy in Primrose Mar-ketplace off South Glenstone Avenue, gets a lot of walk-by business. In fact, the store gets so much walk-by business that owners Kelly and Sid Norris said location is their best advertising, despite Springfield's competitive music store market.

"We have an enviable location," said Sid Norris. "We might pay more in rent, but we also save quite a bit of money because we don't need to advertise."

Music City's origins date back to 1990 when Kelly Norris bought Brentwood Music in the Brentwood Shopping Center.

By 1992, Brentwood Music had outgrown its location, which provided approximately 600 square feet of retail space. Kelly Norris began looking for a larger location and quickly realized that when you add more space, you have to add more inventory. When you add more space and more inventory, you need more employees. Other tasks, such as purchasing and tracking inventory, also would be more complicated and require more time to do.

Fortunately, he didn't have to look too hard to find the solution to these challenges. His brother, Sid Norris, who has a bachelor's degree in music theory from Drury University in Springfield, was thinking about starting his own business. In the end, he shelved those plans and became the co-owner of Brent-wood Music, which was promptly renamed Music City.

Shortly after Sid Norris joined the business, the store moved into 2,500 square feet of retail space in the Primrose Marketplace. In 1995, Music City moved into its current location, which spans 5,000 square feet of space, and Best Buy ex-panded into the store's old ren-tal space.

Later that same year, the Norrises set up an e-commerce Web site and began selling merchandise via the Internet. Their Web site, Music Discount Ware-house, was popular. So popular, according to Sid Norris, that it quickly became apparent they would need more space to stock their inventory.

The Norris' rented 10,000 square feet of warehouse space. They hired additional employees, and they found a good Web master to maintain their site.

Then the Norrises discovered the downside to selling merchandise on the Internet. Rent-ing additional warehouse space and hiring more employees and a Web master had increased overhead and operating expenses, and their profit margin got thinner. They also discovered credit card fraud is much more prevalent online.

In addition, several suppliers expressed their displeasure that their merchandise was being sold online, and the Norrises' relationships with these suppliers became strained. These challenges took their toll, and in 1997 they chose to shut down their Web site and began devoting all of their attention to their brick-and-mortar store.

"Our decision proved to be most insightful, considering the eventual demise of many dot-com retailers," said Sid Norris.

Springfield already had several music stores, so the Norrises began working on ways to make Music City stand out from the competition. Rather than try to be all things to all people, the store specialized in combo in-struments, such as guitars, bass guitars, keyboards, drums and amplifiers. In addition, Music City sells used band instruments and carries a wide variety of musical accessories, sheet mu-sic, karaoke equipment, a full catalog of karaoke compact discs, as well as public address systems and disc jockey gear.

"We have five full-time em-ployees, and they all play in lo-cal bands," said Sid Norris. "They know what they're selling, and if a customer needs help, one of our employees can almost always answer their question."

A full-service retail music store, Music City services all the instruments it sells. In addition, the Norrises have subcontracted with several music tea-chers who hold clinics and provide individual instruction to budding musicians. The store also has a rehearsal area, which is used by the community choir Prima Voce.

In April 2001, the Norrises opened the Inferno, a New York-style nightclub located at the corner of McDaniel Street and Campbell Avenue in downtown Springfield.

Currently, Kelly Norris runs the Inferno while Sid Norris handles Music City's day-to-day operations.

"It became apparent that we didn't need two people to run the store," said Sid Norris. "We also thought it might be wise to diversify."

According to Sid Norris, the next big project is getting rid of the store's remaining bit of long-term debt a goal he be-lieves can be accomplished within the next two years.

"We've done at least $1 million in retail sales every year since 1994," he said. "I don't think there's anything that can take us down once we get our long-term debt off our books."

The Norrises also are making plans to open the top floor of the Inferno, which will be a restaurant featuring live music.