Chicagopianos.com is proud to have the largest collection of new piano images anywhere on the web. If you are looking for a new piano, you have probably found the frustration of not being able to actually SEE in person what you have found online. There are good reasons for this unfortunate problem. We’ll address that first, then address our unique and truly ground breaking solution.
Leading up to and during this recession, over a dozen (and counting) piano stores closed in the greater Chicagoland metro area. That’s over half of the store fronts. Those that remain have tightened their belts, reducing their inventory substantially — a recipe for survival. But that doesn’t help you and your desire to see what you are looking to buy.
Making matters worse, a major finance company who specializes in floor planning for piano retailers waived good riddance to the industry in 2009 amid all these store closures, leaving many remaining dealers with the inability to stock product. To top it all off, consumers naturally want “internet pricing” along with the convenience of seeing a huge selection locally at a full service dealer.
Please allow me to digress in order to best illustrate the problem piano buyers face. I recently decided it would be a good idea to buy a high quality fire safe for my family’s documents and data. I’m not talking about a Home Depot safe. High security fire safes for documents and data are very expensive and aren’t sold through mass merchants.
I began my search online with the various manufacturers (along with dealers who incidentally came up in the search) and saw plenty of models from several manufacturers I was interested in seeing in person. I began Googling local retailers and was disheartened to find that this is an industry that has gone viral. In the words of one local locksmith / security expert here in Chicago, “No one wants to stock safes anymore because no one can have a showroom with a knowledgeable staff, carry the expensive inventory AND compete with online retailers who have none of that.”
My continued search upheld his sentiments. The days of actually touching a high quality fire safe before buying are pretty much gone. There seemed to be only a few online safe retailers who stock the product AND sell competitively online. Unfortunately, none of them are in Chicagoland.
It was at that time that my deja vu kicked in and I realized that the piano industry is sadly almost at that point. Piano buyers will quickly realize this when they take to the web to visit all the manufacturer sites — seeing all the various models and finishes, only to find that their local retailers don’t have the pianos on the floor.
Our 30,000 sq. ft. megastore is one of the top three largest piano stores in the country — but even still we can’t stock every model and finish from every manufacturer we represent. Despite having several hundred pianos in stock it doesn’t put a dent in what our manufacturers have to offer. To help with this problem, we photograph every instrument we have because manufacturers either don’t…or don’t do it properly, which is the subject of this blog entry.
This is where you come in. As you visit piano manufacturer sites, you’ll quickly see that they don’t have pictures of every model in every finish. Those they DO have, are professional photographs — free from glares, shadows and reflections — the very characteristics that would have provided you with some indication of what the piano actually looks like.
If you click on our new piano inventory, you’ll see all the manufacturer logos for which we are an authorized dealer. Every image we post is carefully taken to best represent what the piano looks like in person. We like glare…shadows…and reflections! We pay close attention to the camera settings to be sure the colors in the image are true to the colors of the pianos — something it seems manufacturers forget to ask of their professional photographers.
Additionally, there are many models and finishes offered by manufacturers that they’ve never even seen let alone photographed. For instance, Yamaha offers a DC5 Disklavier in snow white. If you would like to see what that looks like, you’ll need to go to our site because we have the only picture of it on earth. 🙂 Also, if you would like to see a Yamaha 5’3″ GC1 in satin mahogany, we custom-made that finish…or an Estonia 168 with nickel hardware, we custom-ordered that piano. A Yamaha CGP1000 in polished mahogany or a pink Modus F01? Visit our site to see what they look like because the rest of the world doesn’t even know those finishes are possible!
The end result is that our website has more new piano images and options for you than any other piano website. We not only have our own images posted (which are usually better than the manufactures’) but we also post the manufacturers images for those pianos that we have never had in stock, giving you the best of both worlds. On top of that, we offer finish options that the manufacturers don’t, so you’re not limited to what THEY offer — you’re limited to what is humanly possible.
Our site is a one-stop shop for over a dozen of the top piano manufacturers. With that we’re happy to answer you questions by phone (630.584.5000) or in person and hopefully earn your business. Hope this makes your online hunting easier! Thank you for taking the time to read this.
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