|
Grex > Music2 > #291: Music retail again: SKR Uptown (Classical) & Downtown to close |  |
|
| Author |
Message |
| 25 new of 194 responses total. |
slynne
|
|
response 137 of 194:
| 
Feb 8 22:11 UTC 2001 |
I dont know the reason they stopped giving the test but I am pretty sure
that unless they wanted to pay the clerks at teh downtown Borders store
more than what they are paying say the clerks at Waldenbooks, they had
to ditch the test. I am sure a lot of that is because of the
disadvantages of working in a corporate environment.
|
ea
|
|
response 138 of 194:
|
Feb 9 00:24 UTC 2001 |
Sams is owned by WalMart. Which adds nothing to the discussion, I just
felt like pointing it out.
|
brighn
|
|
response 139 of 194:
|
Feb 9 03:29 UTC 2001 |
Find, lead to drift. Why can't you ever stay on topic, like me?
|
anderyn
|
|
response 140 of 194:
|
Feb 9 13:16 UTC 2001 |
Well, I know the guy in the black beret at Borders Downtown (not by name, but
he's very nice, and helps when I ask him, but he's not very good at folk
music...), but it still really bugs me that the Borders Downtown has a
*smaller* Celtic/British music section than the Borders at Arborland! There's
no reason that a mall store should have a better and bigger selection than
the flagship store, is there? The clerks at Borders Arborland seem a bit less
than knowledgable, but they DO try to answer questions and look things up.
It's rapidly becoming true that I go there when I want to buy music. This is
scary to me.
|
slynne
|
|
response 141 of 194:
|
Feb 9 15:17 UTC 2001 |
Yes, there is a reason why a mall store would have a bigger and better
selection than the flagship store. Obviously they have found that Celtic
/British music sells better at Arborland.
|
happyboy
|
|
response 142 of 194:
|
Feb 9 16:46 UTC 2001 |
hahahahaha....DUH!!!
:P~~~
|
orinoco
|
|
response 143 of 194:
|
Feb 9 18:13 UTC 2001 |
Also, regardless of why it happens, it's nice to have different locations with
different emphases. One of the Standard Complaints against corporate
bookshops is that you see the exact same selection everywhere.
|
ashke
|
|
response 144 of 194:
|
Feb 9 19:03 UTC 2001 |
I am split. I don't consider the downtown sstore to be the first anymore,
becuase while they increased in size, I think it lost some of the charm it
had in the old location. But the reason I'll check out Arborland now, rather
than going downtown, parking. period.
|
slynne
|
|
response 145 of 194:
|
Feb 9 19:07 UTC 2001 |
Actually parking isnt so bad at the downtown store because one can park
in the garage on Maynard and have the parking validated. I usually end
up going to the Arborland store or Waldenbooks in Briarwood although for
different reasons. I like Arborland because it is closer to Ypsi.
Briarwood is close to work and I can have them special order a book for
me if I dont need it right away and because I have access to the
Waldenbooks SPO system at work, I can track it too. I suppose I could
even just order the book myself but I dont want to mess up whatever
system they have. heh.
|
scg
|
|
response 146 of 194:
|
Feb 9 19:55 UTC 2001 |
I like the downtown store because I don't have to park (or drive) to get there
when I'm in Ann Arbor.
|
keesan
|
|
response 147 of 194:
|
Feb 9 20:58 UTC 2001 |
I like them because they are open after the public library closes.
|
mcnally
|
|
response 148 of 194:
|
Feb 9 21:28 UTC 2001 |
It seems kind of odd to me to complain about the effect of the
acquisition upon Borders and about the music selection in the same
response, as I can't remember the old-school style Borders even
having a CD department.
|
tpryan
|
|
response 149 of 194:
|
Feb 9 23:44 UTC 2001 |
re 145: You SPOoged a book?
|
ashke
|
|
response 150 of 194:
|
Feb 10 01:40 UTC 2001 |
148: They didn't. That's part of the corp idea for the "new" stores.
|
mcnally
|
|
response 151 of 194:
|
Feb 10 02:44 UTC 2001 |
That's what I thought..
|
slynne
|
|
response 152 of 194:
|
Feb 11 17:04 UTC 2001 |
haha. I am going to start calling WaldenSpo WaldenSPOoge.
|
i
|
|
response 153 of 194:
|
Mar 22 23:52 UTC 2001 |
If i'm looking for a nice non-big-chain really-know-their-stuff music
store to buy occasional classical, jazz, etc. CD's in within half an
hour of Ann Arbor, then i'm out of luck, right?
|
remmers
|
|
response 154 of 194:
|
Mar 23 01:41 UTC 2001 |
Yep. It's appalling.
|
keesan
|
|
response 155 of 194:
|
Mar 23 04:20 UTC 2001 |
What do you expect of a town where the nearest classical radio station is 60
miles away?
|
md
|
|
response 156 of 194:
|
Mar 23 13:34 UTC 2001 |
It's simple: work up a plan, submit it to the SBA, get a nice fat loan,
open up your own non-big-chain really-know-their-stuff music store
right there in the middle of fabulous downtown Ann Arbor, and watch the
money roll in. You'd the the only one within 60 miles, how could you
fail?
|
krj
|
|
response 157 of 194:
|
Mar 23 17:21 UTC 2001 |
resp:153 :: for occasional jazz purchases from an independent store,
there is still Schoolkids-in-Exile, in the basement under Bivouac on
State Street.
For an independent store with a decent selection of classical music?
It's not just that I can't think of one close to Ann Arbor: I can't
think of one period. There must be a couple left in North America
somewhere. It's not just in Ann Arbor where the independent CD
sellers are being crushed.
Somewhat outside your 30-minute radius is the Harmony House Classical
store in Royal Oak. Harmony House is a local chain, and that's the
best I can suggest. Your only other choices: buy used classical
discs at Encore Music, or else make your peace with the Borders chain or
one of the online retailers.
I don't have the article immediately available to me, but there was a
statistic (I think I quoted it in earlier responses) that classical
and jazz sales make up about a third of online CD sales, as against
perhaps 5-7% of instore sales.
|
keesan
|
|
response 158 of 194:
|
Mar 23 17:23 UTC 2001 |
Might this be because classical listeners have already heard the piece and
don't have to go to some local store to find out what they are buying?
(Or because they are more familiar with online buying?).
|
tpryan
|
|
response 159 of 194:
|
Mar 23 17:31 UTC 2001 |
While at Borders Downtown, I overheard a customer say to one
of our employees he was pleased to see the employee got work after
SKR classical. Some of the knowledge base may have gone across the
street.
Of course, it is so easy to buy Britney Spears at K-Mart or
Wall Mart, and very difficult to get classical or jazz at those 2.
|
keesan
|
|
response 160 of 194:
|
Mar 23 18:18 UTC 2001 |
K-Mart had two or three CDs in the section labelled classical, I think they
were collections of excerpts.
|
krj
|
|
response 161 of 194:
|
Mar 23 23:29 UTC 2001 |
md in resp:156 :: being the only classical music store within 60 miles
doesn't work any more. In the Observer, Jim Leonard said that he used
to have a large base of distant customers who made approximately monthly
pilgrimages to SKR Classical, and weekends were the store's busiest
times. But in the last couple of years, most of those far-away
customers switched over to the online retailers so they could avoid
the drive, and weekends became SKR Classical's quietest times.
sindi in resp:158 :: I believe that what's left of the classical and
jazz business is moving to the online stores because of inventory issues.
Unlike pop music which is mostly economically driven by large quantities
of a small number of discs, a good classical or jazz store has to
stock small quantities of large numbers of discs. This sort of an
inventory problem is best handled by a large national online store
because the online store has many more customers and thus has less
of a problem trying match obscure discs with buyers. (I'm not explaining
this well, oh well.)
There was a recent online essay somewhere discussing how amazon.com
had a minor hit with the Ken Burns Jazz series, and how everyone had
been forgetting that Internet e-commerce was supposed to be all about
niche marketing, and not selling more N*Sync discs.
|