Tower Records is teh suck
Oct. 10th, 2006 05:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tikistitchSo, like the rest of you, we're kinda sad/kind "eh!" that Tower Records is finally going down the bankruptcy drain.
We went to college a few blocks from a ginormous Tower, and, during our angsty young adulthood, it was the only place in town we could find those maximum kewl imported records. Thanks to Tower, we realized at a tender age that With the Beatles rocked all over Meet the Beatles. True, there was a much more awesome record store a few blocks south (the fine, fine Rhino Records), but Tower was the place to go if you just had a lunch hour between Organic Chemistry and Vertebrate biology and needed to experience the vinyl fumes and wanted to drag your posse along for good measure. Tower had everything. During our pretentious phase (which lasted about two weeks total), we even bought a Mahler LP upstairs in the classical annex.
But lately, well, fate has taken us near once again to a university-adjacent Tower Records, and let us say, time has not been kind. Sure, it's a great place to spend a rainy lunch hour, and we've even (though rarely) chanced upon new music there. But, we buy online, or at the used record shop two doors up. $18 for a CD? Like hell.
Of course, when the GOING OUT OF BUSINESS banners went up, we scheduled a lunchtime visit, clutching our hastily printed Amazon wish list. We were expecting low stocks, but some tasty discounts.
Instead, all CDs were marked as 10% off the sticker price. What's more, someone had gone through the store and efficiently removed every single blessed discount marking from every single CD in the store. So, whereas last week, one could buy many titles for $9.99, $12.99, or whatnot, now everything was 10% off $18.99. In other words, Tower's liquidation sale is more expensive than their normal prices!
We tucked away our wants list, and headed out to the cool used CD place. The new Los Lobos is pretty good, but at $8.99, it was at least worth a try.
We went to college a few blocks from a ginormous Tower, and, during our angsty young adulthood, it was the only place in town we could find those maximum kewl imported records. Thanks to Tower, we realized at a tender age that With the Beatles rocked all over Meet the Beatles. True, there was a much more awesome record store a few blocks south (the fine, fine Rhino Records), but Tower was the place to go if you just had a lunch hour between Organic Chemistry and Vertebrate biology and needed to experience the vinyl fumes and wanted to drag your posse along for good measure. Tower had everything. During our pretentious phase (which lasted about two weeks total), we even bought a Mahler LP upstairs in the classical annex.
But lately, well, fate has taken us near once again to a university-adjacent Tower Records, and let us say, time has not been kind. Sure, it's a great place to spend a rainy lunch hour, and we've even (though rarely) chanced upon new music there. But, we buy online, or at the used record shop two doors up. $18 for a CD? Like hell.
Of course, when the GOING OUT OF BUSINESS banners went up, we scheduled a lunchtime visit, clutching our hastily printed Amazon wish list. We were expecting low stocks, but some tasty discounts.
Instead, all CDs were marked as 10% off the sticker price. What's more, someone had gone through the store and efficiently removed every single blessed discount marking from every single CD in the store. So, whereas last week, one could buy many titles for $9.99, $12.99, or whatnot, now everything was 10% off $18.99. In other words, Tower's liquidation sale is more expensive than their normal prices!
We tucked away our wants list, and headed out to the cool used CD place. The new Los Lobos is pretty good, but at $8.99, it was at least worth a try.
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no subject
Date: 2006-10-11 01:17 am (UTC)But yeah...the media seems to be using their demise as an opportunity to slam iPod, music downloads, and all that jazz. But the bottom line is that Tower is just too expensive sometimes. And if we are thinking of the same Rhino records, everyone threw a fit when they shut down too. But again, the reason for it had little to do with music downloads, and more with the fact that they stopped having in-store performances, took out the little comic book shop in the back, and generally didn't carry as much music as they used to.
The day Amoeba closes is the day I show real concern.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-11 01:50 am (UTC)Ya know, I don't think I've *ever* been to the branch downtown before 10 pm. It's totally Mr. Tiki's kind of store (ie, nocturnal).
no subject
Date: 2006-10-11 01:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-11 01:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-11 01:40 am (UTC)Considering the amount of internet advertising Amazon does and Tower didn't, I'm not suprised.
Discounts should be going up as time goes on...
no subject
Date: 2006-10-11 01:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-11 07:22 am (UTC)You grew up near Rhino ? That place is toooo dangerous for me. I've bought so many Rhino box sets, including some of the limited editions from their "handmade Rhino" line...
no subject
Date: 2006-10-11 05:48 pm (UTC)I actually found a few good deals at Tower and picked up some DVDs for $9.99. But a majority of titles were still too expensive, even with the discount.