Store changes offer consumers a variety to choose from

CDs, car stereos, guitars, body jewelry, incense, used DVDs and now antiques – an odd expansion but one that just may work.

For the past few months Allan Lundgren owner of Budget and Tammy Temple, owner of Rust N Roses have been one combined business – and soon to be one on the personal front as well.

“Me and Tammy are getting married and we wanted to combine our businesses so we’d be in the same place,” Lundgren said.

“We had the opportunity to do so with this side,” she refers to the Budget CDs and Car Stereos side and how they reopened the wall, “and the timing was great. Having it all in one place instead of two is more convenient and fun.”

However, that was not the only reason for the move according to Lundgren, “The CD business was already starting to phase out, so I didn’t need all that space for CDs because when they are gone they are gone.”

Lundgren said he will no longer carry CDs in his store, because of recent advancements in how people can purchase music, but he will special order CDs when asked.

A business move literally Lundgren should know is a good one.

“I get publications about the industry so I know what it is going to, soon you won’t be able to buy a CD anywhere.”

According to Lundgren the purchasing of music is moving toward the Kiosks where a customer will “scan their credit card, put in their USP device or iPod and select what you want, then you walk away with the same device you came in with, but with more music on it.”

A far cry from where Lundgren started from 17 years ago when he moved from Scottsbluff to Sidney with the sole purpose of opening a music store.

“I always wanted to have a music store and thought I could do well with it in the right place,” he said, adding that he came to Sidney because “everywhere else had the big music stores, like WalMart and Target, and that is tough to compete with.”

There are a couple aspects of his business that put him above the bigger stores; things only a small business owner is able to control such as ordering.

“The big bonus that the other stores can’t do is order for people, of which I do, anything, if they are making it I can get it without charging any extra,” Lundgren said.

Then there is the ability to order a CD just as the customer would like, without the radio versions of a song with omitted and changed lyrics.

Yet another aspect of his business that put him above the rest for several years was the sale and installation of car stereos.

This prompted the first relocation of his business from 10th Avenue to the Jones Center after five years of being open.

“There was no place to install over there where I was (on 10th Ave.) so I had to get a garage on site. At the time I was taking the cars to a garage,” he said, “but that was a real pain taking customers cars across town, plus I would have everything torn apart and need a tool or a part from the store then I would have to put it all back together somewhat to drive it back. So that didn’t work. So in 2000 I moved to the Jones Center and put a garage in there.”

With this new move, Lundgren said he would have to give up the installation of car stereos, but has handed this portion over to another Sidney business, Randy’s Auto Care.

He said Randy will install the stereo for about what he was and if they need some help with anything he was just down the street and could be there quickly – a trade he learned while working at a body shop in Scottsbluff.

He may be getting rid of CDs and installation of car stereos, but Lundgren said the market for a good car stereo is still great.

“Nice car stereos are cheaper, you used to have to pay over $300 to get a really nice car stereo, now about $150 with more features than they had a few years ago,” he said.

There are a couple areas Lundgren is expanding inventory on body jewelry, music accessories and now guitars, “You got to keep diversifying, to bring people in.”

The diversity in what the stores sell is what the two are hoping will attract even more people to each business.

“She has some of her stuff over here, some of the smaller cool stuff over here. Décor is what she calls it,” Lundgren said. “I think it complements it ok, it brings me new people in here that I have never seen before and she is getting people in her store she has never seen before, because you have two businesses connected. It helps get both of us exposure.”

Lundgren’s counterpart Tammy Temple, owner of Rust ‘N Roses, is a long time Sidney resident.

“I was born and raised here, but moved to Arizona for 20 years. I moved back her when my children were 3 and 5 so they would be in a safer place with a little freedom,” she said. “I moved back in Jan. of 1995.”

Her business, open for a couple years now, is an expansion from a small antique booth she had in another store called The French Door for “a little over a year.”

The small booth proved not to be a long-term spot she said upon reviewing her inventory and her love for shopping for such items it was time she opened her own store.

“I was really into buying antiques and vintage stuff,” Temple said, “mostly vintage jewelry. That has been a love of mine for years, and I found this place and decided to open up my own business.”

However, she attributes her push to open up her own business to the booth, “I probably wouldn’t have ventured off to do this without some motivation or something to make me think about it.”

Temple said having Lundgren around is helping her become more motivated to get the two stores up and going and on the road to great success.

Future plans for the combined business are already being made, “We are going to make this side a lot more antique and rustic. And over here once he has sold all his CDs and we have all this space available we are going to put in a 60s type room.

“I didn’t want to limit myself to buying just antiques or just vintage, but neat things that I see along the way so we have a lot of variety to keep it interesting, even for us,” Temple said.

She also said during the first part of the year they will be functioning under the name ‘Rust N Roses’ with a separate sign on the entrance to Budget CDs and Car Stereos to identify the music side of the business.

“We are going to be getting married so it will be one business,” Lundgren said, “one tax ID to worry about.”

When asked how long they thought they would be in that location Temple said, “I told my dad I would be here until I am in my 80s.”