Sweetwater Expands and Enhances Music Store

Sweetwater has completed a total redesign and expansion of its Music Store, which opened on June 1st in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Now four times the original size and one of the largest in the Midwest, the Sweetwater Music store is backed by the largest on-site inventory of musical instruments and audio gear of any music store in the country.

Sweetwater founder and president Chuck Surack said, “Our new store features structural, design, and aesthetic elements that make this perhaps the music store of the future. The Music Store adds the ‘jewel in the crown’ to the Sweetwater campus.”

The entire campus, on more than 100 acres, is now more than 320,000 square feet, and, in addition to the Music Store, includes the Academy of Music, a 250-seat Performance Theatre, three recording studios, a service department, the Wavelengths spa and salon, health club, the Downbeat Diner, the new Crescendo coffee bar and a second stage with a lounge area, a gaming area, conference rooms, and many other amenities available to the public, as well as Sweetwater’s employees. All in all, the Sweetwater campus is now the biggest music store in the country.

Visually striking, warm and inviting, the Music Store layout allows the shopper to see virtually the entire store from the entrance, reassuring customers that they will find what they’re looking for.

The Music Store has vastly expanded demonstration areas, including a completely stocked drum room with interactive displays allowing musicians to simply pick up and play. Unlike most stores, electric guitars and bass guitars have been separated into individual rooms, allowing more space for both kinds of instruments. The acoustic guitar room has also been greatly expanded. These changes now allow customers access to more than 10,000 guitars.

A huge pedal wall has been built for customers to test out hundreds of effects. The live sound room contains numerous demo capabilities for comparing PA and lighting systems. The recording room boasts an extensive, interactive microphone display and a significant functioning collection of state-of-the-art recording gear.

All of these additions and enhancements have been made to make the customer experience second to none in the industry.

Sweetwater is the regional dealer for Yamaha and has created a Piano Store within the Music Store. The space is charming, comfortable, and holds many pianos and keyboards. It also contains a “living room” where the amazing Yamaha Disklavier piano can be demonstrated in a home setting.

“We’ve worked very hard to elevate the customer experience,” store manager Thad Tegtmeyer said. “We have more product out than ever before, more space than ever before, and unique features you won’t find in any other music store.”

For example, if customers can’t find what they’re looking for in the store, they can find it with the proprietary Sweetwater Digital Warehouse system, an innovation unique in the music retail business, and created entirely in-house. The customer can now interact with any of nine huge touchscreens located around the store to browse, view, and compare literally all of the gear Sweetwater has in its vast warehouse. Any item that is not in the store can be requested, using the Digital Warehouse touch screen, and will be brought out to the customer in five to seven minutes.

Dave’s Music Den, a long-term partner with Sweetwater specializing in sheet music, has also been incorporated into the Music Store.

Sweetwater’s Music Store was envisioned and created in only 12 months, thanks to Fort Wayne’s premier architects, MSKTD; one of the nation’s most-respected retail design firms, Columbus, OH-based Chute Gerdeman; and, world-renowned acousticians, the Russ Berger Design Group. Sweetwater, working with these world-class firms, has created a beautiful, spacious, and acoustically superior Music Store that is both comfortable and functional, and embodies what can only be described as “a wow experience.”