The Tennessean is reporting that legendary vintage guitar shop Gruhn Guitars is moving to a new location a few miles away from their current location on Broadway in downtown Nashville. Gruhn has spent 42 years in downtown Nashville, but apparently the growth in the “honkey tonk” scene in that area is partly to blame:
“It can be so loud that it’s beyond belief,” Gruhn said. “Also, parking is a miserable mess in this neighborhood.”
It’s been that way for the entire 13 years I’ve lived in Nashville, so I don’t know what has really happened over the past few years to prompt the desire to move.
According to a special warranty deed processed Friday, Ruble and Brenda Sanderson purchased the property at 400 Broadway for $4.8 million.
Oh. Perhaps the $4.8 million may have something to do with it. Here’s another reason:
“This is an ideal location for beer, barbecue and Western wear,” he said. “Having several hundred people a day to tour the shop … is an impediment to business. They’re not bad people, but they’re not going to buy what I have.”
In my experience, this attitude permeated through the entire sales force. I’ve visited the shop multiple times, and each time has been a bad-to-mediocre experience. Even though I’m a local who was looking to make a purchase, I was treated as a “impediment to business.” I haven’t been back in several years.