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Grex > Music2 > #154: Schoolkids II, and Music Retailing |  |
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| Author |
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| 25 new of 247 responses total. |
gnat
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response 100 of 247:
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Sep 9 03:20 UTC 1999 |
I'm hearing lots of good stuff about the Magnetic Fields box set. I
think I'll wait till I see them live next week before I invest. (I
assume they'll be playing a lot of the new stuff.)
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mary
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response 101 of 247:
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Sep 9 10:48 UTC 1999 |
This response has been erased.
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mary
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response 102 of 247:
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Sep 9 10:53 UTC 1999 |
Interesting responses there. ;-)
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kewy
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response 103 of 247:
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Sep 13 02:46 UTC 1999 |
re 98:
just U of M and EMU, another school id wouldnt suffice? I still use my
MSU id when I want student discounts even though its been about a year.
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krj
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response 104 of 247:
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Sep 13 03:18 UTC 1999 |
I just report what the sign says. If you want to try to argue with
the staff about your MSU ID, be my guest.
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mcnally
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response 105 of 247:
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Sep 13 17:01 UTC 1999 |
This is the week that the "Michigan Money Saver" coupon books are
handed out around U of M's campus.. They contain both a $3 coupon
for Tower (good through the end of the year) and a 20% off coupon
for SKR, so if you're a frequent Ann Arbor music shopper (and as as
miserly as I am when it comes to music spending..) you'll want to
take a stroll near campus this week and grab one (or more..)
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mcnally
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response 106 of 247:
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Sep 23 03:27 UTC 1999 |
Another independent music store bummer..
I was in Grand Rapids over the weekend and went out of my way to stop
at my favorite west-Michigan music store, Vinyl Solution. I was very
distressed to find an empty storefront where it used to be, and no
new location listed in directory information.
Vinyl Solution was an excellent independent record store (especially
if you consider that it was in Grand Rapids, which isn't a notably
musical town..) and I'll miss it.
In the past couple of years Ann Arbor has lost its two most adventurous
independent stores, Schoolkids' and Wherehouse (technically Wherehouse
is part of a small Michigan chain, I guess), Grand Rapids has lost Vinyl
Solution, and even Grand Haven has lost its little music store (a small
but reasonably eclectic place called "Dan's Compact Music")
What's driving all of these stores out of business? Is it the record
companies? the Internet? the big music chains and places like Best Buy?
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otaking
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response 107 of 247:
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Sep 23 13:05 UTC 1999 |
It's a combination of all of the above. Smaller stores can't afford to
undercut prices as much as the big dealers. Internet companies can offer great
deals since they don't need stores. All they need are warehouses, and some
probably just deal directly with the record companies, further undercutting
costs.
We're also dealing with megastores that combine several stores at once (Media
Play, Best Buy and Circuit City springs to mind). Smaller stores that only
offer one kind of product (music, books, clothes) have a harder time of
surviving that the big department stores. That's why Arborland doesn't have
small stores anymore. That's why the Ann Arbor Rd. area is being built up with
huge stores. Small specialty stores just can't survive in this environment.
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mcnally
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response 108 of 247:
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Sep 23 16:30 UTC 1999 |
In my experience the independent stores usually have *better* prices
than places like Tower and Virgin mega-stores.. However, I can see a
lot of their business being drawn away by places like Best Buy, which
offer much more competitive prices (if also a much less adventurous
selection.)
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lumen
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response 109 of 247:
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Sep 23 20:49 UTC 1999 |
I think what most small business consultants advise is to strongly
emphasize better and more personalized service, as well as a
distinctive and possibly unique product line. If a business can carve
a particular niche that can appeal to enough people, then even the
smaller ones can survive.
For example, I learned rather fast that it's not a good deal to buy
used music at a regular or even discount store. I started going to a
small business dealing in used music, and the tapes and CDs were in
much better condition, and were cheaper.
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otaking
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response 110 of 247:
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Sep 24 12:52 UTC 1999 |
I've learned that the used music from the used CD shop on South U. is cheaper
than used CDs at Tower. I can't remember it's name though. If I can't find
something special at Encore, I usually go there.
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orinoco
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response 111 of 247:
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Sep 24 22:31 UTC 1999 |
(Record Exchange?)
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otaking
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response 112 of 247:
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Sep 26 17:03 UTC 1999 |
Yes, Record Exchange.
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dbratman
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response 113 of 247:
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Sep 27 22:08 UTC 1999 |
For what it's worth, Wherehouse isn't a small local chain: it's a
national one, and not a very good one. When they first showed up here,
in the early 70s before the advent of Tower, they were pretty good, but
Tower sucked most of their lifeblood away.
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mcnally
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response 114 of 247:
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Sep 28 04:46 UTC 1999 |
Actually, these stores were "Michigan Wherehouse Records", which I'm pretty
sure wasn't related to the much-bigger "the Wherehouse" national chain..
I agree that the national "Wherehouse" chain is unexceptional.
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otaking
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response 115 of 247:
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Sep 28 13:29 UTC 1999 |
The A2 Wherehouse had some good import and limited edition CDs that I never
saw anywhere else.
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krj
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response 116 of 247:
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Sep 28 17:14 UTC 1999 |
Yes, the small Michigan chain and the West Coast chain hit on the same name
at about the same time back in the 1970s, and I presume they reached
an agreement to stay out of each others territory and avoid lawsuits.
The printed materials for our chain almost always say
"Michigan WhereHouse Records," like the receipt I got there yesterday.
The Lansing phone book lists just three outlets for them here, and
I think I've heard of a couple of others around the state.
As we've mentioned, the Michigan WhereHouse store in Ann Arbor
closed about a year ago.
In East Lansing, the Michigan WhereHouse store near the MSU campus had
a near-monopoly on CD sales for over a decade, with competition only
from the State Discount convenience store selling
the top hits, and the two used CD shops. It will be interesting to see
how long the MSU operation can hold out in the face of the Tower store
down the street. It's only a small Tower store, but it's still
bigger and better stocked than any music store which has been in
East Lansing in the last 25 years. In WhereHouse's favor: East
Lansing is not as overbuilt for CD retail space as Ann Arbor is.
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mcnally
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response 117 of 247:
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Sep 28 17:50 UTC 1999 |
I'd be interested, if you wind up shopping in both the Ann Arbor and
East Lansing Tower stores, if you get any feeling that Tower is pricing
things lower in East Lansing until their competition is gone.
Their prices in Ann Arbor have gone up significantly and I'm wondering
whether it's because their near-by competition has dropped off or whether
it's just a chain-wide price increase..
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orinoco
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response 118 of 247:
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Sep 28 18:23 UTC 1999 |
Really? How recent is "recently"? I'd noticed pretty low (for tower) prices
when I shopped there a few weeks ago.
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otaking
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response 119 of 247:
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Sep 28 19:45 UTC 1999 |
Regular CD prices now reach $18 at Tower. I'd hardly call that "pretty low."
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lumen
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response 120 of 247:
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Sep 28 20:21 UTC 1999 |
blech! $18 for a CD? What a ripoff, especially if it's standard
length..
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orinoco
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response 121 of 247:
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Sep 28 20:24 UTC 1999 |
Maybe I'd hit Tower during a sale and not realized it.
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mcnally
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response 122 of 247:
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Sep 28 21:57 UTC 1999 |
They often have some sort of sale going on but otaking's correct --
regular prices on full-price discs are often $17.99, which is ludicrous.
New titles are generally "on sale" for around $13.99 when they first
come out, and back-catalog titles range from $11.99 to $15.99 when
they're not on sale ($7.99 to $11.99 when they are..)
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orinoco
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response 123 of 247:
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Sep 28 23:28 UTC 1999 |
Ah, that's what it was, then. I was on an expedition to buy the albums that
I wouldn't be able to borrow from my parents anymore, so everything I bought
was a back-catalog title.
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krj
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response 124 of 247:
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Sep 29 05:25 UTC 1999 |
Mike in resp:117 :: Well, I bought two overpriced CDs at the East Lansing
Tower yesterday, both priced at $16.99. But these were obscure
world music titles, from Orchestra Nationale de Barbes and MacUmba.
My recollection is that the East Lansing Tower moved to $17.99 on
"front-line" discs at about the same time that Ann Arbor did.
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