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Grex > Music2 > #154: Schoolkids II, and Music Retailing |  |
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| Author |
Message |
| 25 new of 247 responses total. |
orinoco
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response 138 of 247:
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Oct 7 03:37 UTC 1999 |
<drools> All the more reason my friend Eric needs to go to Montreal and let
me visit him there. :)
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mcnally
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response 139 of 247:
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Oct 7 04:18 UTC 1999 |
Wow! Record prices have come down since the last time I shopped in
Canada. Prices were CDN$18-20 per disc at that time and the Canadian
dollar was doing significantly better against the American dollar.
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otaking
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response 140 of 247:
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Oct 7 16:15 UTC 1999 |
Even if CDs were CDN$18, it would still be cheaper than the US$18 that Tower
charges. Sure, you still have to consider the extra GST & PST, but it would
still be worth it in the long run.
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eeyore
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response 141 of 247:
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Oct 7 18:20 UTC 1999 |
Plus, if you have the patience to wait in line at the border, you can get the
GST back. :)
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otaking
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response 142 of 247:
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Oct 7 19:53 UTC 1999 |
That's true. You better make sure to save all of your receipts and ensure that
they all have the date and location of where you bought the stuff. You have
to prove that you bought it in Canada.
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orinoco
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response 143 of 247:
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Oct 7 20:40 UTC 1999 |
We do that every year on the way back from Canada, but that's because if
you're living there for three weeks the expenses add up. The GST saving on
a few CDs would almost not be worth the effort.
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otaking
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response 144 of 247:
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Oct 8 03:26 UTC 1999 |
Yeah, but if I made the trip, I'd want it to be worthwhile, considering the
cost of the drive and border crossings. I'd buy a whole stack of CDs or books.
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mcnally
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response 145 of 247:
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Oct 8 05:14 UTC 1999 |
Buy enough, though, and you run into the limits of your duty exemption..
Anyway, my thinking was that CD prices in Canada would have kept pace
with, or risen faster than, U.S. prices.. Apparently they've gone from
being somewhat higher to quite a bit lower..
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otaking
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response 146 of 247:
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Oct 8 15:09 UTC 1999 |
It's not like I plan to buy $300 worth of CDs. It would be nice, but I can't
afford that.
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dbratman
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response 147 of 247:
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Oct 13 18:17 UTC 1999 |
Be thankful you're not buying your CDs in the UK. Back in 1992 I saw a
stack of American rock imports at the Piccadilly Circus outlet of Tower
for 20 _pounds_ a crack. I could have brought over a stack and sold
them to friends at less than that, and still made myself a tidy profit.
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otaking
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response 148 of 247:
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Oct 13 19:42 UTC 1999 |
I found some really good CDs in the London Tower store when I went. They had
a decent bargain bin that was worth raiding. I came away with a Ryuichi
Sakamoto CD single and a limited edition Peel Sessions of Siouxie and the
Banshees for 2 pounds. The regular CDs cost 15 pounds, or roughly $24. Too
much for me.
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orinoco
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response 149 of 247:
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Oct 13 21:32 UTC 1999 |
<nods> British CD prices are ridiculous. I always assumed that 'imports'
(usually from Europe) are so high-priced here because prices are so high in
Europe, but #147 makes it sound like there's a worse markup going across the
Atlantic the other direction. Hmm...
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lumen
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response 150 of 247:
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Oct 20 23:14 UTC 1999 |
I figure it's yet another disadvantage of socialist policy in the
economy.
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krj
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response 151 of 247:
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Jan 4 15:29 UTC 2000 |
While doing Christmas shopping downtown, I stopped in on the new
Harmony House store. Maybe they hadn't finished stocking it yet.
But it didn't even meet the standards I expect from a Harmony House
store, in terms of stock, and it's hard to see how it's going to survive
near the corner of State and Liberty, with at least 7 other CD shops
within one block distance.
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mcnally
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response 152 of 247:
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Jan 4 16:08 UTC 2000 |
If my experience with other Harmony House stores is any indication,
they'll expect to make up for their small selection by charging extra
for the things they do stock..
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orinoco
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response 153 of 247:
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Jan 4 19:43 UTC 2000 |
I thought the row of computers with music site bookmarks was a nice touch,
but that was about all HH had to reccomend it when I stopped in a few days
ago.
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krj
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response 154 of 247:
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Jan 29 18:43 UTC 2000 |
If I remember the ad correctly, SKR is doing a stores-wide sale, 20% off
most everything in all three or four stores, for this weekend.
Has anyone investigated SKR's new store "Dubplate Pressure," which replaces
the old Schoolkids Annex? The new store seems oriented entirely towards
club DJs, I think. I don't seem to speak the language there.
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bruin
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response 155 of 247:
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Jan 29 23:24 UTC 2000 |
And I had a Dickens of a time figuring out what the "Dubplate Pressure" logo
read.
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carson
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response 156 of 247:
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Jan 31 19:21 UTC 2000 |
re #154: (?!)
(Dubplate Pressure is/was a vinyl store that is/was located
beneath some running store [Tortoise & Hare?] on Liberty.
same building as Dinersty, as I recall. I *hope* it's not an
SKR acquisition.)
(my experience from shopping there two years back: definitely
more for club DJs, with occasional hip-hop tracks. LOTS of
DJ competition videos. the guys running the place seemed to
be in it for the music rather than for the money.)
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scott
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response 157 of 247:
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Jan 31 21:46 UTC 2000 |
It seems to be part of the SKR family now. There was an article a month or
two ago about it; the idea was to keep the same guy but lighten the admin load
on him.
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orinoco
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response 158 of 247:
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Jan 31 22:22 UTC 2000 |
I've never been in, because they seem to favor vinyl and I don't have a
turntable.
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krj
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response 159 of 247:
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Feb 2 10:00 UTC 2000 |
A response unlikely to interest anyone except Twila and maybe David Bratman:
Cruising the Usenet folk music newsgroups, I came upon the news that
ADA Music has been sold. ADA is one of the two largest distributors of
folk music in the UK, and since about 1990 they had been my primary
source for British Isles and European folk music.
I'd heard from a friend that the proprietor had been sick. The fill
rate on my orders had been declining -- it used to be that any folk CDs
which ADA couldn't get, you had to mail order direct from the band.
And ADA only managed to get out one catalog flyer in all of 1999.
The last straw was that ADA was not available via the Internet,
at all. In the early 1990s I didn't mind getting up at 0500 to telephone
England -- I enjoyed chatting with the owner and gossiping about various
albums and artists -- but by the late 1990s it was getting hard to get up
so early just to order CDs, and then the owner started trying to
discourage small-order phone calls because it was taking up too much
of his time.
More of my business was shifting to companies with an Internet presence.
The new ADA already has a small web page up. I hope it's just a teaser;
I'm not finding much of interest on it. Sigh sigh sigh.
I will miss those early morning phone chats.
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krj
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response 160 of 247:
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Apr 15 21:59 UTC 2000 |
Dubplate Pressure, the techno/DJ operation which was acquired by SKR,
has closed. (resp:154, resp:156 above.) The techno stuff has been
moved into the main SKR store and it's 50% off. The storefront is being
cleaned out; I don't know if SKR has future plans for it.
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carson
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response 161 of 247:
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Apr 16 01:53 UTC 2000 |
(damn. and two weeks before I return to A2, too...)
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carla
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response 162 of 247:
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Apr 16 17:53 UTC 2000 |
haha skr will never be the same and they will dissapear.
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