|
|
| Author |
Message |
krj
|
|
Music Retailing
| 
Feb 4 20:51 UTC 2001 |
This item continues onward from item:154, where we discuss both national
and local issues related to music retailing. Mostly we seem to
collect CD store obituaries...
|
| 106 responses total. |
krj
|
|
response 1 of 106:
|
Feb 4 20:53 UTC 2001 |
Another CD shop obituary... I hopped over to Windsor today and found
that Dr. Disc will be closing on February 11. The sign in the window
invited customers to stop in and pay their respects; viewing hours
end at 6 pm. My visit was cut drastically short; I had planned
on the store having its usual late evening hours.
Dr. Disc was part of a southern Ontario chain of indie-oriented stores,
and I didn't ask if the whole chain was going out of business, or
just the Windsor store. I'd only been there a few times over the years;
their folk stocks were always disappointing, but they did carry a
lot of Canadian rock bands which I might have heard on the CBC-FM
late night shows. Today, the stock has already been well
picked over -- the store was about half empty -- and the sale discounts
weren't too deep, so I wouldn't recommend a trip there for anything
except sentimental reasons.
Perhaps the relatively new (?) HMV store in the Devonshire Mall
pushed Dr. Disc over the edge; the HMV store had a lot of goodies
in it. ((preserved from item:154...))
|
krj
|
|
response 2 of 106:
|
Feb 21 04:36 UTC 2001 |
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32294-2001Feb20.html
The Post has a grim article on the consolidation of music retail power
in the hands of Wal-Mart, KMart and Best Buy, and similar operations.
Or, more specifically, in the hands of the buyers for those stores.
The people who run one such buying service don't actually listen
to the music. They don't care.
The article says that a typical Wal-Mart carries around 4,000 titles.
A Tower outlet would typically carry 20 times that many, but the
increased selection is not helping to protect Tower's market share.
|
mcnally
|
|
response 3 of 106:
|
Feb 21 21:16 UTC 2001 |
A Tower outlet carries 80,000 different selections? That's way higher
than I would have guessed..
|
dbratman
|
|
response 4 of 106:
|
Feb 22 17:43 UTC 2001 |
Counting all the old price stickers still on the items, yeah, that
sounds about right ...
|
kaluzny
|
|
response 5 of 106:
|
Feb 22 19:57 UTC 2001 |
It's probably the Internet that's killing off local (recorded) music
stores. These days I listen to mostly Cajun and Zydeco music, and trying
to find much of that stuff in local stores is tough (although Borders
probably had the best selection for the locals). But that's no problem--I
can just order anything Cajun or Zydeco from Floyd's Records down in
Ville Platte, Louisiana! I would have liked to support the local stores,
but I wouldn't waste my money on most modern 'pop' music.
|
krj
|
|
response 6 of 106:
|
Apr 15 05:11 UTC 2001 |
Damn, damn, damn. I thought I saw this coming when I saw the sales:
electronics 30% off, used CDs 50% off. No, I wasn't going to be paranoid,
they're just thinning the stock before the students go home.
Wendy/hematite just told me: the East Lansing Tower is closing up shop.
I'm not sure what this means; I think this means that CD in-store retailing
is collapsing. This leaves NO "conventional" CD store in the immediate
neighborhood of Michigan State, a university with 45,000 students;
just three used CD stores.
I'm really going to miss having access to a Tower Records. Even the
small store in East Lansing had considerable value for me.
The new mega-Barnes & Noble opening November 2001 in East Lansing
is supposed to have a CD department.
|
anderyn
|
|
response 7 of 106:
|
Apr 15 14:42 UTC 2001 |
That's totally weird.
|
sspan
|
|
response 8 of 106:
|
Apr 15 17:55 UTC 2001 |
how many stores does that make that have closed in that area now? Don't
worry.. you can just get all of your music from Napster.. <eitysg>
|
tpryan
|
|
response 9 of 106:
|
Apr 15 18:46 UTC 2001 |
Betcha someone could have success selling CDs in that area
near MSU if they where only going for 'current music college students
are buying' in much less square footage.
Tower probably had the stock it thought would satisfy the
*entire* Lansing area market, as normalized by a large corporate
view. It, of course takes much more square footage in probably
costly rental district.
|
mcnally
|
|
response 10 of 106:
|
Apr 16 00:26 UTC 2001 |
Ann Arbor's music retail history doesn't seem to agree with Tim's
theory from #9. Ann Arbor has seen not only giant mega-stores like
Tower fold, but has also lost nearly every other size and shape of
CD retailer -- mid-sized record stores like Wherehouse, local
independents like Schoolkids' and SKR, small specialty retailers aiming
at college listeners (I can't even remember the names, but several have
attempted to establish ongoing concerns in Ann Arbor and almost all
have failed -- the only one left at present (that I know of, at least)
is the Grooveyard..)
I can't believe that the only stores that can make money selling
records in a college town are Best Buy and Wal-Mart. A year ago
everyone was blaming the internet retailers but none of them are doing
particularly well, either. Where's all the money going? CD prices are
at a record high and every year sets a new record for the amount of
money Americans are spending on recorded music. How can that be
possible when the retail outlets are withering up and dying?
|
