Sweetwater has officially opened a 44,000-square-foot megastore in Fort Wayne, Indiana. According to the music instrument and audio equipment retailer’s website, the new store offers “the largest onsite inventory of any music store in the U.S.”
Sweetwater’s inventory allows a more hands-on approach to the in-store shopping experience. Prospective buyers can sample many products featured in its catalogue in person. Items are displayed in a fully working recording studio, keyboard rooms, and various live sound rooms.
CEO Chuck Surack established Sweetwater in 1979. The company originally offered recording services via a remote recording studio in Surack’s Volkswagen microbus. Later in the ’90s, Surack expanded the company into a music retailer. Its website was initially launched in 1995 as an informational site, by 1999 the site offered most of Sweetwater’s inventory for purchase online.
Surack says the pivot from e-commerce to physical store will “ensure our experiences online, and offline in our store, are unmatched. This is for our customers.”
The store is located at the Sweetwater campus, 5501 US-30 West in Fort Wayne. Find more information on Sweetwater’s website.
