Tootsall

So there I am, cruising the aisles at the local Cosco shop this morning (waiting for new tires to be mounted on Mrs's car...there is snow in the forecast for tomorrow). What do I spy? A display case holding one each of; Bb trumpet, clarinet, flute. The brand? "Atlantis". The place of manufacture? CUNNINGLY NOT PRINTED ON ANY OF THE MATERIAL AVAILABLE W/O OPENING THE BOXES! Now, maybe these are made elsewhere, but the labels on each box that said "Imported by" sure looked like the typical stuff that is stuck on all the other Chinese merchandise.

Now, get this... the price! $249 Cdn per instrument!! For that much money you could get yourself a real instrument on Ebay (or the local pawn shop). I don't suppose they've actually improved the quality, do you? Guess I better put the notification out via a school music teacher I know that there are some "Christmas Gifts" that Grandma had better not buy!

Jeepers, maybe I better check those Michelins and make sure they aren't Chinese too!

bandman

I live in Louisiana where the store is Sam's Club (and also Walmart), not COSTCO, but the same thing happened here. I now teach in a fabulous school where the cost of a horn for 90% of my students is not an issue. Prior to this school, I taught kids that came from federal funded housing for over 20-years. For years I bought used horns and spent my summer fixing them up so these kids would have a decent horn to play on for about $100. The local music store helped out as well, selling every horn that went to my students at a great discount.

I can just about imagine the problems at that school this year with the new Sam's Club horns. I thank God everyday that all of the horns for my current students are good horns (59 out of 61 are brand new), most of them Yamaha, Noblet, or Gemeinhardt. I see this problem of chinese horns becoming more of a problem for many schools in the future, and when the kids get frustrated the parents answer is to have the kid drop out of band.

Question -- where are they going to get them repaired when they break? No decent music store is going to touch those horns.

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Tootsall

Well, I'll tell you... the previous repairperson at the local music shop told me that they certainly wouldn't touch these things. I don't know who is in the shop now (I get my stuff done up in Calgary when it is required) but I'm betting they'll turn it down either immediately or perhaps after making "one or two false attempts" to do something for them.

We have Walmart here... it is separate from Costco (aka "Price Costco"). No Sam's yet but I've heard they may be building in Calgary also.

Ed