Piano Stores Closing as Children Pass on the Instrument

When Jim Foster opened his piano store 30 years ago, he had 10 competitors selling just pianos.

Christi Foster Nunnally (L) shows a grand piano to customers Al and Jill Jorgensen in the Foster Family Music Center piano store showroom in Bettendorf, Iowa on Dec. 10, 2014. The number of stores dedicated to selling pianos is dwindling across the country. AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall

Iowa—When Jim Foster opened his piano store 30 years ago, he had 10 competitors selling just pianos.

When he closed Foster Family Music in late December, not one was still selling pianos in the Quad-Cities area of Iowa and Illinois.

“We did try hard to find a buyer,” Foster said. There were no takers.

Stores dedicated to selling pianos like Foster’s are dwindling across the country as fewer people take up the instrument and those who do often opt for a less expensive electronic keyboard or a used piano. Some blame computers and others note the high cost of new pianos, but what’s clear is that a long-term decline in sales has accelerated.

The best year for new piano sales in the United States was 1909, when more than 364,500 were sold.