Re: [ARSCLIST] Is The Record Shop Dead?

[Don Cox <doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 29/06/07, Dismuke wrote:

> Yes, of course it is dead - meaning the kind that the
> article talks about and not the kind that Phillip
> Holmes talks about.  
> 
> (There actually is one of the latter still around in
> Fort Worth - but on the very rare occasion I have
> found 78 rpms there, none were really worth having.  
> But I am able to buy steel phonograph needles there in
> a pinch and I have found some very nice 1920s and
> 1930s recordings on LP reissues there.   The world in
> Fort Worth/Dallas, however, has never been the same
> since Collectors' Records in Dallas with its back room
> full of cheap 78 rpms closed because the owner did not
> feel like moving after his rent went way up.)
> 
> As for the conventional sort of record store that
> sells modern stuff - of course they are going to be
> all but dead very soon.  
> 
> There are essentially two types of music buyers -
> those sheep who merely buy the lowest common
> denominator stuff that they hear on FM and that
> somebody has convinced all their friends is somehow
> "cool" and those who have more discriminating and
> specialized tastes.
> 
> The former don't need a record store because the
> Wal-marts and Best Buys of the world sell that sort of
> stuff as a loss leader.   

And this is the main thing that killed the record (or CD) stores around
here. Their bread-and-butter sales went to the supermarkets.

The other thing was ever-increasing taxes.

> 
> Those who have more discriminating and specialized
> musical tastes would probably LOVE to have a good
> record store that they could go to.  I HATE having to
> wait for a CD or anything else I buy for pleasure to
> arrive in the mail.  I want my gratification to begin
> the moment my funds leave my possession - and I can't
> begin to count all the times over the years I have
> really wished I could be able to simply walk into a
> store and be able to find something that I could
> become extremely enthusiastic about listening to THAT
> SAME EVENING.  I was occasionally able to find
> something really good that I didn't already have or
> know about in the Tower Records store in Dallas and
> that was a very nice treat.  But it wasn't something I
> could count on when I walked in - especially if I had
> only visited recently and bought up all that I was
> interested in. 
> 
> The problem is that, as much as I would love to have a
> great record store to go to and buy everything in
> person - well, I really doubt a store in Fort
> Worth/Dallas could have ever survived catering to my
> tastes.  Maybe in New York City it would have been
> possible - but not very many other places in the USA.
> 
> The Internet is so much better for people who fall
> into that second category - even online retailers
> catering to a mass market stock a lot of the sort of
> CDs I buy because it cost them no more to sell one of
> them than it does a mass market CD.  Brick and mortar
> stores only had so much shelf space and had to fill it
> with what sold the most.  Warehouse space at Amazon is
> much cheaper than shelf space in high rent shopping
> centers or even in low rent shopping centers.
> 
> So while I hate to wait for CDs that I order over the
> Internet to arrive, I at least never have any
> difficulty finding plenty of CDs that I am eager and
> enthusiastic to listen to.  Before the Internet, I was
> frequently not able to find such CDs at the still
> thriving record stores that were available to me.
> 
> So I guess I won't miss the conventional record store.
> All I will miss is the hope that I might someday find
> one that would be perfectly suited to me.
> 

Regards
-- 
Don Cox
doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx