MIDDLE C MUSIC I COMMUNITY I BY ANDREW GREINER
The Local Hero

After six years in business, Myrna Sislen’s Middle C Music has become a community fixture. Be it the store’s summer rock band camp or guitar classes for the soccer-mom set, there’s always some new idea simmering at the dealership, located in Washington, D.C.’s Tenleytown neighborhood.

But that community status was recently put to the test after a run-in with the local Best Buy store.

Taking a cue from NAMM’s partnership with the video game empire, Sislen decided host her first-ever Guitar Hero competition. She figured the idea would connect with the community at large and get some new customers into her store.

Just a week before the Memorial Day competition, the event was poised to be a rousing success. Video game maestros were registered; the prize — a real-life Flying V guitar — was polished and set up; and the advertisements were posted. All Sislen had left to do was get the big-screen TV to play on, and she knew where to find that.

On May 19, Sislen, and one of her employees, Ryan Tolson, walked the short distance — 132 steps, to be exact — to the Best Buy just down Wisconsin Ave. to see if she could strike a deal with her big-box neighbor for a loaner television.
She got a lot more than she bargained for.

“We asked the customer experience manager, and he said ‘Absolutely, yes we will [loan you a TV],’” Sislen said. “And then without taking a beat, he says, ‘By the way, do you see that space over there in the back of the store? We’re going to sell musical instruments over there, and give free lessons very soon.
“We’re going to sell instruments, and we’re going to kick the competition to the curb.”

Sislen took a deep breath. She was the competition.

Before the manager had finished his sentence, she saw her fate in crimson lettering: Best Buy would use her distributors, pump tons of cash into advertising and undersell her until she was forced to close her doors.

“This guy told me that it was a done deal and that they’d be selling guitars for between $300 and $1,500 within two months,” she said. “Ryan started taking notes, which was good because I started to feel woozy.”

That was on Monday.

Community Activism
Best Buy recently announced plans to expand its music-store-within-a-store concept to as many as 85 stores nationwide before the end of the year. The national electronics chain already sells some musical instruments, such as entry-level keyboards, in nearly every location, but the store-within-a-store selection is considerably wider, on par with a store like Sislen’s, which remains for now the only full-service shop in her area.

Sislen said she has no problem with Best Buy going after larger music store chains like Guitar Center. But when a retail behemoth like Best Buy picks a fight with an independent retailer like Middle C Music, she’ll fight.

“I called my lawyer right away,” she said. “I wanted to look into anti-trust rules because of [Best Buy’s] desire to kick the competition to the curb.” But according to Sislen, the legal route showed little promise.

Then an amazing thing happened: The community championed her cause.
On Tuesday, she told Sue Hemberger, a mother to one of her students and resident activist, about her plight. By Wednesday, Hemberger had drafted a petition that she circulated among various local blogs and listservs.

That day, the petition attracted 150 signatures denouncing Best Buy’s alleged decision. The local newspaper came out and wrote a David and Goliath story. On Thursday, the petition had more than 250 signatures. Angry Tenleytown residents, led by Hemberger, organized a protest, complete with picket signs for the weekend.

That Friday, according to Sislen, Best Buy entered full damage-control mode.
The company line read: No store. No competition. No problems.
“Corporate Best Buy denies they ever intended to put a music store in the Tenleytown location,” Sislen said.

Best Buy Denies Allegations
Indeed, the general manager of that location, Suresh Prasad, who was out of town when Sislen first heard the news, said plans to install one of the music-stores-within-a-store at his location never existed.

“As you can see, I have no room to put one in,” he said, waving a hand across his floor plan. “Installing those sections is up to the discretion of each location. I had no plans to do that. Why would I? I work well with Middle C Music. I send a lot of business [Sislen’s] way.”

As for the customer experience manager who had initially delivered the news to Sislen? “He was probably talking about something that he heard might happen in the future,” Prasad said. “He was not correct.”

A spokesperson from the Best Buy corporation headquarters in Minnesota corroborated Prasad’s statement.

Sislen said she has no complaints about Prasad, who has handled the aftermath of his customer service manager’s quip with grace. “He is very, very, very nice,” she said of the Best Buy manager. “He wants to make sure everyone in the community is happy.” But she doesn’t buy the denial. “The guy who talked to us knew too many details. He knew where everything would go, how much it would cost — everything.”

The Neighborhood Hub
Sislen may have battled the big-box and won. Or, she may have been the subject of an employee spreading misinformation. Bottom line: She’s breathing easier now. She’s content not knowing the whole story as long as she remains the only music retailer on Wisconsin Ave.

She said she realizes that there’s an important lesson here, one that transcends the David and Goliath story. She connected with her community on a scale she didn’t think possible.

“One of the women who signed the petition said that I’m the entry point into the neighborhood, and that makes me very important to its well-being,” she said. “All the parents come and drop their kids off at lessons, and then go shop at Container Store and Whole Foods and Best Buy.”

Middle C Music’s rock band camp is more than a gimmicky take on lessons. It’s a neighborhood strengthener. The guitar lessons for soccer moms serve the same purpose as, say, a book club by bringing people together. Sislen does more than sell instruments, accessories and lessons. In her own way, she unites Tenleytown.

“What this whole thing says is that if we [as independent retailers] are integrated in our community, we’re more than just a store, and we can weather hard times,” Sislen said. “So much of what we learn at these [better-business] conventions and seminars is sell, sell, sell. But it should really be to connect.”

This summer, Sislen gave two seminars at the Summer NAMM show about how to use events to improve sales. She hopes to give a new talk at the next NAMM convention about community.

Making Music Makers
Sislen’s taking these lessons to heart. A new angle to her rock band camp adds an even deeper personal element. She’s now videotaping each of the weeklong sessions and including interviews with the students on a graduation DVD.

At the Guitar Hero competition, which went off without a hitch on that Best Buy television, she gave out free guitar lessons to everyone in the store during the eight-hour event, regardless of whether they bought something. Another competition is tentatively scheduled for the fall.

Sislen is also building new communities within her neighborhood with yet another in-store promotion. It’s called a ukulele orchestra.

“I noticed that I was selling a lot of ukuleles, so I started a ukulele orchestra,” she
said. “Right now, it only has eight members, but it will grow.”

To be sure, next time Sislen is faced with a trying circumstance in her community,
she can add uke players to her list of supporters. MI