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View Full Version : END OF AN ERA: Tower Records to close forever...



EAT MY ASSHOLE
10-10-2006, 03:35 PM
Thoughts?

Lots of memories towards the one near where I grew up...what does this mean to the industry/other retailers/the labels/consumers, etc?

DEMON CUNT
10-10-2006, 03:49 PM
I have very fond memories of the old Tower location on Mercer in Seattle.

When they started to remodel the stores and make them look like supermarkets, I started to shop elsewhere.

Anyway, charging list ($18.99 and up) for a single disc is way too much.

Good riddance. The failure is their own fault.

Right now, Easy Street in the old Tower Books location is my favorite place to shop for music.

FORD
10-10-2006, 05:23 PM
The old Tower on 38th street in Tacoma was a regular destination for me in the 1980's. It was always worth the drive, as I found stuff that I couldn't find anywhere else. Early U2 singles that were never released outside of Ireland. And punk rock albums that were hard to find in Olympia before it became the indie-punk Mecca.

I vistited the Mercer Street and U-district locations when ever I was in the area as well. Never left empty handed and rarely bought anything that I could get elsewhere.

That's what set Tower apart from the pack back in the day, and when they stopped doing that, I think that's what killed them. The last couple times I went into the store on 38th I was disappointed that it had become just another record store. Soon after that, they were gone.

Sad to see them go because of what they once were, but they lost their greatness years ago.

EAT MY ASSHOLE
10-10-2006, 08:38 PM
Wish Big Train would weigh in on this. I would like to hear what this means to the record industry and its perceived (and remember: perception IS reality) economy and health for the foreseeable future.

Va Beach VH Fan
10-10-2006, 08:44 PM
The only one I ever went to with any regularity was the one across the street from the San Diego Sports Arena in the early 80's....

Matt White
10-10-2006, 10:11 PM
I used to hang at the one in ANN ARBOR.....

it went out about 4 years ago.............


THey charged too much....downloading killed 'em

Hardrock69
10-11-2006, 03:55 PM
I made Tower my regular stop every Friday for the past 5 years.

Yeah they charged too much for their cds (THANK YOU YA FUCKING MAJOR LABEL FUCKWADS). That contributed to their downfall.

I rarely bought CDs there. But they had a killer magazine rack, and a great DVD selection. The DVDs were priced very well. (tons of DVDs UNDER 10 bucks on sale all the time).

But the variety of music-related stuff was killer.

I am pretty pissed off about this.

Right now they are having a massive closeout sale.

The chain is scheduled to close in about 6 weeks they say.

sadaist
10-11-2006, 04:00 PM
Originally posted by Va Beach VH Fan
The only one I ever went to with any regularity was the one across the street from the San Diego Sports Arena in the early 80's....

Yep. Before & after concerts, that place was packed. Always open until midnight too. Met Slayer during an in-store signing there. Wal-Mart & Target are swallowing up everything.

Revan
10-12-2006, 04:01 AM
Originally posted by sadaist
Yep. Before & after concerts, that place was packed. Always open until midnight too. Met Slayer during an in-store signing there. Wal-Mart & Target are swallowing up everything.

Surprising, because Wal-Mart and Target really have nothing to offer the buyers outside of the top 40, anyway. However, considering that the major bulk of album buyers are teenagers to early 20's kids who aren't interested in anything outside of the top 40 (at least by the numbers), I guess it makes sense.

Between that, downloading, and Tower Records charging a ridiculous amount for any form of music - $18 a CD...and the most insane example: I actually saw a copy of Emerson Lake & Palmer's "Brain Salad Surgery" on cassette for a few years back $33.00 a few years back at my local Tower! Asking CD price? $45.00, just the bare-bones Atlantic release, nothing remastered or repackaged, either. I actually went to the counter and asked them if they were serious and they said they were.

And the rise of downloading as a viable alternative to all that, it looks in retrospect to have only been a matter of time, with the writing always on the wall for them.

Their employees were notoriously awful in later years, also. Half of the time I couldn't discern between whether it was a Tower Records or a Starbucks with all of the alt.rock/semi-punk/grunge-goth/leftover Gen X'ers working there. They didn't know anything about the music they were selling, but I figured they could probably whip me up a half caf moca something or whatsit in no time flat.

I really think Tower refused to compete when they should have competed, and that's what did them in as far as their business operations were concerned. From ignorant teenage employees, random album placement (not everything falls under the "rock" catagory, I always hated that), exceptionally high prices, and refusing to bend to the changing currents in so far as music purchasing is concerned, they really made their own bed.

Would have thought that the upper eschelons of management would have had better business sense. Still, with all it's failings, I have to admit I will miss it - somewhat.

Hardrock69
10-12-2006, 10:37 AM
That is something that always bugged the shit outta me:

Calling something "Rock" music, when it is not.

Here are some very recent examples of stuff I almost bought, but did not. Both are DVDs.

1. Grandma's Boy: Saw this in the theater and laughed myself silly. How much did they want for this? $29.00! :eek:

No thanks. I periodically would check the copies they had to see if the price would change, but it never did.

Just last week, the Bettie Page movie that came out in the theaters over the summer came out on DVD.
When the cashier rang it up, they wanted 29 fucking dollars for it.

I said no fucking way! I mean, I dig Bettie Page for sure! But that is ridiculous!

As for the employees....the Tower store on West End Avenue is literally across the street from Vanderbilt University, so there are always college students working there. One in particular (who actually goes to another university in Murfreesboro) is hot and I dig her! *drool*
Once the store closes I may never see her again.
:(
And there are several guys who play in a local punk band who work there. For the most part, the employees know their shit.

I have nothing bad to say about the people who work at the store I go to. It is the corporate policy that fucked themselves in the ass.

Now I will have to go to at least two other stores to make up for this loss.

Borders for magazines, an independent used cd store for music, and possibly a third store for DVDs.

If the fucking idiots who bought the chain only had some INTELLIGENCE, they could turn it around, and keep it running.

But no....they are a buncha stoopid fucks!
:mad:

EAT MY ASSHOLE
10-12-2006, 11:57 AM
It is really indicative of the way the youth market has shifted when a namebrand like Tower which has been around for years is now worthless, and a website that hasn't even existed for even a year and has yet to turn a profit can be sought after and bought by Google for nearly two BILLION dollars...

DLR7884
10-24-2006, 05:34 PM
Even with the 20-40% sale at my local Tower this past weekend, their shit was overpriced.

DLR7884
Good riddance.

ODShowtime
10-24-2006, 10:06 PM
There's nothing like a good record store. Not too many left these day.

I remember finding a Van Halen I T-shirt in a great record store in State College for like $15. It was my number 1 lucky poontang shirt and concert shirt.

Now it rests in tatters, enshrined for the return of the chosen ones.