By Bruce Klauber
In December of 2021, Shore Local’s Cindy Fertsch wrote a profile of one of the few, remaining “mom & pop” music stores anywhere, Pleasantville Music Shoppe. Given the changes and developments in the retail market for musical instruments over the past several years, it seemed an appropriate time to check in with Shoppe owner Joanne Schilling and see how the store has survived the challenges of the past six years.
Gaston Ragno opened Pleasantville Music Shoppe in 1938. Though his musical experience was limited to only playing a little guitar, he did have experience in retail. And as an experienced retailer, he must have realized that in 1938 at the Jersey shore, there was a vast market for musical instruments and accessories. At that time, there were dozens of hotels and nightspots that used live music, to say nothing of the extensive musical activities going on at Steel Pier, Million Dollar Pier and even Garden Pier. That’s a lot of musicians, hence, a pretty big need for instruments, accessories, and musical instrument repair.
Joanne Schilling, Ragno’s daughter, is the store’s owner, and she vividly recalls how, early on, things took an interesting turn at Pleasantville Music. “We had records in the store,” Schilling remembers. “Many of the records were on RCA Victor record label. In those days, if you wanted to carry RCA records, you had to carry merchandise from RCA’s subsidiary companies. So we started selling RCA-owned appliances like Whirlpool washers, driers, and refrigerators. We became the only music and appliance store in the region.
“My dad decided to move from the main street of town on to the Black Horse Pike, which he felt would be a better location. He bought this old house, built in 1890, and turned it into a music store. Eventually, he decided, with a little nudging, that he should give up the appliances and the records.”
Schilling, who is married to the famed “singing lifeguard” and WOND radio broadcaster Jim Craine, began working at the store at a young age. “I always helped out after school, and I just liked being around it,” she says. “My father taught me how to count change by using dried lima beans. I was always interested. After college, I put my foot in just to see how much I liked it. I loved meeting all the people and helping people.” Gaston, by the way, worked in the shop each and every day until his passing in 2015.
The changes in music and in the musical marketplace since the founding of the store have been extraordinary, and Pleasantville Music Shoppe has survived and evolved through virtually every style of music. The musical instruments that the store has carried through the years–from amplifiers and keyboards, to drums and trombones–have also reflected changing times and changing musical tastes. A drum set of today, for instance, is totally different from a set of drums made in 1949. The store has also miraculously outlived local competitors like Gilday’s in Somers Point, the venerable Irv’s Music in Atlantic City, as well as the 45-store Sam Ash chain, a company that just went out of business after 100 years of operation.
The internet represents competition of a different kind, and trying to compete is a challenge. Over the past 10 years or so, musical instrument online stores like Reverb, Sweetwater, and Musicians Friend, have all but taken over the musical instrument and musical accessory market.
“The internet has affected us greatly,” Schilling admits. “And I think Covid made people a little lazy when it came to going out to a store. People got in that groove of being able to push a button on their computer and order something. That’s the new world. That’s the way everything is going now, and it has taken a toll. But we’re still plugging and we’re still pushing.”
What Pleasantville Music offers that internet retailers do not, among other things, is personalized service in line with instrument repair. Sure, an instrument can be sent out to an online repair service, but who is there to answer questions about the actual repair process? Something like that just doesn’t happen often on the internet. In the percussion instrument area, while the internet retailers offer hundreds of choices when it comes to something like cymbals or snare drums, it’s almost impossible to make an intelligent, personal choice without playing the cymbal or the drum first. “You want to look at the quality and hear the quality,” Schilling says. “You can’t get that from a picture.”
The store also offers in-person music lessons, and it’s the only retailer to offer acoustic pianos within a 50-60 mile radius of the store. Pleasantville also continues to service local schools with name brand, quality band instruments. “If somebody wants a pink clarinet,” Schilling says, “go online and order a pink clarinet.”
Pleasantville Music Shoppe has been a part of the retailing landscape in our area for more than 80 years, and during that time, Schilling could have taken the operation anywhere. She elected, thankfully, to stay here as one of the very few mom and pop musical retailers anywhere.
“I grew up in Pleasantville,” Schilling explains. “My father started this in Pleasantville and he stayed in Pleasantville. I think it’s important to be here to service the local community. We’ve gone through a lot of changes. People have changed and the town has changed, but at the heart of it, it’s still my hometown.”
If anyone seeks the answer to the musical question, “How Do You Keep the Music Playing?” just stop in to see Joanne Schilling and the good people at Pleasantville Music Shoppe. They’ll tell you how.
