huge margin business. So, we were kind of in a pickle because the stuff we had in stock, we just kept the same price. But, if people wanted something that we had to order in from the States, we were like, ‘Well, look, we don’t want to order this in with the 35% tariff, because we can’t just absorb it.’” THE STATE OF CANADIAN MI Breaking down sales by department, Long said his dealerships are seeing guitars on par with past years and B&O has increased a bit, while drums have slowed. Pro-audio, however, tells a different story. “Pro-audio has been very strong in the rental area,” Long said, adding that about quar- ter of Long & McQuade’s pro-audio business is rentals. “We do a lot of pro-audio sales, as well, but it’s probably one of the department where rentals and sales are closer. Rentals have been up quite a bit. They’re probably up about 10% this year. I know, during the pandemic, there were a lot of companies in Canada that lost all their business and some of them just decided to close. So, I think we’ve been kind of picking up some business in that area. Overall, it’s been really strong.” BRICKS OVER CLICKS One aspect that sets Canadian MI retailing apart from U.S. MI retailing is Canadians’ reluctance to embrace online shopping. In September, online sales were only 12% of Long & McQuade’s total sales — and over half of those were “order online and pick up in store” shoppers. “In the U.S., you’ve got a much higher percentage of online shoppers,” Long said. “And so that sort of takes out all the people who just go and hang out at the music store and then decide to buy something. And it’s really just the people who decide they want to buy something, which is a lot less. I think it’s going to hurt the whole market by having online-only business because where are you going to try [the instrument] out?” Long also equated lower online sales in Canada to the smaller share of Amazon MI sales in the country. “Amazon isn’t huge up here [for music gear] because it’s very spread out, and they only have one warehouse where they keep the music gear, and it’s not humidified,” Long explained. “In Canada, humidity is important because it’s so dry in the winter. If you don’t humidify a warehouse, the guitars are basically unplayable. We’ve spent a fortune on humidifying all of our stores and warehouses. Sure people buy strings on Amazon, but it’s not like the U.S. where instruments are a big part of it.” MI
Long & McQuade’s Steve Long
— By Katie Kailus Tariffs and “anti-American” sentiments are spreading across Canada, prompting the country’s largest retailer to see a boost in domestic sales.
L ong & McQuade is a Canadian MI retail powerhouse. With some 100 locations across all 10 provinces, 38,000 weekly stu- dent lessons, and ownership of the Yorkville Sound and ART amplification brands, the Pickering, Ontario-based business has its roots firmly planted in Canadian soil. And lately, that’s how Canadian shop- pers have preferred it. Despite Canada’s overall sluggish econo- my, Long & McQuade’s President Steve Long said his company is experiencing unusually strong growth. “For us, we’re up 8% for the year,” he said. “Sales have been really strong for us, and it’s difficult to figure out why, but hon- estly, I think some of it has to do with [U.S. President] Trump. We have competition here in Canada, but we already have a large share of the market. For us to gain extra business like this is difficult. So, I think it’s due to a large portion of Canadian sales that were going to U.S. [retailers] have stopped. When Trump said he was going to make Canada the 51st state or put tariffs on this and that,
it angered a lot of Canadians.” As a result, Long said cross-border shop- ping — where Canadians purchase gear from American sellers — has slowed down considerably as “anti-American” sentiment settled in across Canadian. “We have two company condos in the U.S. and we let staff use them when somebody wins a sales contest or reaches a company milestone,” Long explained. “Recently, we were considering purchasing one in Hilton Head, [South Carolina], and we sent around a survey to our employees, and the response we received was, ‘Oh, we don’t want to go to the U.S.’ They were pretty vocal about it. So, I do think there’s a little bit less cross-border shopping, and not that it was a huge amount, it was maybe 10% of the business and now it’s 5%. But, that’s an extra 5% we picked up.” Long mentioned tariffs have also been slightly disruptive to his business. “The counter tariffs were a little bit of a drag,” he said. “They were only on a limited number of products, but they were really high, like 35%. Our business isn’t really a
44 I MUSIC INC. I NOVEMBER 2025
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