Beacock Music is opening a second location after more than 40 years as a Vancouver-based, family-owned business.
The new store is located in Eugene, Ore., and set to soft-launch on Monday, said Gayle Beacock, daughter of Dale and Susan Beacock who opened the original store in 1976.
For Gayle Beacock and her brother, Russ, the expansion happened organically after years of toying with the idea of a second location.
It took a while. Anything without the “Beacock Music flair,” she said, was a nonstarter.
“The Beacock Music flair is threefold. No. 1, we go by the motto of exceeding everybody’s expectation, every time,” said Gayle Beacock, exuding enthusiasm. “We try to look for opportunities to blow their mind.”
“No. 2 is our merchandising. We want to create an environment that pays people back for making the effort to walk into our store,” she continued, extolling the rustic Northwest vibe of the music shop. “You’re going to walk into our store and say, ‘This is just fun.’
“Thirdly, it’s the way we have our culture,” Gayle Beacock said. The way they train staff is disciplined and deliberate, so much so that the Beacock daughter is moving her life down to Eugene for the next year to launch the new location.
“Neither Russ nor myself felt like we could just set up the store and say, ‘Go sell stuff,’ ” she said.
The Eugene location will offer most of the same services as the main shop at 1420 Southeast 163rd Ave. in Vancouver, just on a smaller scale. Music instruments and supplies are available to purchase or rent, and the Beacock extension will also provide repair services.
The only big thing missing from the Eugene location is education — the new store, just 3,400 square feet compared to the Vancouver location’s 20,000 square feet, doesn’t have space for lessons, Gayle Beacock said.
The family settled on Eugene after Pacific Winds Music, operated by a family friend for 35 years, shuttered a few months ago. The Beacocks started spending every Monday in the Oregon city as part of a school music road program.
“We just saw such a need and an opportunity for our business down in Eugene. It kind of evolved over time,” Gayle Beacock said.
The family, naturally, is full of musicians. Gayle plays the flute, Russ plays the drums, Susan is a vocalist and Dale was a clarinet saxophone player.
There are some growing pains, Gayle Beacock admitted, linked to the family’s 42 years spent operating a single store.
“We haven’t done this a lot,” she said with a laugh. “I don’t want to look like every other music store.”
Eugene’s Beacock Music is at 791 W. Eighth Ave., in the former Pacific Winds Music building.
A grand opening celebration is tentatively scheduled for October.
