Drummer's paradise: with the broadest selection of percussion gear under one roof anywhere, The Drum Pad has prospered over the past two decades by providing a "wow" factor for customers. Founder Jim Streich says simply, "There is a place for specialty retailers who focus on a niche and do it well.".

The Drum Pad's first home didn't look like a garage--it looked like half a garage. That was in 1985. Founder Jim Streich had cashed in a $2,000 life insurance policy to rent out part of the back of a house on a side street in Palatine, Illinois, where he taught lessons and tried to convince manufacturers to open accounts with him so he could get his drum shop off the ground. But in those days he had to flag down his students just so they could find the house, and the manufacturers said, "Call me back when you get on a main thoroughfare."

"They didn't see me as very credible back then," says Streich. "Talk about a lean time; there were times when the Drum Pad couldn't even afford a drum pad to sell. It was just a wing and a prayer as to how we were going to keep this thing afloat."

Two decades and three moves later, the Drum Pad's 20th Anniversary Show packed Chicago's Vic Theatre, the five-story Vaudeville house in the Central Lake View area, with performances by Terry Bozzio, Chad Wackerman, Mike Mangini, Jimmy Chamberlin of Smashing Pumpkins, Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater, and Steve Smith of Journey. The anniverary bash was shot for a DVD now being sold all over the world, a first among retail stores. The Drum Pad now commands 7,500 square feet of drum-only paradise in downtown Palatine and the largest percussion inventory in the country. "It's pretty amazing how it's kept growing," says Streich. "Expanding to 10,000 feet might be nice some day, but I think everyone would kill me."

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An old-fashioned brick-and-mortar store ("because we're old-fashioned folks") The Drum Pad has outlasted much of its competition through the "big-box wars" and the internet explosion of the last decade. The Loop District of downtown Chicago, 30-odd miles southeast of Palatine, was once a rich center for percussion stores, but many of those have disappeared. Some of the local full line stores stopped carrying percussion products or "lost their focus," while The Drum Pad never stopped growing.

"In today's retail climate, and I think even back when we started, there has been a lot to be said for a specialty store," says Streich. "If you could do that really well, take care of the customers, show the customers a good depth of inventory, I think you have an advantage over a full-line store or even a big box store that really couldn't have that deep a focus on each product line."

For customers returning to the drum scene after years away, stepping into The Drum Pad's showroom is something akin to a Rip Van Winkle experience. Times have changed since the 1960s and '70s, when there were only a handful of manufacturers: "one stick company, maybe three or four drum companies, one major cymbal company back then." Today, the store stocks 4,000 drum heads and 600 models of sticks. A warehouse two doors down from the main store showcases hundreds of kits from about 20 manufacturers. Virtually every instrument on The Drum Pad floor is available to hear and play, even if it means the store has to double its stock in some products to account for wear and tear on floor models.

"This wasn't the biggest drum shop in the United States a decade ago," says Victor Salazar, who's been The Drum Pad's general manager and event coordinator for the past 11 years. "It was literally half the size it is now." A 30-year veteran of retail, a lifelong drummer, and a longtime customer of The Drum Pad, Salazar was a manager of the men's designer clothing department in a major department store when Streich asked him to come aboard. "It's interesting--it sounds like it has nothing to do with drums, but in some respects I find a similarity between the two," says Salazar. "You don't really need high-end designer clothing--it's not a necessity of life--and in the same way, musical instruments are not considered a necessity, although I think they are. You really need to sell both products in such a way that you convince people that, yes, it would be nice to have $600 trousers or a $4,000 drumset."

With Salazar's hire, The Drum Pad began expanding not only in terms of staff but in showroom space and inventory, as the store invested its profits in new products. The store's inventory now combines standard brands with boutique brands like GMS, Pork Pie, and Noble & Cooley; custom specialists like Orange County Drum & Percussion; and obscure brands like Brady, the handcrafted hardwood kits out of Australia. "People just want something really different--something special, unique, one-of-a-kind, and those are some brands that can really do that," says Streich.

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"It really is about the 'wow' factor," says Salazar. "You give the customers a sense that, 'Wow, they really do have everything.' You can see it, feel it, touch it, and play it--and you can't always do that at the other stores. Sometimes people tell us that we're sitting on too much inventory, but eventually everything does get sold."

There's a flipside to running a specialty store in the age of mass merchants and the internet, where a vast inventory sometimes doubles as someone else's de facto showroom, "and that's going to happen," says Streich. "In the early years it bugged me, and I guess it still does to some degree. But you have to feel comfortable and believe in what you're doing. That's all you can do."

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Indeed, The Drum Pad has seen competitors encroach over the past decade and never taken a serious hit. "I'm half kidding when I say this," says Salazar, "but in some ways I don't feel we have any competition." Ten years ago, there were just three Guitar Centers in the region; now there are 11, "but despite the increase in their numbers, we really do not feel their presence," he says. "These are commission-driven stores; ours is not." Without commissions, pricing of all sticks, heads, and cymbals is set at 50% off the list price every day.

"I think we excel at what we do because our pricing is excellent, we have that depth of inventory, and we have a knowledgeable staff," says Salazar. "Before a customer even walks out the door with a kit or any piece of gear, we make sure they understand it completely. Then we give customers reassurance that if they have any questions, problems, or concerns, they can come back and see us, and at no charge we can tune their kit or address any issues that they have. Online, forget it. Are you going to call the operator who took your order and start asking them questions? So we do give people that comfort level, and that certainly brings the customer back."

Conceived as a drum shop run by and for drum gurus, The Drum Pad has also made a name for itself as the store that holds up to a dozen artist appearances a year in an age when some other retailers are discontinuing clinics altogether. One store has actually established a "no clinics policy" as money has tightened and manufacturer support for such events has slackened; yet The Drum Pad continues to draw on longtime relationships with some of the biggest names in drumming.

"Clinics are my responsibility, my area of expertise, and my point of interest," says Salazar. "The way I've been able to establish these relationships is by treating these artists extremely well the first time they've come through town. I've had all the right gear that they've requested, and I've gone above and beyond in some instances to have their favorite snacks, their favorite drinks on hand. I find out as much as I can. When they're treated well and have a pleasant and great experience at The Drum Pad, then they're than willing to come back."

"I always refer to it as planting seeds," says Streich. "You don't see immediate satisfaction from it, and I think that's what the suppliers and manufacturers usually anticipate. It just doesn't happen that way a lot of the time, but I still believe it's a very important thing to do. From the young to the old, it's so easy to inspire them when you see an artist like that up close. It's just mind-blowing to see how things have changed, how artists are playing, the wonderful products. The Drum Pad is always in the back of their mind after that."

"It's also great to see our students come in and attend the clinics," says Salazar. "And of course they become customers and go on to bigger and better things as well, and remain drummers."

Of the 175 students who take weekly lessons at The Drum Pad, most are also customers, says Streich. "You have this captive audience, and hopefully they feel comfortable enough that they don't need to shop around," he says. "As a drummer, I would think, why wouldn't you want to study and buy in this type of setting? You want to be where drummers are."