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Grex > Music2 > #154: Schoolkids II, and Music Retailing |  |
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| 25 new of 247 responses total. |
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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otaking
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response 125 of 247:
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Sep 29 16:52 UTC 1999 |
Even BMG hasn't begun to charge $18 for CDs. Then again, you have to pay S&H
through them.
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omni
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response 126 of 247:
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Sep 29 18:49 UTC 1999 |
But if you only catch the sales, you can save money.
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mcnally
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response 127 of 247:
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Sep 29 19:29 UTC 1999 |
that's assuming you like their selection, don't mind waiting for the
sales, etc., basically just to pay a less-unreasonable-than-normal price..
of course you also have to worry about whether the artist (presumably
the only other party to the transaction that you care about) is making
any money off the record-club sale or whether they're actually being
*charged* for it by the record company as some sort of "promotional expense"
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otaking
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response 128 of 247:
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Sep 29 20:04 UTC 1999 |
The problem with BMG is their relative lack of selection. I find a lot of
mainstream stuff that I don't mind picking up, but most of the stuff I like
isn't available since they only carry major labels. In some cases, like Kate
Bush, you're lucky if they carry a couple of albums beyond a greatest hits
CD. If only there was a CD club that sold a lot of world, techno, goth,
industrial, ambient...
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lumen
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response 129 of 247:
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Sep 29 22:28 UTC 1999 |
no kidding. But unfortunately, that still seems to be somewhat of a
cult market, or an audience that is significantly smaller than the
mainstream.
Hey, has anyone considered buying wholesale? I subscribe to _Sound and
Vision_ and I keep seeing ads for a wholesale company that is *not* BMG
or Columbia House.
the only other way to find something like that is to start your own CD
club, somehow.. you'd have to be an entrepeneur, then..
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scott
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response 130 of 247:
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Sep 29 23:37 UTC 1999 |
$17.99 CDs? Gee, I guess the industry must really want MP3's to succeed. ;)
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mcnally
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response 131 of 247:
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Sep 30 00:13 UTC 1999 |
No kidding.. As far as I can tell the industry is doing everything it
can to alienate music buyers -- dropping any older artists who aren't
superstars, spending very little money and effort on developing new
artists and new sounds, gouging every last penny they can, etc..
(but then you've all heard me bitch about these things before..)
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dbratman
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response 132 of 247:
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Sep 30 22:16 UTC 1999 |
What, if anything, has taken the place of the 45 rpm single of the vinyl
era? I see things called "CD singles" for sale, but they're far too
expensive, both in absolute terms and as a percentage of the cost of a
full-length CD, for me to imagine buying a fistful casually the way kids
used to buy 45s in my day.
Or is my sense of price off, and CD singles really do move as fast and
casually as 45s used to?
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orinoco
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response 133 of 247:
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Sep 30 22:21 UTC 1999 |
Many of the ridiculously-priced CD singles you see have more music on them
than a 45 single. The usual routine seems to be one or two album tracks, and
a few 'not available anywhere else' B-sides.
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