Longtime music store silenced Symphony of setbacks cited in closure of Quest Musique’s Portage Avenue location By: Gabrielle Piché Posted: 7:00 PM CST Monday, Nov. 7, 2022 Last Modified: 9:39 AM CST Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022 Updates

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Quest Musique on Portage Avenue is being silenced by a symphony of setbacks, among them soaring inflation, staffing shortages and supply chain issues.

A “perfect storm” was hitting the decades-old music shop and that’s the reason for downsizing, according to owner Sam Trachilis.

The goal is to sell remaining musical stock by Dec. 31 when Quest Musique’s retail side shutters.

He greeted Shane Anderson, a 15-year customer, near a row of acoustic guitars. Anderson had come for the deals: everything is on sale.

“It’s always sad when anybody closes,” Anderson said. “The nice part was the guy that owns the place would actually meet customers. You just don’t get that at other places.”

He and Trachilis spoke like long-time neighbours. Trachilis, 50, has operated Quest Musique at 1308 Portage Ave. for 20 years. He started the business in 1995.

“I don’t know how to feel,” Trachilis said, adding sadness, anxiety and some excitement are in the mix.

He’s not ending the business completely — music lessons will continue in the Portage Avenue building’s basement and at Quest’s other site at 692 Osborne St.

Pointing to reasons for the company’s closure requires several fingers, Trachilis said.

“We’re finding it’s just literally impossible to have a profit… with the way inflation’s going, the economy, bank charges tripling, products doubling in price, staffing issues, supply chain issues,” he said.

He and Nomeca, his wife, began considering closing pre-pandemic.

“Even before COVID, you started seeing things turning the wrong way in the industry,” Trachilis said.

Big box stores and online giants such as Amazon were scooping instrument and equipment sales, he said.

“The decline in margin year after year, it was always a concern, especially when you’re meeting with accountants and doing your year end,” Trachilis said.

At the time, he had the Portage Avenue location and one in St. Vital. Customers came for music lessons, and to buy instruments, take home rentals and get repairs done.

“The decline in margin year after year, it was always a concern, especially when you’re meeting with accountants and doing your year end.”–Sam Trachilis

During the pandemic, the Meadowood Drive site’s lease ended; it was expensive, so Trachilis didn’t renew, he said. However, he opened Quest’s South Osborne location for retail and music lessons.

“Guitar sales definitely increased during that period, but a lot of other things decreased,” such as music lessons, school band instrument rentals and servicing, Trachilis said.

“We found out pretty quickly the post-COVID situation, things weren’t bouncing back as we thought they would.”

For one, freight and goods prices have skyrocketed. Instruments special-ordered for customers might take a year to come in, with supply chain backlogs; by then, the price could have increased three times, Trachilis said.

“By the time you get it, it’s like, ‘Wow, we’re not going to make any money doing this,’” he said.

There’s a labour shortage — “You don’t get rich working at a music store,” Trachilis noted — and a lack of consumer spending as people cut non-essential purchases.

“We found out pretty quickly the post-COVID situation, things weren’t bouncing back as we thought they would.”–Sam Trachilis

Interest-rate hikes contribute to Trachilis’s decision. The Bank of Canada has raised its key interest rate 3.5 per cent since March.

“The number of businesses citing borrowing costs as a major cost constraint is at its highest level ever since we started tracking back in 2009,” said Kathleen Cook, director of prairies and northern Canada for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

Thirty-four per cent of Manitoba small businesses called it a major problem, more than doubling last year’s 16 per cent, Cook said.

“Retail optimism is actually extremely low right now,” she said. “Everyone’s feeling squeezed by inflation.”

This goes for businesses and consumers, she noted. Ottawa extending its repayment deadline on Canada Emergency Business Account loans to the end of 2024, and increasing the loans’ forgivable portions, would help, Cook said.

Trachilis is trying to secure jobs for his staff at other music retailers. He’s employed hundreds of people over the decades, he said.

It’s a jump from the “humbling beginnings” of 1995 when Trachilis repaired band instruments in his West End home. Once, he delivered to his former school (and band teacher) by walking instruments over in a shopping cart — he didn’t have a car.

“I was so embarrassed,” he said, adding you could “easily find a shopping cart in the back lane somewhere.”

He shortly thereafter moved his business to St. Boniface, naming it Quest Musique for “a little French flavour.”

Laurenda Madill was in the same high school jazz band as Trachilis. She took her kids to Quest for lessons and equipment.

“It was just a nice place,” she said. “It didn’t seem like a big, corporate, ‘We’re just turning out instruments here.’”

The company launched her son’s love of drumming and provided his school clarinet.

Trachilis doesn’t yet have a tenant for the Portage Avenue building’s main floor. He’s open to many things, such as a bar, he said.

The guitar-building school in the basement will stay, but the repair shop’s future is uncertain.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com