After serving three generations of Siloam Springs musicians, Whitmore's Music closed its doors on Dec. 30.
The retail music store, which sold guitars, assorted band instruments, accessories and sheet music, was open for 48 years. However, the history of the business stretches back much further.
Paul Whitmore, a piano technician who also taught music at John Brown University, began a piano service business in the 1940s. He continued the business throughout the 1950s and 60s, eventually moving into piano sales while working out of a garage. In 1968, he opened a retail store, which eventually grew into Whitmore's Music Center a decade later.
His daughter Paula Phillips remembers growing up in the store. She would walk home from school and help around the store doing chores such as cleaning the glass. Her mother taught piano lessons, and one of the best parts of growing up in the store was that her parents were always available and the family was always together as they worked at the music store, she said.
Paul Phillips went to work for Whitmore's Music Center as a sales associate. A year later he and Paula were married, and in 1985 they purchased the business.
Changes in the retail industry have closed hundreds of small "mom and pop" stores across the country. Whitmore's Music was one of the last small independent music stores in Northwest Arkansas, and hung on longer than most stores because of the supportive community in Siloam Springs, Paul Phillips said.
"All I've ever wanted to do was run a music store and Siloam Springs was a wonderful place to do it," Phillips said, adding that the store has received a tremendous amount of community support.
However, over time it became apparent that it was no longer financially viable to keep the store open and it finally succumbed to pressure from online retailers such as Amazon. Paul Phillips pointed out that customers can order instruments and supplies on their phones that sometimes cost less than what he can purchase at wholesale price.
Paul Phillips said he never wanted to shut the store down. He sees the changes in the retail business as part of reality, and pointed out that the marketplace has been constantly changing for centuries. Whitmore's Music has evolved with the changes as best it could over the years. The store began selling accompaniment tracks online in the late 1990s and plans to continue its online business, Paul Phillips said.
Paul Phillips said he has been amazingly blessed to do what he loves for the past 40 years.
"I got up most mornings saying 'I get to go to the music store today,'" he said as his face lit up. "It was never a job. It was always a joy and I got to do that for more than 40 years."
Whitmore's Music has always been about people. Paul Phillips credits his father-in-law with teaching him to be compassionate with customers and modeling integrity in business. If the store couldn't provide what a customer needed, they always helped that person find a place where they could purchase the item, he said.
Randy Steele, a local musician and longtime family friend who bought one of his first guitars from Whitmore's Music in 1974, said that customers were always treated with the highest ethics.
"They absolutely ran it right," Steele said. "It broke my heart to see them have to close. It's just a sign of the times, they can't keep up with the dotcom deal."
It is hard to imagine the sheer number of band students from Siloam Springs, and surrounding schools such as Gentry, Decatur and Colcord, Okla., that Whitmore's Music impacted over the years, Steele said.
"That's not even counting the local guitar players or drummers who play as a hobby or vocationally," he said.
Paul and Paula Phillips have been delighted to watch generations of customers come through their doors as families pass on their love for music. It has always been the store's goal to make music accessible to people, they said.
"I can't describe the joy of seeing families pass on the love of music to the next generation," he said.
The love that Whitmore's music poured into the community came back to them a few years ago in the form of a cash mob. Paul Phillips had a chance to buy back a valuable guitar that was one of the first instruments his father-in-law sold. The guitar had first sold for $500 in 1968, then was resold through the store for $350 in 1977. Paul Phillips hung the guitar on the wall and told several customers its story when they came in.
All of a sudden one afternoon, a bunch of people came in the store all at once and had a cash mob that raised a total of $2,000 so he could buy the guitar back. Paul Phillips has kept the guitar on the wall and let people play it as they come in the store. It will stay with the family and become an heirloom, he said.
"The town said we want you to keep this, and we're going to make sure you do," he said, describing the experience as inspiring and humbling.
While the retail store has a real estate sign out front the Phillips plan to continue their business online, selling Christian accompaniment tracks on CD for church or wedding soloists with the same commitment to helping their customers find exactly what they need. More information is availabe at www.whitmoresmusic.com.
General News on 01/11/2017