Meet Journal Star criminal justice reporter Zach Roth
Journal Star reporter Zach Roth covers crime and courts in the Peoria area.
- A former IT specialist opened a new record store, Q Tones Music, in Peoria’s Northwoods Mall.
- The store sells vinyl records and also serves as a performance venue for local musicians.
- The owner hopes to create a gateway for people to discover Peoria’s local music scene.
- Q Tones Music is part of a trend of smaller, niche businesses replacing big-box stores in the mall.
Until recently, Quentin Scherr was an information technology specialist working for a local automotive manufacturer in the Peoria area.
He enjoyed the customer service side, but not the engineering aspect of his job.
“Whenever I could help save the day or make someone’s day better or ease their frustrations, anytime somebody had an issue, I took ownership and made their problem our problem,” Scherr said. “I pivoted, I grew out of the customer service and into the engineering phase and that’s when you stop getting the satisfaction. There’s more expectations. There are ‘a-ha!’ moments, but it’s quickly moved on because engineering is very cold and methodical.”
Scherr wanted to find something that could accentuate his skills in serving a customer, while also engaging them in something he liked. Enter Q Tones Music, a new store that opened in August on the lower level of Northwoods Mall in Peoria. Scherr managed to find a way to combine the connection he gets with customers and his love for music and collecting records into a business he’s excited about.
“I’m not a hero,” Scherr said. “I’m here to be a guide.”
He’s also part of an evolution in the kinds of businesses offered at the mall. Gone are the days in which a big-box store – or several big-box stores – brought people in from far and wide to Peoria. Instead, it’s about smaller stores, mom-and-pops that are trying to find their niche in a changing shopping environment.
“It’s really evolving into something different in entirety,” Scherr said. “It’s no longer the rat race or the mall rats. It’s really turning into a small business melting pot.”
Building a collection
Scherr has had a connection to music – and collecting it – since he was young, listening to KISS and The Beatles at his grandmother’s house and buying various cassettes to begin building his music collection.
He admitted he was always the type who wore headphones at any given point, but his collecting really accelerated when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Noticing that more and more stores were beginning to sell vinyl records, he decided to jump in and make a small business out of selling records to others.
“The vinyl sections have expanded in the big-box stores, so I wanted to give a small business take on that,” Scherr said. “I’ve always come over to Peoria for the music scene since I could drive, so I wanted to give them brick-and- mortar for the music scene, giving them an easy way to discover the artists.”
The store is split up into two parts: the storefront filled with classic and current music, all in vinyl, and the rear of the store that serves as a performance area. Scherr said that for him, vinyl and physical copies give him more quality than other mediums for music or recording.
“Trying to optimize and get the best quality out of everything, naturally, you gravitate towards vinyl and the physical,” Scherr said. “I experience frisson – when you get that right song and they start playing them just enough, it sends shivers down your spine, and your goosebumps go crazy. I’m always looking for that, and it’s gravitated towards getting that clearer and clearer sound.”
The storefront also has a cooler filled with Liquid Death products and merchandise, along with a pinball table. Most of the time, Scherr has the back half cordoned off, but on Fridays and Saturdays, it turns into a performance area for a variety of acts.
“Most of the time, the curtains are drawn, kind of adding speculation of, ‘Oh, what’s going on back there?'” Scherr said. “But then, on Fridays and Saturdays, when we have events, we’ll pull the curtains back so that it looks like a stage.”
For the most part, Scherr has been able to attract some solo acts to the store for Friday performances, but he’s also willing to let anyone with a voice and a dream take the state. On Oct. 24, he’s hosting an open mic night in the back from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
“Right now, it’s first-come, first-serve,” Scherr said. “I’ve got it chunked off in 15-minute intervals, so if somebody has a couple of songs or if they’ve got a 40-minute (set), we’ll see how many people sign up.”
The evolution of the modern shopping mall
Northwoods Mall today is much different from where it was 20 years ago, when it had anchors such as Sears and Famous-Barr, which eventually became Macy’s. Big-box stores brought people in, particularly during the holiday season rush for gifts.
However, outside of JCPenney, a big-box anchor for Northwoods isn’t present today. Instead, it’s smaller stores and chains that are mall staples such as American Eagle, Hot Topic and Bath and Body Works.
Scherr notices this, pointing out that one popular nearby store.
“Doing my own analysis of the foot traffic, nine out of 10 people walk away with a pink bag,” Scherr said. “It’s coming from somebody’s secret down the way. So, if somebody’s secret closes, we’re in trouble.”
Yes, Scherr sees plenty of people come to Northwoods for the Victoria’s Secret store, but he’s also noticing some thriving businesses that aren’t part of big multi-national conglomerates.
“You’ve got Artworks by Nature,” Scherr said. “They’ve got all these fancy little geodes, crystals and all of that. I love the plant store upstairs (Wandering Springs); the plants I got over there, I got them from the guy upstairs. We had the VR (virtual reality) arcade for a little bit and now we’ve got another artist out there who’s doing some custom work. We’ve got a sound shop down the way. It’s really interesting to see all these different niches come together.”
Scherr said he’s sold plenty of records over the past month, along with his fair share of Liquid Death. Outside of selling music, he wants his store to be the gateway for people to discover music they love in Peoria, through sales and future performance nights.
“The intention behind this store is to become a fixture of the community and a gateway to the local music scene,” Scherr said. “Success, obviously, (means) staying open, but then having consistent music nights and being that place for customers to discover local artists or to see who’s playing in town.
“We’re also posting on YouTube, so all the performances, we’re trying to live stream those as well, so that if somebody wants to figure out who’s the talent in Peoria, they can check out Q Tones and say, ‘Hey, there’s a catalog of all the artists in Peoria.'”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.pjstar.com ’
