MURRAY, Utah — After over three decades of being a staple in the local music community, a beloved store is now having to close its doors. Management said it’s because of tariffs and a slow economy.
"It’s kind of the end of a big legacy in Salt Lake," said Kameron Anton, manager at Guitar Czar.
"They have guitar lessons here, you learn about the gear,” said longtime customer Douglas Erekson. "I’ve bought guitars online and I’ve been burned in the past. You can only tell so much from photographs.”
"If you want to be able to try a guitar in the future, you need a store to do it,” said Anton.
In less than two weeks, Guitar Czar won't be a place to do that. Anton said rising costs and tariffs are contributing factors.
"There’s plenty of stuff made in the U.S., but there’s just some industries that don’t really see it feasible to support, at least in this quick time with what the tariffs are doing,” said Anton. "So many electronic components are just manufactured overseas, and we just don’t have the ... maybe in 5-10 years we could bring that back, kind of thing."
Anton also explained that with families working hard to make ends meet, guitars just might not be feasible for them to buy now.
“Feels like there's a lot of consumer hesitancy right now. No one knows what's going on, so no one seems to want to spend much money," he said.
They are trying to sell everything before closing on Oct. 25 and hope people support other music stores once they close.
"Support all of the other local businesses around here, local businesses in general, but the music retail business,” said Anton.
"We're sorry to see this go, and hopefully the economy turns around and something will come back,” added Erekson.
