GETZVILLE, N.Y. — Denton Cottier & Daniels co-owner James P. Trimper said his final goodbyes with an emotional and special song he wrote. It gives him flashbacks about the past 40 years of running the piano and organ store.
"This is such a big piece of Buffalo history. Obviously, I get very emotional because I'm the one that has to close it," Trimper said.
The Trimper siblings were left the family business when their father, James Trimper Sr., died in November. It wasn't long after the 196-year-old business "scaled" back, ultimately closing its doors in January.
"We're not competing with other products like this. We're competing for people's time," Trimper said.
The piano business was booming in the 80s. Then the internet came, distracting people from learning instruments. The piano quickly stopped being everyone's "forte."
"As video games, computers, and the internet — when all of that stuff started coming out, people played less and less and less because they had other things to take up their free time," Trimper says.
That's when digital pianos joined the "run" to compete with the growing technology market. However, it backfired.
Giant retail stores were selling them at $300 a pop, cheaper than the $500 or more you would pay at music shops. It grew to be more popular. Piano sales went down, and bills began to pile. The family business fell into debt.
Trimper said the debt was going to be hard to come back from. The best option was to sell.
So, for Friday and Saturday, the store is having a liquidation sale. Residents are already browsing. The liquidation sales starts at 9 a.m. and ends at 4 p.m.
If they can't sell all of their pianos, what will happen?
"I have no idea. I can't store this stuff. There's no way," Trimper said. "So it will have to go to another dealer or unfortunately, go in the dumpster."
It was a long, fun run in Western New York. Now James and his sister, Michelle, are waving goodbye.