People feel inspired to develop their musical institute, considers merchant Joshua Montalvo
Gaudencia Gómez and her granddaughter Melody Rose have taken advantage of this pandemic to learn to play the guitar. (photo supplied)
Photo:
Courtesy / Courtesy
When schools closed and with the children at home 24 hours a day due to the coronavirus crisis, many parents found a way of refuge and entertainment on the guitar.
"Guitars have been selling like never before", He says Joshua Montalvo, an artist and small merchant of teddy bears, flowers, and guitars in South Los Angeles.
When news of the pandemic's national emergency broke out, and business deals were ordered, he says he became very stressed and resisted closing.
“I pulled down the curtains and what I did was sit on a bench outside the store. If any client came, I would attend to them, keeping their distance, without letting them in, ”he says.
He had no choice but to take a risk if he wanted to bring money to his family. "We are a business that lives up to date," he says. In fact, he admits that he was very sad thinking about what he was going to do to survive during the epidemic season and pay the rent for the premises and his house.
"What I never imagined is that when schools closed, parents would start coming to the store to buy guitars for their children, and also for them.", He says.
And boy did he take it by surprise, because the sale of guitars had been very slow for a long time. What he has always sold the most and what he feeds his family are his big stuffed overalls, but the guitars, if he sold one a day, was a lot.
However, with the coronavirus, sales preferences changed. “I am not going to say that they line up to buy guitars as they have done for toilet paper in supermarkets, but they have sold me up to six a day. Something unusual, ”he says.
Their guitars are priced from $ 65 for beginners to $ 220, the maximum cost. "Too Guitar strings and tuners have been widely sold. People have also come with their old guitars to change the strings and ask me to tune them. "
Similarly, he has been sold one or another horn and amplifier.
Joshua considers that The increase in guitar sales is due to people being at home all the time looking to clear their minds and want to be distracted. "They don't know what's going to happen with this epidemic, and playing or learning the guitar is something that helps them deal with stress and worry."
Also, he thinks that during quarantine, people have more time to do what they like, and some have been awakened by their musical instincts. "They kind of feel more inspired."
Almost daily, the young merchant starts singing and dancing on the sidewalk of his business to attract people and potential customers.
“Lately I've been singing Christian and Catholic songs to encourage them, and because I feel that they nurture in these moments when we need God so much. The drivers who pass by in their cars applaud me, ”he says.
(Aurelia Ventura / La Opinion)
Thanks to the upswing in the sale of guitars, Joshua was able to pay the rent of his house and premises for his business Melody rose that opened eight years ago. "Although I already have about 20 guitars left, and with the coronavirus, replenishment is taking longer than normal."
The only thing that worries him is that they may prohibit him from selling, because the authorities consider that guitars are not an essential product. "It would seem unfair to me because they stop selling alcohol and marijuana, and those products are not essential. The guitar is an instrument that helps mental health in the face of the coronavirus, and it is not that people crowd me to buy them and they are exposed to a contagion, ”he says.
