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How’s Business? Glenwood Music navigating supply shortages due to COVID-19 pandemic

Glenwood Music owner Joe Rodgers stands at the counter of his south Glenwood business.
Chelsea Self / Post Independent

Glenwood Music is looking forward to honoring instrument rental contracts with local schools but is currently trying to navigate months of backorders due to supply chain interruptions caused by COVID-19.

Joe Rodgers, who co-owns Glenwood Music with his wife, Annie Rodgers, said the schools shutting down in March 2020 really hurt the store’s bottom line.

“So, if 2020 was the year of the shutdown, 2021 is the year of the backorder.” — Glenwood Music owner Joe Rodgers

“That’s our bread and butter — those band rental contracts,” Rodgers said.



“But we’re looking forward to the schools opening in September. We’re already getting strong numbers from the band directors about instrument requests and things like that. So we’re looking forward to that.”

Luckily, Rodgers said there was a high demand for all things musical during the shutdown.



“That really started picking up in May after two months of just being locked up and people stuck at home,” Rodgers said.

“I saw numbers in the industry where all the major manufacturers had record sales this year.”

But the supply chain has put a kink in instrument sales.

“So if 2020 was the year of the shutdown, 2021 is the year of the backorder,” Rodgers said.

“Over half my store is on backorder, with some estimated time of arrival extended to next year.”

Guitars in particular are on backorder, Rodgers said.

“It’s a combination of the shortage of chips that go in the pick-up systems, the wood, the shortage of labor,” Rodgers said. “So what happened is the big boys like Fender and Gibson had to abide by the social distancing guidelines, which slowed production down. They had to buy more floor space in order to accommodate workers. Then you have shipping problems, so anything coming out of Asia, including Japan and South Korea, there’s no containers going back because everything is stacked into Long Beach trying to get into California.”

Rodgers said his concern last year was loss of income from band rentals.

“This year my concern is that we don’t have anything to sell,” Rodgers said.

While the store looks like it’s in good shape supplywise, Rodgers said the established brands are nowhere to be found.

“We have no Fenders, no Gibsons, no Yamaha — when you think about the big boys that people come in looking for, we can’t get them,” Rodgers said.

“What you see out there is kind of — lack of a better word — off the beaten trail guitars. They’re not our biggest sellers.”

Rodgers said he just posted an alert on his website, at GlenwoodMusicInc.com, where customers can put down a 50% deposit for backordered instruments and other products they are planning to purchase for Christmas gifts.

“Because if they don’t get in line now, they’re not going to see it until next year,” Rodgers said. We’re taking a 50% refundable deposit because we can’t guarantee the estimated time of arrival. So the customer can back out.”

Rodgers said customers who don’t get in line now will likely be waiting much, much longer than Christmas to receive their orders.

“Some things are going to be shipped this fall, some things are not.”

Glenwood Music is located at 3102 Blake Ave. in Glenwood Springs.

Reporter Shannon Marvel can be reached at 605-350-8355 or smarvel@postindependent.com.


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