Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum "Joint Marketing Partnership" ??

Disclaimer: I am not related in any way to any of the business or parties involved. I am just a piano lover who happened to stumble upon this news and have some conflicting thoughts. Admins or mods, if you need me to edit this post to sound as "neutral" as possible, please let me know.

I just got an email from PianoCraft saying in a press release that they and Jordan Kitts will be doing a "Unique Joint Marketing Partnership." It says that they will offer "the widest selection of fine piano brands in America" across these two stores. What does this mean? Will these two stores cross-list and hence cross-promote their pianos? Will they make inroads into a single store? What will this mean for the piano buying experience if I were to walk into either store? Has anyone seen anything like this before? The rest of the press release is just trying to get people to schedule to see their pianos. I can't wrap my head around the concept of this arrangement. Why are they doing this?

I think this is a healthy way to be able to compare several brands, i assume in one venue? I don't see JK and Pianocraft, MD. merging, but I applaud the concept.

Can you say "Piano Mall"?

Not to drift too far OT here, but I do remember when piano stores were in the big Shopping Malls. I remember many years ago, before I actually got interested in pianos, there was a piano store at Southlake Mall just south of Atlanta and near the Atlanta air port. My wife used to enjoy going shopping there. I actually looked at some pianos at the store, but was not quite enthused enough to buy at that time. The piano store in the Mall finally closed.

Now, unfortunately, with the depression of the brick-and-mortar retailers, (due to increasing online sales?) Southlake Mall is almost a ghost town. Lots of empty buildings. There are some big auto dealerships surrounding the Mall that still seem to be doing well at the moment.

To make this post relevant, I have heard of Jordan Kitts. I've not heard of PianoCraft

All the best,

Rick

Oh Rickster, how soon we forget........

There was a piano store that carried some big name brands in a Maryland suburb of DC until just a couple of years ago.

It's a tough time to be in retailing.

Does Amazon sell Ds yet?

What are the exceptions to "Prime" shipping?

...embarrassment ensues...

Keith: since you represent PianoCraft, can you give me a sense of what this partnership is about? I'd like for this thread to get back on topic.

Sorry for the "reply fail" -- I meant to quote Rickster's sentence about how, not long ago, big shopping malls often had decent-ish piano stores. I was trying to say that such a store used to be located in a big mall in a MD suburb outside of DC. That store left the mall (and MD), but I did play there a couple of Shigerus and Bechsteins before moving on...

... To PianoCraft, which is further north in MD, not located in a big shopping mall (thankfully -- I hate malls!), and very much alive and well today.

I apologize if my earlier post confused anyone!

I know which shop you're talking about: The Piano Company, that was once in the White Flint mall of North Bethesda, MD. I performed there a few times and was close to buying a Kawai from them one day haha! The reason they closed is that White Flint was closing at the end of March 2013, so they moved back to Virginia. They have a location in the Leesburg premium outlets, though I have not been in their stores since 2013, which was before I joined PianoWorld. They had really good Shigerus and Schimmels, the last time I was there. Of course, being in a mall is not the best treatment for pianos since they can't control the HVAC and humidity, so some of their pianos were a little out of tune.

...Taking a trip down Memory Lane was nice... Well, at least we got Jordan Kitts not far from that location, and Steinway of DC is even closer!

Hello iObsessed,

PianoCraft and Jordan Kitts did a joint promotion/concert featuring Bosendorfer and Steingraeber last year. It was a big success and everybody enjoyed themselves. We currently have selected several pianos from Jordan Kitts to offer alongside out PianoCraft inventory. They are hand made pianos from Yamaha, Bosendorfer, Mason & Hamlin and more. They will all be prepared by PianoCraft technicians and offered at some fantastic discounts.
Although we are also competitors, it is clear that Jordan Kitts clients are usually interested in what PianoCraft has to offer and vice versa so we are giving this a try. It is very unusual to be able to work in this way with a competitor in this business, but so far so good.

We have gotten tons of positive feedback and a lot of feedback from shocked folks within the industry which has been entertaining.

Every time I buy a D on Amazon Prime they want me to "subscribe and save". Geez, it's not like I need a new one every month.

Yes, but if you do want to buy a new one every month, they are there to make it easy for you!

But this is only on select items!