response 199 of 247:

Jun 18 04:53 UTC 2000

I did not know until tonight that the "SKR Downtown" store was in
the former Annex storefront.  The two westernmost SKR storefronts,
the original Schoolkids space and the early '90s expansion,
have been vacated.
 
I have said for a long time that Ann Arbor has been overbuilt for 
CD retailing.  But I was not expecting the jolt I got tonight
from the "bummed" item in the Agora conference:
 
----------

#977 of 984: by Yay the Happy Whale (otaking) on Sat, Jun 17, 2000 (20:12):
 IBB Tower Records is closing at 4PM on Sunday, June 25.

#978 of 984: by Bruin the Bare Bear (bruin) on Sat, Jun 17, 2000 (20:52):
 You don't mean the Tower Records on South University in Ann Arbor, do 
 you?

#979 of 984: by Yay the Happy Whale (otaking) on Sat, Jun 17, 2000 (21:35):
 Yes, unfortunately I do.
 
 They claim to be closing temporarily, to make way for UM offices, but one of
 the staff members said that was a false hope.
 
 They're having a clearance sale. Anywhere from $2-4 off all CDs. 30% off all
 books. 20-30% all DVDs and videos. All sale prives are off the regular prices,
 not, the existing sale prices. Guess it's another victim of online sales.

response 201 of 247:

Jun 18 07:20 UTC 2000

As was pointed out in Agora: the demolition of the Forest St. parking 
ramp has to have hurt Tower badly; there is now essentially no public
parking near their store before 6 pm.  But I had always thought the 
chain was willing to ride this period out.
 
Still, I had detected the standard sign of retail distress in a CD shop:
the stock was collapsing.  In particular, the pop/rock rack space had
been cut back to make more room for geegaws.
 
I'm still in shock.  I have never seen this many CD retail failures,
this fast.  I know this city's been overbuilt for CD retailing for at
least five years; but this is supposed to be a good economy.
 
And I certainly never expected to end up with Borders as the leading 
CD retailer in town, in terms of selection.
 
As I wrote in Agora:  for maybe 25 years, beginning with the opening of 
Schoolkids, Ann Arbor was (arguably) the best place to 
shop for LPs & CDs between Toronto and the west coast.   
Friends who were visiting SE Michigan for science fiction 
conventions would make pilgrimages to the 
Liberty St./State St./South U. area.  But with the closing of Tower,
it's over.  Ann Arbor will no longer have a significantly better 
CD shopping scene than most towns with a Borders and a decent used 
store.

response 203 of 247:

Jun 18 08:33 UTC 2000

  Somebody alert the RIAA!  This *must* be Napster's fault..  :-p

response 205 of 247:

Jun 18 18:17 UTC 2000

#203: You don't think there's the slightest bit of a coincidence that indie
college-city-based CD outlets are going out of business at the same rate that
Napster is spreading?

You're more naive, or in deeper denial, than I thought.

response 207 of 247:

Jun 19 00:08 UTC 2000

don't confuse the issue with facts and statistics, Cyklone.
this is an emotional issue.

response 209 of 247:

Jun 20 13:30 UTC 2000

Yeah, the sale at Towers isn't very impressive. That's why I only bought a
couple of things there. Neither was music-related, so I won't talk about them
here.

response 211 of 247:

Jun 22 17:52 UTC 2000

wazoo is a great place.

response 213 of 247:

Aug 8 22:33 UTC 2000

  I can't remember the last time the "average price of CDs" was less 
  than $10.  When exactly is this supposed to have occurred?

response 215 of 247:

Aug 9 05:53 UTC 2000

Schoolkids-in-Exile continues to grow on me.  This weekend, Steve 
Bergman was chatting about how the little basement store is the same
size as the Schoolkids he opened in 1976.   The folk music section 
continues to grow a bit, and I also found some goodies in the African
music section.   I suspect the selection continues to bear 
Bergman's personal stamp, so how much you will enjoy it will 
depend on how congruent your tastes are with his.

response 217 of 247:

Oct 12 00:29 UTC 2000

I've groused occasionally in the past about the lack of good CD shopping
opportunities in Chicago.  On last weekend's trip I found the new (?)
Virgin Megastore on the "Magnificent Mile," somewhat south of the 
Water Tower.  It's a classic big-city CD shop, and I found all sorts of
goodies there, including discs by Lo'Jo and the Terem Quartet which 
I thought would have to be ordered from Europe.  I was mostly poking 
through the World Music section and it was pretty decently stocked.
 
The staff was chatty and knowledgable, and I ended up buying three 
of the discs playing in different parts of the story: Celia Cruz, the 
new Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington reissue, and a collection of 
piano studies based on Chopin.  I really enjoyed lolling around in 
the classical section since classical CD shopping in Ann Arbor has 
taken such a hit this year.

response 219 of 247:

Oct 12 02:31 UTC 2000

Yeah, I love that store.  (I'm not sure how new it is, but it's been around
at least since the beginning of last year).  I was surprised to see that it's
got the largest and best-stocked classical section of any store I've been in,
and the listening stations mostly had <gasp> music I enjoyed hearing.
As far as gigantor CD shops go, it seems to be pretty well-rounded -- I
heard Macy Gray and Yat-Kha both for the first time there.

From what I can tell, most of the good CD shopping in Chicago is
well-hidden and not downtown -- closer to Wazoo than to Schoolkids' in
terms of noticeability.  Alas, since I've been here, I've done most of my
shopping when I'm back in Ann Arbor, so I can't give much by way of
reccomendation, other than that Earwax Cafe is a way fun place.

response 221 of 247:

Oct 26 21:42 UTC 2000

Continuing on from resp:212, I condense a report from today's 
http://salon.com, "What The Hell's Going On In The Music Biz?"
 
With the RIAA's Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) policy shot down in flames
by the FTC and state Attorney Generals, Best Buy decided to offer the 
new Limp Bizkit CD as a loss leader.   Best Buy sold 500,000 of this 
disc at $9.99, losing two dollars per disc; this was half of the 
one million Limp Bizkit units sold nationwide.

Quoting from Salon:
  "MAP was originally put into effect to stop precisely what Best Buy
   is doing.  Will Best Buy's move provoke an across-the-board price  
   war?  Consumers hope so.  Mom and pop retailers, which can't compete
   at those prices, hope not.  If stores like Best Buy and the Good Guys
   start low-balling prices again, it could finish off an independent 
   record-retail industry that already took a mighty hit in the 
   pre-MAP years."

Of course, most of Ann Arbor's independent record-retail industry has 
already been finished off.   Perhaps the future of the CD business
is entirely as a loss-leader for consumer electronics.

response 223 of 247:

Nov 1 00:10 UTC 2000

  I guess that's what happens when you only charge $17.99 for CDs -- 
  there's just no profit margin..