Buckley's Music, located at 6208 Quinpool Road, has operated in one form or another for over 90 years in Halifax, as a record store, equipment outlet and school, and was once located on Gottingen Street.
In a piece in the June/July issue of Canadian Music Trade---a PDF of which is posted on the front page of the Buckley's website---Buckley's president Ken Foote spoke at length about the challenges running his business in these economic times, how music program budget cuts in the public school system forced the store to change its business.
He also talked about the challenges of having Long & McQuade, the largest music equipment supplier in Canada, come into the local market last year with its purchase of the Music Stop stores. Says Foote in the article:
"Long & McQuade is a big machine which sells at lower prices...we have had to make some internal pricing changes and tighten our belts. We have to look more carefully before we leap into anything new. It's a challenging market these days. I have been through tough economic times before in business. While it is usually a cyclical matter, the challenges today are more broad-based. The competition isn't only from the likes of Long & McQuade. We are also competing against the big box stores and the internet and---beyond that---the entire range of other stores fighting for the consumer dollar."