A Close Look at one of Toronto’s Finest Piano Stores, Merriam Pianos

Merriam Pianos is one of Canada’s most respected and long-standing piano retailers. Founded in 1988 by Alan Merriam, Merriam Pianos has been listed as a Top 5 Retailer by Music Inc. Magazine (Chicago), and a Top 100 Retailers in the World by NAMM, making us one of the most awarded Piano retailers in Canada.  Toronto has had piano in ‘its blood’ for more than a century, as the original home to Heintzman Pianos, as well as dozens of other manufacturers in the vicinity.

The format of piano stores has evolved over time. At one time, piano stores were heavily affiliated with one or two manufacturers, and some were fully branded, such as Steinway stores. More lately, several of North America’s leading piano stores have evolved into an education center, where customers can shop an extremely wide variety of price points, new & used, acoustic and digital, and at the same time also teaching them about how pianos are made, where they come from, and providing the shopping tools to further research their purchases.

Merriam Pianos has itself evolved from a single brand store (Kawai), into an international destination featuring Kawai, Roland, Grotrian, Mason & Hamlin, Perzina, Steinberg, used Yamaha, used Steinway, and more. Every Toronto customer can expect a superior experience in every area: customer service, sales-person expertise, brand selection, price range, pricing credibility, showroom preparation, and more.

How Merriam Pianos Provides A Unique Experience to Piano Customers in Toronto

Customer Service

Owning a piano is a lifetime experience, and we’re here to make it even better.  Merriam’s Service Department, with 4 technicians and facilities for almost any service or rebuilding work, is standing by to make your piano purchase trouble free, and life-long.  Merriam’s focus on excellent customer service has resulted in one of the highest Google ratings of any piano retailer in North America.  You can expect:

Sales Person Expertise

Deciding what piano to choose can be challenging, especially with so much conflicting information out there.  In Toronto, we have the privilege of having nearly all major piano brands and manufactures to choose from, so having access to great research materials, and experienced piano store sales staff is critical to making a sound decision.

The sales staff at Merriam Pianos all have extensive backgrounds in piano performance, the piano industry, major elements of piano design, and years of experience in the most professional sales etiquettes. Many piano stores, Toronto-area or otherwise, frequently cite the quality and breadth of experience that the Merriam Pianos sales team has been able to bring to our customers’ shopping process.

Selection

Merriam Pianos is unique in many ways, and our selection of instruments is one of the most apparent to our customers. The industry ‘norm’ is to specialize in new or used, high end or entry-level, acoustic or digital. We have made the very conscious decision to conform to none of those conventions.

We offer nearly a 50/50 split between our new and used inventory. We offer customers an open and well-informed dialogue on whether to look at digital vs. acoustic.  And we proudly carry brands from the lowest price points to the most prestigious upper echelons of our industry.  When it comes to selection, Merriam Pianos is rarely matched, and we always deliver.

Pricing Credibility

With so much information available to the average consumer, its becoming more and more important for retailers to be aware and sympathetic to pricing in other markets. As a customer researches a model, or brand, invariably they will come across information from around the world…simply being competitive with your neighbouring retailers isn’t good enough anymore. If a customer is to truly gain the trust and confidence necessary to choose a retailer, that retailer must ‘fit’ with the global research being conducted by that customer.

We spend several hours, on a weekly basis, pouring through blogs, magazines, review sites, customer testimonials and more, always striving to ensure that our pricing is consistent with markets in Canada, the United States, Europe, Australia, and more.

Showroom & Instrument Preparation

Although the level of ‘showroom preparation’ is not something that many people talk about or comment on, we have found this to have a profound impact on the quality of a customers showroom experience. With many retailers simply in survival mode, few piano shops are choosing to spend the time and money on making sure every piano is in tip-top shape. Once the norm, now many stores simply uncrate a piano, tune it once, and place it in their showroom for sale.

Just unboxing a piano, tuning and moving it to the showroom, is hardly enough to really maximize the instrument’s potential. We take great pride the overall state of our showroom and the instruments within it, committing hundreds of hours a year to the task of presenting each instrument in the most accurate state of repair.

Other Piano Stores and Resources within Toronto and Canada

Toronto is fortunate to have several prominent retailers within its borders, including: