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Today there have been numerous postings regarding
problems at Tower Records. An article appeared in Musical America
regarding this retail operation's relationships with its suppliers.
It's old news that Tower has been in financial
trouble for some time now, going back to Nov, 1999 http://sacremento.bcentral.com/sacremento/stories/1999/11/01/daily12.html
. Reasons include not only the ease of ordering from the net and broader
availability through the net, but also difficulties with foreign exchange with a
relatively small multi-national company. Their book operation has
failed as well. http://www.nytimes.com/books/01/03/18/abim/pw-tower.html
It's a hard outfit to get info on as it's not
a listed stock. Perhaps those with a D&B account might
help.
They were always a company that insisted its small
suppliers (I once was one of them) finance their acquisitions by waiting a long
time to be paid- 180 days was not unusual. Now they are insisting on 360
days.
They, and similar large operations, then
return any unsold merchandise, now gone a year stale, for credit as a
condition to placing an order for new releases. A small record
outfit has no such leverage with its bank (or, as is often the case, credit
card company.) No wonder so many record companies are short
lived.
I'm not sure this battleship can turn around.
They must carry inventory rather than run a "just in time" service as do
most net dealers. I'm sure you can all think of other problems
regarding the acquisition of commercial sound recordings better solved on the
net right now.
Mr. Darwin is operating in fast-forward
nowadays. It will be interesting to see what evolves from this latest turn
of events.
Steven Smolian
301-694-5134
Smolian Sound Studios --------------------------------------------------- CDs made from old recordings, Five or one or lifetime hoardings, Made at home or concert hall, Text and pics explain it all. at www.soundsaver.com ========================= =========================
Steven Smolian 301-694-5134 Smolian Sound Studios --------------------------------------------------- CDs made from old recordings, Five or one or lifetime hoardings, Made at home or concert hall, Text and pics explain it all. at www.soundsaver.com ========================= |