down the street from his parents’ pawn shop in Washington, D.C. Some 68 years later, Adam runs the business alongside his uncle and aunt, Alan and Abbe Levin, with Adam’s sister Samantha also serving in store leadership. Today, the business has some 110 employees and rents north of 10,000 instruments a year across the DMV metro area. But Alan still remembers the store’s tumultuous beginnings. “There was always something going on. Starting in the 1960s when the guitar boom began with the introduction of the Beach Boys and the Beatles and all that — the business just exploded,” Alan recalled. “Then in 1968 we got wiped out by a store fire, and there was a real question about whether Chuck wanted to start over. I told him, ‘Dad, you didn’t teach me how to do anything else,’ and I was only 18 at the time. I wasn’t sure he could do it again, but he did, and he had a lot of support from almost all the manu- facturers. We still have the letters. The one we always talk about is from Mr. Martin of Martin Guitars, who basically told his rep to give the kid — meaning my dad — anything he needed. And my dad paid everyone back. We didn’t owe a dime to anybody. We’ve had great credit from that point on. We didn’t even use purchase orders for years. But our ‘claim to fame’ was that we never burned anybody. My dad paid everyone, and that’s still how we do business.” Over the next 40 years, Chuck Levin’s Washington Music Center would grow to take up three-quarters of a square block in Wheaton, Maryland, featuring about seven or eight separate buildings. “The business has gone from being a real mom-and-pop with a single retail floor to what you can only call a campus at this point,” Adam said. “We have over 100 em- ployees on one site handling everything we do. Space has always been the challenge for us. If there’s an empty room, it gets filled.” Despite its size, Chuck Levin’s has con-
Today, Chuck Levin’s Washington Music Center is run by the second and third generations of the Levin family. From left: Alan, Abbe, Adam and Samantha Levin.
I n a day and age where chatbots and self- service experiences reign supreme, Chuck Levin’s Washington Music Center is continu- ing to double down on something decidedly old-school: good old-fashioned face-to-face customer service. That approach earned the Wheaton, Maryland, retailer the “Best Customer Service” award at the 2026 NAMM Retail Awards, but according to the Levin fam- ily, there isn’t a secret formula behind the recognition. There are no customer-service binders, no scripted interactions and no playbooks hanging behind the sales counter. Instead, the nearly 70-year-old business relies on its knowledgeable staff, genuine conversations and a company-wide belief that doing right by the customer matters more than following “the book.” “There are a few guiding principles we have,” said Adam Levin, third-generation owner and general manager of the store. “The first is that people don’t come here because they have to. They come because they want to. We try to keep that in mind and make sure this is always a place where
you can feel like a kid again and where your dreams feel possible. When someone walks in, they should be met with a friendly face and someone who actually knows what they’re talking about. Someone who can walk alongside them, and help them fig- ure out what they need. It’s not just about selling whatever stock we have. It’s about understanding what someone needs and figuring it out together. “The other guiding principle is that mu- sic is a happy business — and we’ve really internalized that,” Adam continued. “We do everything to keep it that way. It’s not sales for the sake of sales. It’s sales for the sake of customer satisfaction. People love coming here, and they’re passionate about what they’re buying. So, if something isn’t working for a customer, we want to make it right. Those two ideas are central to ev- erything we do. And sometimes that means going further than the manufacturer will.” ROOTED IN RELATIONSHIPS F ounded in 1958, the business began when Chuck Levin opened a music shop just
CUSTOMER SERVICE ONE-LINERS | “This isn’t the dentist’s office. You’re supposed to have fun.” — Alan Levin “Pick up the
Need to boost your customer service? Here’s some quick advice from the Levins, the 2026 NAMM Retail Awards “Best Customer Service” winners.
“ Remember that you’re all in this together. We see ourselves as being ‘in it’ with our customers. So, we make sure they get what they need.” — Alan Levin
phone, and talk to a customer.” — Adam Levin
32 I MUSIC INC. I JULY 2026
Powered by FlippingBook