For 35 years, Don’s Green River Music has been a constant in Auburn.
From its meager beginnings on Auburn Way in 1976 to its heyday in the 1990s, when the “big store” on West Main Street was the largest retailer of musical instruments in South King County, owner Don Gardner has provided local musicians instruments, service and more.
“One of the elements I really enjoy about the business is just having conversations with customers,” he said. “Having been here for as many years … there’s rarely a day that goes by that I don’t have somebody come in here and say hi.”
Gardner, 67, and the store have come full circle, having moved back to its original location on Auburn Way.
It started for Gardner in the late ’60s, when he was working at the Boeing plant in Everett, building 747s. But the fear of a layoff persuaded Gardner to find a new career.
Gardner was playing in a band with a friend who managed Joe Farmer Music in Burien.
“He told me that if I was laid off, I could get a job there,” he said. “I asked him if the offer stood if I quit my job. So I went the next day and quit my job at Boeing, and I was working at the store within a week.”
After 3 1/2 years at Farmer’s, Gardner and a partner struck out on their own, opening Larry and Don’s Music on Kent’s East Hill in 1973. After three years running that store, Gardner bought Auburn’s Walker and Wright Music in 1976 and changed the name to Don’s Green River Music.
“I started with 11 guitars and two amplifiers, and one of them was back in the lesson rooms,” he said.
Gardner steadily grew his business, offering quality instruments and service that established a steady customer base.
On Valentine’s Day in 1991, Don’s Green River Music opened its doors at a new location on West Main Street in the old Frostad Pharmacy building.
For the next decade the business thrived, becoming an official dealer for top brands and employing five full-time and several part-time workers.
“The big store exceeded what I had ever expected,” Gardner said. “We had one year where we broke a million dollars of sales in this little community. It was fun and gratifying to have seen the thing grow that much.”
Different business climate
In 2000, however, the bottom dropped out for independent music instrument retailers.
“I can tell you the shift. It was two big factors,” he said. “One was we met head on with our equivalent of Walmart, which was Guitar Center, the largest retailer in the world of music instruments. (When) they opened … in South Center and downtown Seattle in 2000, our sales took a 20-percent drop the month they opened and never came back.”
The other, Gardner explained, was the Internet.
By 2004 the “big store” closed its doors, with Gardner downsizing to what he calls the “hole-in-the-wall” store on Division Street.
This year, when his longtime tenant at the Auburn Way building vacated, Gardner decided to move back to his original location, completing the circle.
Gardner knows his time in the music business is short, but is reluctant to say goodbye to his customers.
“I’m having a hard time unplugging,” he said.
Part of that is the friendships he’s made with customers.
“It’s a hard disconnect. Talking shop and even talking family with customers has kept me doing this,” he said. “It’s going to be kind of a sad day when I finally do lock the front door and go home for the last time.”
