Long & McQuade, the national music retailer with an established location in Victoria and a 40-year history in the area, is opening a new purpose-built store in Langford.
General manager Mike Arensen said the company is following the area’s surging population growth, the addition of several new elementary and high schools and the increasing numbers of musicians living in Langford, Colwood and other areas of the West Shore.
The new Long & McQuade is under construction at 3108 Jacklin Rd., on the site of the former Trading Post building close to Sooke Road. The 10,000-square-foot, two-storey building is in its early stages, with steel framing up.
Arensen said the new store is expected to open on Dec. 1.
He said it will be set up similar to the Hillside Avenue store, with musical instruments, sheet music and electronics on the first floor and a large music-lesson area above.
“We’ve been looking out on the West Shore for quite a long time — it’s been part of our long-term strategy,” Arensen said. “We have lots of long-time customers living out there and many students involved in band programs, so we’re happy about bringing a store closer to them.”
He said the surge in new schools in Langford and Colwood will bring increasing demand for band rental instruments and lessons — a big part of Long & McQuade’s business, as the company supplies everything from violins and saxophones to drum kits and guitars.
It will be a homecoming for Long & McQuade, which opened its original Greater Victoria store in Langford between the West Shore RCMP detachment and the former Langford Fire Hall in 1982.
Long & McQuade employee Shaun Wilson, who has worked for the company for 32 years, grew up in Langford, returning recently as a resident. He plans to work out of the new store when it opens, and says he is looking forward to “going full circle” and working in his hometown.
It will be the fourth location on the Island for Long & McQuade, which also has stores in Nanaimo and Courtenay.
The company, which has about 90 locations across the country, is owned by the Pickering, Ont.-based Long family and still led by Jack Long, 92, who founded the company in 1956. Jack McQuade left the business in 1965.
