# What happened to mall organ stores? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 24, 2007, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-mall-organ-stores/389288 "2007-01-24T19:01:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Common\_Tater](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/common_tater/32/13846_2.png) [@Common\_Tater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Common_Tater)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-mall-organ-stores/389288/21 "2007-01-25T01:51:22Z")
[QUOTE=robardin] And while you’re visiting, may I also interest you in a complete set of the _Encyclopaedia Brittanica_, including the _Macropaedia_ and _Propaedia_ [/QUOTE] Hey! I have a set too. (I sprang for the _leather_ version, aargh) To be fair, they are excellent and extremely detailed/in-depth. Insomnia? Pick a volume at random.. ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-mall-organ-stores/389288/22 "2007-01-25T03:30:46Z")
I blame shoplifting. People were sneaking those things out right, left and center. ---
**Author:** ![Belowjob2.0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Belowjob2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belowjob2.0)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-mall-organ-stores/389288/23 "2007-01-25T03:36:51Z")
I’m guessing most younger parents who want their kids to learn keyboard get the highly portable electronic models mentioned above from Best Buy, Target, Circuit City, Wallyworld. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-mall-organ-stores/389288/24 "2007-01-25T04:04:21Z")
In the mid 80s as they switched from Hammond organs into Casio keyboards this also coincided with the growth of big electronics-only stores (as opposed to Department stores) so they naturally moved in there. As they got considerably cheaper than the old mechanical organs they got more popular, eventually becoming an inexpensive fad item akin to video games & boom boxes. But kids (and then their parents) soon discovered that, unlike video games & CD players, keyboards quickly became very boring toys if you didn’t know how to play piano. And the vast majority of kids had no desire to learn. Plus, since an electronic keyboard wasn’t such a big investment, parents didn’t have as much desire to ‘encourage’ them to try. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-mall-organ-stores/389288/25 "2007-01-25T11:50:54Z")
There is still one in one of the malls in York. Or at least, there was one the last time I was there, sometime last year. (I’m such a dork. No lie, I only opened the thread because I thought you meant body-parts type organs and I wondered what the heck you were on about.) ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-mall-organ-stores/389288/26 "2007-01-25T13:01:01Z")
[QUOTE=cornflakes] I blame shoplifting. People were sneaking those things out right, left and center. [/QUOTE] That was because guards were too embarrassed to yell out, “Stop that man! He’s got an organ hidden in his pants!” ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-mall-organ-stores/389288/27 "2007-01-25T14:06:03Z")
The customer base died off. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-mall-organ-stores/389288/28 "2007-01-25T14:10:33Z")
[QUOTE=Hypno-Toad] That was because guards were too embarrassed to yell out, “Stop that man! He’s got an organ hidden in his pants!” [/QUOTE] And it’s a HYOOGE one! With a stand with wheels on it and everything! ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-mall-organ-stores/389288/29 "2007-01-25T14:21:05Z")
[QUOTE=Harmonious Discord] The customer base died off. [/QUOTE] Not the customers themselves; the _market_ died off. It was mostly parents born before the Baby Boom buying an instrument for their kids. That generation stopped having kids; the kids themselves grew up and largely quit playing (as most who take up any instrument do); the Casio phenomenon came along…and pffft. I’m going to guess that places like York, PA, and Danvers, MA, which still can support a store like this, are both unusually dedicated to live music and slightly depressed economically. (The two often go together.) ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-mall-organ-stores/389288/30 "2007-01-25T14:33:26Z")
[QUOTE=Siam Sam] They’ve all moved to here in Bangkok. We’ve got 'em. Um, you mean you don’t have them in the US any more? Man, I’ve been gone a long time. [/QUOTE] So someone from Bangkok could be said to be someone who enjoys hammering on his organ? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-mall-organ-stores/389288/31 "2007-01-26T18:00:45Z")
[QUOTE=Sage Rat] So someone from Bangkok could be said to be someone who enjoys hammering on his organ? :dubious: [/QUOTE] Well, we do tend to have that reputation here. But I’ve not seen any, er, organs in Patpong, Nana Plaza or Soi Cowboy. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2007, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-mall-organ-stores/389288/32 "2007-01-26T18:34:41Z")
Organs were popular in the 70s because organ music was popular then. While many of the console organs were used for 50s-era muzak, a lot of rock hits into the middle of the 70s used an organ, and not everyone who wanted to sound like their prog-rock keyboard god of choice was in the market for the beautiful monster that was the B3 with a Leslie rotating speaker cabinet. Most living-room style organs could reasonable imitate the sounds one sought. As synthesizers got better, they could imitate organs reasonably well, and it seemed a waste of space to buy an organ when a smaller synth could make the same sounds an more. That left the organ-only die-hards to drift off into senescence in the 80s, causing the market that could support a large store to dwindle. ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2007, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-mall-organ-stores/389288/33 "2007-01-27T01:43:24Z")
These days, even if you have a B-3 to sell, or even the C-3 (which is basically the same instrument in a different cabinet), people come in and oooh and aaaah but they don’t buy it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-mall-organ-stores/389288.md?page=1)