Arizona’s Inslalaco’s Music & Upholstery to Close

This weekend, Insalaco’s Music and Upholstery of Apache Junction, Arizona will close its doors for the last time.

Local station, ABC-15, reported on the business’ unique history:

“I’ve always done upholstery all my life,” said John Isalaco. “One day me and my brother were up in Globe and we walked into a music store. We wanted to buy a guitar and the owners asked if we wanted to buy the store. We went back and talked to the folks and we owned the music store. I mean plain and simple.”

The story behind the store’s closing is also a short story, a sad and all too familiar one.

“Landlord wanted us to go another 3 year lease,” he explained. “I told him we can’t afford it and he said he has someone who can take over the first of February. I said, ‘okay.’ Both businesses worked really well up until last year. The economy just, the internet’s just killing all us mom and pop stores.”

Now, after 40 years, John and his brother Tony are preparing to close their doors.

John, who is also the mayor of Apache Junction, sees this as a double whammy.

“Here in the city, we don’t have a city property tax; we live on sales tax, that’s it,” he said. “So naturally here’s another business going down that the city’s going to lose.”