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?

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?

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.

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.

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.

response 163 of 194:

Mar 24 14:46 UTC 2001

make pilgrimage to elderly music, k?

response 165 of 194:

Mar 24 22:29 UTC 2001

        Maybe a springtime Grexpedition to Elderly is in order some
late April weekend maybe?

response 167 of 194:

Mar 25 16:35 UTC 2001

Neither are Jews, Barry.

response 169 of 194:

Mar 26 12:10 UTC 2001

Eh Gianni Schichi shutta you face.  Lees I dona preten I'ma notta woppa.

response 171 of 194:

Mar 26 14:20 UTC 2001

I'd be very, very, very surprised if they didn't carry ragtime.  At a guess,
with a far better selection than most stores - but possibly not much that you
wouldn't already have access to, John.

I think I have a fairly recent recordings catalog, & will check if I can
remember when I'm at home, & email you.

But you might well want to try their web site.  I haven't used it (lynx being
my sole web browser), but I've heard it's very good (as krj just said).

response 173 of 194:

Mar 26 15:34 UTC 2001

i don't pretend that i'm not a jew, mike.

THAT WAS VERY MEAN.

response 175 of 194:

Mar 27 23:25 UTC 2001

you should be 'shamed.  :P~~~

response 177 of 194:

Mar 28 13:51 UTC 2001

it's to late, deliza, my heart is broked.