Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum An Embarassing Costco Suzuki

There should be some things clarified here.

1. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A SUZUKI PIANO COMPANY. This is truly just a stencil with a number of different companies of origin.

2. Suzuki USA is not affiliated with Suzuki Japan, the name is licensed by a group from San Diego.

3. The warranty is backed by the marketing company only, not a factory.

The pianos are only as good as the company that is contracted to make it be it Dongbei yesterday, Artfield today and whoever in the future.

I used to run the Costco piano roadshows So Cal. I did it for almost 3 years. We sold Story & Clark (Dongbei) Players, Weinbach, Roland digitals and a house brand made in China by Dongbei. We prepped ours and demo'd ours and sold them with prep and service after the sale. When I started with only 12 Costcos, we were competing with the Suzuki. We would sell 10-15 units in 10 days. The Suzuki's were doing dramatically less. They also had lots of returns, especially with their digitals.
They found that eliminating the 'demo' actually improved their sales. If you couldn't play or hear it, it sold better.
So now you can only get them on line. I think they are now made by Bejing Piano Company, and maybe larger sizes are made by Dongbei.

If Suzuki does indeed keep changing manufacturers, what is the strategy behind it? Is it to improve quality or improve margins and/or sourcing?

Does this also mean that Dongbei, Artfield and Beijing all produce for Suzuki to an exact same specification and design? This would imply distinct production runs wouldn't it or am I missing something?

fathertopianist

Manufacturer's make a little different size. The Vienna OEM product that was made by Dongbei had solid boards but the Beijing models were 1 inch shorter and laminated boards.
Steinways' Essex piano made by Young Chang in China was one design and the ones made by Pearl River in China are not the same.

Very interesting post. Thanks much.
I would say that Suzuki pianos are not the only product that sells better without a personal demo.

I don't know how much information you get on those actually purchasing the pianos, but it would be enlightening to hear anything you can tell. Could you share with us what the key differences were between those customers who bought at a Costco roadshow and those that purchase in your piano store?

Examples:
- age,
- background,
- family income/budget,
- piano/music experience, first instrument?
- purchase intention (play, take lessons, for kids, decorate/furniture, vague dreams, don't need one but the price is right, etc)
- planned vs. impulse purchase,
- number of other stores shopped,
- after sale satisfaction,
- after sale actual use
- ...

I am particularly interested in your view on whether the Costco roadshows were opening the market to new customers or instead potentially cannibalizing sales of existing piano stores.

Also, would the pianos being sold at Costo mostly wind up as dead-end dust collectors or are some/many actually used intensively perhaps leading to later trade up purchases for traditional dealers?

Yes! And while you're at it, please provide the following additional information, broken down by road show vs store customers:

- how many were left-handed, right-handed, or ambidextrous?
- what percentage were redheads?
- do the purchasers sleep on the left or the right side of the bed?
- how many were men, and of those, did they "dress left" or "dress right"?
- how often do they have sex?
- what are their favorite colors?
- do they like Ginger, or Maryanne?
- plastic or paper?
- blondes or brunettes (assuming the blondes themselves actually prefer Steinways)?

Thanks!

I just ordered a container load with the name "Steinway" on them.

I having them made with German parts, German design and German engineering...just like the Hamburg "Steinway and Sons" and the E11enberg.

I wonder how they will sell.

They will sell great, Steve. The only problem is, the buyers will have to be content with artificially colored blondes. Natural blondes will simply ignore them.

I think you are on to something, Steve. Check out this recent ad on the Atlanta Craigslist. Brand new Steinway’s, Yamaha’s and Kawai’s starting at $995.

http://atlanta.craigslist.org/msg/595089886.html

I would check it out myself but you know what they say, if it sounds too good to be true….

Best regards,

Rickster

Apparently someone stocked there a couple of dozen pianos and just forgot to take them away, so the owner of the storage space liquidates everything himself....

hhhmmmm..... sounds VERY strange to me... that's not a hat forgotten on the bus and "unclaimed", is it?

Not sure if these would be a good deal. According to the photo provided, the warehouse is nice, but the mechandise appears to have been stored in direct sunlight, with occasional rapid changes in humidity.

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There is a lot of nonsense in this thread.

I am a piano performance major at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory right now and I have played on all manner of instruments from Steinway D's, a 2007 Steinway B, old rebuilt steinways, old un-rebuilt steinways, and Baldwins ranging from terrible to excellent. I log hours and hours on all these instruments.

I resumed piano when I was 16 after a long break and the piano I bought was a Hallet and Davis 5 foot 5 inch model. I had a good tech service and tune it when I got it and it's been fantastic ever since. The action and sound on it are better than 90% of the pianos I practice on daily for hours on end, including some of the older steinways (and every single baldwin except one).

Compared to the newer steinways, yes, the Hallet and Davis does not sound or play as good. However, I got my piano for $5000 (special deal because we knew the dealer and the factory messed up). The steinway's are $80,000. The law of diminishing returns is perhaps nowhere more evident than in the piano world. My hallet and Davis has stood up well over the last three years of my pounding - 6 hours a day on average of Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, Gershwin, etc.

I am actually looking fowards to going home for spring break so I can practice on it instead of the largely unpleasant piano's we have here.

Perhaps most importantly, had I not been able to buy a budget grand piano, I would not be attending conservatory right now.

Hello theJourney
I started a new thread with your questions. You'll find it under the Costco experience.
Thanks for some great questions.

I take it you didn't like my questions. ..sniff, sniff.... I feel so... used!

I would easily understand how a better piano makes things difference...
The key word is 'better' - and it so not true to say that for all Steinways.

I've had a small Yamaha grand for several years. First I was happy with it, and then started realizing what the tech meant when he said ‘it’s good for the money’. Well, it was not good enough anymore. I need more…
After selling it, during the course of looking for a replacement, I tried all pianos fall within the budget of $10K, meaning all lower end pianos, most of them are Chinese makes. And off course, all others too – including several old, rebuilt Steinways.
I would easily see why the tier 3 pianos are placed in, uhm… tier 3. But those particular Steinways that I’ve tried were not tier1 worthy either 
Other tier1 pianos and tier2 (Estonia) were just exceptional. I could see it clearly how these pianos would make my home a better place (but not my wallet!)

Fortunately, I found a 1969 7’ Baldwin F within the budget – still very much playable. And it does sound better than all tier3 pianos. Instantly, even it has a crappy action, my wife and I start to play much more (the piano that is). We were discussing music; I started writing again; we even were talking about a piano party with friends…

I do understand it will need thousands to get it back to the full potential. With limited budget, we will have to do it slowly, with tuning and regulation first. I’m not sure it’d take the same 2 full days as this thread Suzuki. I also understand that there are some tier3 pianos out there that could give me the same satisfaction or perform better than this Baldwin; but they are surely not in the stores that I visited.

Just my little experience regarding pianos on difference tiers.


andy

Look at the crated pianos with a magnifying glass..
Name on the crate looks like Sherwood to me ..
Sherwood Grand Pianos?

What say you guys?

Bear

Some people have all the luck. . .

I'm dying to know though, how did the factory mess up? They didn't mess up the piano I assume.

Hi Bear 1,

Yes, I did notice that in the ad. However, in all honesty, I didn't take the ad seriously.

My take is that the ad is somehow misleading and it is one of the avid piano peddlers around Atlanta (and I'm sure you know who they are) trying to drum up business any way they can. Is this what you call bait and switch (Steinway, Yamaha and Kawai to Sherwood)?

These people seem to dominate the local Craigslist with all kinds of misleading ads. They will say things like “moving and must sell” or “son or daughter no longer plays” or some other tale to lead you to believe they are individual private sellers; when you call about the ad, you find out that they are not private sellers but one of the many new and used piano dealers in the metro Atlanta area. They must move a lot and have a lot of children .

Anyway, I find the ad itself so misleading and ridiculous that I posted it to PW to participate in Steve Cohen's light-hearted thread about ordering a container load of Chinese pianos and putting the name Steinway & Sons on them .

Best regards,

Rickster

Thanks Rickster.

Best,

Bear

its a Swineway..made in Sherwood Forrest!