Tower Records Last Stand

[Hardrock69]

I took these pix on December 20th...the final night of business for Tower Records at their West End location in Gnashville.....

Outside:

http://i11.tinypic.com/2cdk869.jpg

TV Crew doing remote broadcast:

http://i17.tinypic.com/2qd0rkl.jpg

Empty Aisles:

http://i13.tinypic.com/2ijkvlw.jpg

Elvis has left the building....:

http://i14.tinypic.com/2mfkbux.jpg

[EbDawson]

Sad to see them go. I bought some neat stuff over the years at the Towers here in S.D. Bought DLR Sonrisa Salvaje there. Plus the store was only 2 blocks away from a strip joint. :D

[bueno bob]

Well, maybe if they'd have charged a little less than $18.00 for a new CD...

Before they went out of business here, I could get new CDs (on sale, of course) for about $15.99; comparatively, I could walk across the street to Everyday Music (a locally owned and EXTREMELY well stocked store) and buy the same CD, new, for $11.99.

If I bought a used copy of the same CD - $5.99 to $7.99, depending on condition.

Either that, or I could stay home and download the thing inside of 2 minutes for $2.75 or so, plus the cost of the CD-R to burn it.

You know, Tower Records used to be like a second home to me, but it just got to the point of sheer foolishness to buy music from them - unless I was interested in throwing money away for what amounted to no good reason. As other mediums started popping up (e.g. locally owned stores willing to compete with pricing, pawn shops, downloading, et al), Tower just basically kept doing the same business.

Towards the end, their selection of music was getting very threadbare anyway - same as other major retailers, mostly...if it wasn't "mainstream", odds are I wasn't going to find it. Mom and Pop music stores have a tendancy to cater more to my musical tastes, and frankly I always thought they needed the money more than Tower did, even with more readily available albums...

It's sad to see it go as an institution, but realistically, the absence of a Tower Records isn't going to hurt me or my access to music in the slightest.

[FORD]

Tower was THE Shit in the 80's, but in recent years they turned into just plain shit. The prices went higher and the selection went to Hell, until they finally became like all the other corporate chains focusing on the Titney/N Suck/P Diddly/Eminem prefabricated corporate pop star bubblegum horseshit. Sad to see them go, but they earned it.

[BruinJer]

The Tower down the street from where I'm at now (in Monterey Park) is still open... YOu know what I think is a fucking RIP... the CD's are still WELL over $12 even with the going out of business discount. I hope they rot in hell!!

[twonabomber]

didn't have any Towers here...but we had FYE, which used to be Camelot, which used to be a decent store. once Best Buy came in, i quit going there.

i kind of give the "FU" to Best Buy, too, because they think that if someone comes in for a $10 CD, chances are they're gonna walk out with something else. i would say 90% of the time i get my $10 CD and walk right the fuck out. theory busted.

[bueno bob]

Originally posted by twonabomber
didn't have any Towers here...but we had FYE, which used to be Camelot, which used to be a decent store. once Best Buy came in, i quit going there.

i kind of give the "FU" to Best Buy, too, because they think that if someone comes in for a $10 CD, chances are they're gonna walk out with something else. i would say 90% of the time i get my $10 CD and walk right the fuck out. theory busted.

I think that's the whole approach a lot of retailers are taking these days...figuring you'll walk out with more shit than what you came in for...

I do the same - CD and walk out...that's when I actually shop there, which admittedly isn't often...honestly, I really dislike Best Buy for a LOT of reasons...

[EbDawson]

Originally posted by FORD
Tower was THE Shit in the 80's, but in recent years they turned into just plain shit. The prices went higher and the selection went to Hell, until they finally became like all the other corporate chains focusing on the Titney/N Suck/P Diddly/Eminem prefabricated corporate pop star bubblegum horseshit. Sad to see them go, but they earned it.

The selection at the Towers here was great, larger than pretty much any other record store I've gone to. That's why I went there. You could find stuff you couldn't anywhere else. Prices weren't all that great, but they did have alot of stuff on sale regularly. That said it's probably been 2 years since I'd been in there.

[bueno bob]

I don't even recall hearing about the going out of business sale in my neck of the woods (although Seenbad might remember...?).

I think they just closed the doors here and called it a day...

[Last_Child]

Originally posted by bueno bob
Well, maybe if they'd have charged a little less than $18.00 for a new CD...


You'll hate Norway..

It's even more for a brand new CD..
Here you'll have to pay about $23

[bueno bob]

Originally posted by Last_Child
You'll hate Norway..

It's even more for a brand new CD..
Here you'll have to pay about $23

Well fuck that crap!

:)

[Steve Savicki]

Tower and Virgin Megastore screwed up when they mixed their imports with their regular CDs. In other words, eliminating the specific import section.
Never dug them really.

Is Tower still online?

[bueno bob]

Originally posted by Steve Savicki
Tower and Virgin Megastore screwed up when they mixed their imports with their regular CDs. In other words, eliminating the specific import section.

I don't understand why you'd consider that a screw-up...

If you ask me, the bigger mistake was blending everything into the Pop Rock catagory, but I don't see how that would have damaged their business as much as excessive prices and a refusal to compete with local and online sources that were a FAR better investment for the average consumer.

Explain your reasoning?

[Kilkmaru]

Iv been to the west end tower lots of times. :(

[Steve Savicki]

Bob, with prices as high as they were, anyone could get domestic CDs anywhere. I'd just ignore their U.S. section of CDs and order them from CDNow before they sold to Borders.
With import CDs, one venue can't get every one where, so sometimes you had to just pick up an import CD where you got it. Due to Tower's high prices, I'd just go browse the import section for an import I couldn't get online or elsewhere. I remember buying a Shakatak compilation at Tower because it stood out in the separate import section whereas I never would've even thought of finding it mixed in with everything else (Shakatak have a piece that was the demo on my old 80's synth- bought the CD for the memories.)
When Tower fused everything together, I just decided it wasn't worth my time scouring Tower for CDs mostly domestic I could get cheaper online.

NOTHING is worth going into a music store for anymore. With limited store space and us getting older and new music taking over the store space, I just order online from venues serviced by warehouses. That's where I can get all the 80's reissues I'm looking for.

[Hardrock69]

FYE is moving into that building, and is supposedly going to be open in February.

The building is perfect for a large music/video store. I just hope FYE has as good a selection as Tower did.

The West End store in Gnashville had a better selection than any other store in town.

All this rot about them having super high prices is...well...rubbish.

I bought many a CD from them, and never paid more than 11-13 bucks for the most part.

Perhaps other stores had insane prices, but this one was very reasonable.

I just look forward to seeing how FYE is.

[twonabomber]

the FYE here got pretty bad. i don't even know if it's still open.

[bueno bob]

Originally posted by Steve Savicki
Bob, with prices as high as they were, anyone could get domestic CDs anywhere. I'd just ignore their U.S. section of CDs and order them from CDNow before they sold to Borders.
With import CDs, one venue can't get every one where, so sometimes you had to just pick up an import CD where you got it. Due to Tower's high prices, I'd just go browse the import section for an import I couldn't get online or elsewhere. I remember buying a Shakatak compilation at Tower because it stood out in the separate import section whereas I never would've even thought of finding it mixed in with everything else (Shakatak have a piece that was the demo on my old 80's synth- bought the CD for the memories.)
When Tower fused everything together, I just decided it wasn't worth my time scouring Tower for CDs mostly domestic I could get cheaper online.

NOTHING is worth going into a music store for anymore. With limited store space and us getting older and new music taking over the store space, I just order online from venues serviced by warehouses. That's where I can get all the 80's reissues I'm looking for.

Fair enough, thanks for explaining

:)

[RuzDNailz]

The 2 Tower Records we had here in Toronto didn't last too long at all.
They were great stores and I liked the set-up inside as well, but those CD prices killed them. The closest one to me had a TON of potential
but somehow it all got fucked to hell. In the world of CDs, it's a very tough and competitive market. Aside from music downloading, you have these other well known franchises that have superior service and reasonable prices. HMV has always been the one music store to compete with.

Here, we recently had a music store chain go under due to financial troubles. Their only store left is the large flagship store in the heart of downtown Toronto. I'm sure those fellow Canadians know which store I'm talking about; Sam The Record Man.

[bueno bob]

Honestly, I can't suggest visiting your locally owned private music stores enough...in a time when even the major retailers like Tower, Best Buy, Circuit City, FYE, etc. are all having difficulty moving product due to the ease and access of online purchasing, the local shops are having a VERY hard time staying afloat...

And I'll tell ya, I make it a point to stop in at whatever locally owned shops I can find whenever I go out of town, and man...there are some serious gems to be found from time to time, at REALLY competative prices...I've bought out of print CDs I've been looking for for YEARS for $2.00...sometimes less...

I used to have three REALLY good locally owned stores in my neck of the woods...For What it's Worth, Good Vibrations and CD Exchange...all three of them have since went under and I miss the shit out of all three...what I've got left is Target and Wherehouse. Wherehouse has the better selection (but not by much) - Target has the top 40 - both have ludicrous prices...

Hell of a choice...

[Hardrock69]

If you can find the original "Nativity In Black" Black Sabbath tribute CD, it is worth a pile of money. In years gone by I have seen it sell on ebay for as much as 50 bucks.

[Mr. Vengeance]

The FYE I go to in Vermont, when I vacation in the U.S., has a nice stock of metal, actually.

Canada used to have a very nice array of record stores. A&A, Sam the Record Man, Discus, Sunrise, Cheapies, and tons of other smaller independent stores, and you could get good stuff at reasonable prices, but now the big stores have taken over. Only Sam's remains with a few Sunrise stores. It's all HMV superstores and Best Buy, Future Shop, Walmart....and the selection sucks ass like George Michael at a May Day parade.

[Mr. Vengeance]

Originally posted by Hardrock69
If you can find the original "Nativity In Black" Black Sabbath tribute CD, it is worth a pile of money. In years gone by I have seen it sell on ebay for as much as 50 bucks.

I see that cd at used stores all the time. How can it be valuable?

[Hardrock69]

Out of Print.

At least is was a couple of years ago.

I stand corrected. A friend told me this a couple of years ago and never bothered to check the truth. My friend said she saw it herself.

If it were true back then, it is not true now. My bad.


http://search.ebay.com/Nativity-In-Black_W0QQfkrZ1QQfromZR8QQsatitleZQ22NativityQ20In Q20BlackQ22QQsubmitsearchZSearch

[bueno bob]

Don't know...I've seen it pretty consistantly over the years...

You wanna make some bank on eBay? If you ever find a used copy of Nuclear Assault's "Survive" album on CD, BUY IT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!!

I've seen copies of that CD close out on eBay for well over the $125.00 range...

And no, you CAN'T have my copy...

:D

[Steve Savicki]

You're welcome, Bob.