Frustration (finding DJ gear locally)
So,
I live in Phoenix, AZ USA. The fifth largest metro area in the US. Yet for the life of me cannot find a single DJ store where I don’t have to special order every single piece of gear I own. WTF!?! Are controllers/cases/needles that much of a niche market? Does anyone else have this problem? Am I just not looking in the right places?
Honestly, it kinda is a niche market. Once you get beyond very basic, or well known gear, at least.
You’ll find 15 different Pioneer CD decks, but maybe, maybe they’ll have two midi controllers. And god help you if you don’t buy Shure or Stanton needles/cartridges… heh
DJ shops are few and far between, everywhere.
Same problem here. There used to be a couple Dj Store once upon a time. As well as three other music stores that carried Dj Equipment. Now however we have been reduced to Just two stores that do.
Wentworth that does have needles in stock(Shure M-44). Some controllers and like equipment (Korg and Vestax)
World of Music that deals with M-Audio, Roland and Berhinger mainly.
Although both the stores stock on most gear I would be more interested in is special order as well. It took me a better part of a year to get my Trigger Finger and X-Sessions Pro
Have you tried GC? I usually carry the usual stuff, vestax, korg, etc. The one here in Pasadena, where I go usually has everything that Im looking for.
Guitar Center Phoenix
2750 West Peoria St.
Phoenix, Arizona 85029
Phone: 602-375-3800
Fax: 602-375-7739
Manager: Brett Arney
Store Hours:
Mon-Thur: 11-9 | Fri: 10-9 | Sat: 10-8 | Sun: 11-6
JesC, that’s the store that’s next to my house, lol! Anyways.. they’re customer service skills leave something to be desired. As well as technical knowledge. I also go to the Sam Ash Music near my house, but experienced the same issues. I actually ended up doing some product presentations on the SCS.3 system and Traktor Pro, because the store didn’t have anyone knowledgeable enough with MIDI gear and Traktor.
Thats pretty cool. Did you do that for Stanton , NI or for the store itself?
It’s the same everywhere. In UK stores talk a good game but when you get there they have nothing in stock or on demo.
I went to the famous HTFR and they had nothing I wanted in. Hell I’d have bought just about anything had it been in stock.
Stanton had a distribution rep there, and ended doing part of the presentation! It was really cool, and I’d love to do more stuff like that. Just not sure who I need to talk to to get the ball rolling.
I must say decks.co.uk in London is pretty decent when you go into the store, they have almost everything…
Bit of a mission for you all though eh
Yeah ive had plenty of stuff from decks via the internet shop.
Must say thet do have stuff in stock if you buy online unlike HTFR.
My mate bought his entire set from decks.co.uk about 3 months ago. Took them 6 weeks to deliver his stand though.
got my vci from hfr, because the xp5’s and mixer i wanted were out of stock 
some of the vinyl shops around here carry decks/needles/etc.. not sure about over there though, worth a shot!
In the northeast US i have found the selection of actual retailers pretty bleak as well. This is happening in a lot of areas though, even here in the northeast where skiing and snowboarding are huge, most of the shops are going out of business due to not being able to compete with massive online retailers.
I live near Wash DC, and our options are pretty limited… usually go to the Guitar Store to check out and play with stuff… then find it online, almost always a whole lot cheaper. Some of the Best Buys in our area have a limited selection of stuff in their new “Music Department” or whatever it is called… but same thing, play with it there, find it cheaper online.