Schafer's House of Music to close after decades in downtown Howell – Daily Press & Argus

HOWELL — After more than six decades in business, a family-owned music store in downtown Howell will soon close.
Schafer’s House of Music at 113 W. Grand River Ave. will shutter at the end of February. The store, which sells a variety of musical instruments and offers lessons, repairs and rentals, has been around since the late 1950s and is one of the oldest downtown businesses still in operation.
“I’ll miss the people,” owner Steven Schafer told The Daily on Tuesday. “The people who came in are all nice, and most of the teachers have been with us for years and years.”
Schafer, 72, said he expects the store to close after Feb. 28. Staffers are working to sell off inventory at a discount.
Music lessons will continue “right to the end,” he said.
Schafer grew up in the store, which was founded by his mother Loretta Powell as an accordion studio. He said his mother worked there until she was 84.
“When my mother got elderly, up in her 80s, we made a plan for me to come back to the store full time,” he said.
Over the decades, the store expanded its inventory to include more types of instruments and added lessons and repair services. The store has also rented band instruments to countless school children. Students currently renting instruments have the option to purchase them at half price.
“Then we got into guitars, pianos, and band instruments,” Schafer said. “When organs got popular, we had 30, 40, 50 of those in the store. Then pianos got more popular.”
The store had a Brighton location for about four decades, he said, though it moved around to a few different storefronts.
Schafer has learned to play a few instruments himself, including guitar and bass. He played keyboard with his former band Caprice for decades, booking gigs around Detroit.
He said the decision to close and put the building up for sale was a financial one. He expects to close on the sale of the building to a “local businessman,” whom he declined to identify, later this week.
“We’ve been losing money for more than five years,” he said. “I put all of my retirement into here that I had from a younger life.”
He said it became difficult to compete with online shopping.
“About 80% of the customers look at the instruments and then look online,” he said. “You can’t compete with that.”
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The new potential owner plans to convert three upstairs rental units into “luxury, high-end apartments” and lease out the commercial space on the first floor, Schafer said. He didn’t have other details, but said it’s possible to split the building back into two spaces, as it was originally.
Current renters upstairs have been given notice they’ll have to move, he said.
After the store closes, Schafer plans to continue tending to cattle on his family’s Marion Township farm, and he might take on a part-time job, possible at a local big box store.
— Contact reporter Jennifer Eberbach at jeberbach@livingstondaily.com. 

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