Uke shopping

I don't anymore. None of the music shops here stock anything that interests me.
I did visit Lowe's and Home Depot today, but the thing I wanted to buy wouldn't fit in my car. Both stores were very busy.
I did visit a pharmacy for my very expensive med today. First trip away from home since Saturday, for rehearsal.
I wouldn't buy another uke from Guitar Center here, and I'm done with Sam Ash. The other seller may close, his rent just quadrupled.

Jerryc41 said:

I don't know where I would find a store with good ukuleles. On the other hand, I have the world at my fingertips searching online. I currently have enough ukuleles, and I have no plans to buy any more, at least not until I sell a bunch - someday, maybe.

I've heard that some music stores are not letting customers handle instruments, and they are not accepting instruments for repair. Nikon is not accepting photo gear for repair. It's a moot point because all non-essential stores in NY are closed. Despite that, Lowe's and Home Depot are serving hundreds of customers a day so they can by flowers and garden supplies. Ridiculous!

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I left my Nikon at Camera Dr. the week before everything closed down. Hope there is no problem getting it back.

I take the advise I'm getting STAY THE F##K HOME!
This is serious

PetalumaRescuke said:

I take the advise I'm getting STAY THE F##K HOME!
This is serious

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We’ve been isolating at our house (me, wife and son) for about two weeks now. Well provisioned so that I’m the only one that has to go out once every week and a half for milk, produce and other perishables.

I have two new Ukes on the way to help keep me occupied in exile. NUD posts are imminent...


Scooter

(Now go wash your hands!)

I like to visit music stores just to see what ukes they normally carry. One advertises that he carries the K-brands, but what it really means is that he will order K-brand ukuleles if he is paid up front. So, you have no idea what will be shipped to him. His return policy isn't very good. Restocking fees and all that.

I have purchased two ukes from a local store:

An Ohana TK-50GS (which turned out to be a B-stock/second-both are indicated on the inside label). He sold it as a first quality instrument, but gave me the sale price. And I didn't know any better at the time. Needless to say, I won't shop there again.

A Deering 12" Tenor Goodtime Banjo-Uke. From the guitar store that does my repairs. MSRP price, but their repairs are very good and not expensive. So I wanted to buy something there. And I don't play guitar.

When I used to travel to other cities, I'd stop and visit a music store while my wife went to a mall. Used book store if there weren't any music stores. Used CD store if there was one. (Not many of those anymore.)

It's usually a disappointment to visit music stores looking for Ukuleles. Generally speaking, all they have are big factory brand, laminated, cheapos which they think of as "beginner" instruments. Those of us who know better, would never saddle a beginner with such a poor quality instrument. Now, if you're in, or passing through, the Atlanta area, you really should visit Uke Republic. They have the goods! Except for stores in Hawaii, I've never been in such a well stocked store. There must be a few other Ukulele specialty stores scattered around the country, but I don't know of them. I online order almost exclusively. I've ordered a lot from Uke Republic, and never been disappointed. They do a darn good setup before shipping the Uke out to you. And, they will install a Low G string at no extra charge.

Don't bother with big box stores, mostly all low end stuff. Even GC doesn't seem to ever carry Martin ukes, although they have their guitars. Pretty much any uke shopping is online, UU, eBay, Reverb. Only venturing out occasionally now for food or medicine. Scary times. Reviewing some old uke songbooks and pieces that seemed too hard previously. They're still hard.