Musings on music stores
2006-10-17 23:34![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ckdSo, as events turns out, both the current and former occupants of the Frickin' Huuuuge[1] Record Store Space at the corner of Mass Ave and Newbury St are closing. This has led Mike Dreese, co-founder of Newbury Comics, to write about his perspective on both Tower and Virgin.
[1] As opposed to "wee" (the original Newbury Comics space) and "not so wee" (Newbury Comics after expanding into an adjacent storefront).
The current Virgin Megastore is down to 50% off music and movies, and the stock is getting more and more picked over, but there were still a number of good pickups when I went there on Monday night. (There were fewer after I left, heh heh.)
Tower Records, which opened that location as their superstore while I was at BU (and damn, does that ever date me) has also gone poof, with a liquidator taking over after their second bankruptcy. When I looked tonight they were still at 15% off, which almost makes their stuff almost worth buying. (Crazy-ass overpricing is their middle name.)
I'm worried about the future of their spaces.
The Winter St HMV is now a Mattress Discounters or something, and the Harvard Square HMV is still empty after how many years? I don't see anyone jumping to take over the Mass/Newbury space, and with HMV's One Brattle still empty will anyone want the smaller(?) Tower space?
(Actually, I wouldn't be too surprised to see Newbury Comics move out of the Garage and into the Tower space if the price is right. There's no way for them to expand where they are.)
My history of music buying during the CD era covers a lot of ground that isn't there any longer. After getting my first CD player (which I bought from the old Lechmere, before the Galleria), I bought a bunch of CDs at the Kenmore Square Strawberries (long gone, though their Downtown Crossing store hangs on somehow) during a "midnight madness" sale. Tower opened just one stop away on the T, and I shopped their aisles many a time. On trips to Harvard Square, Newbury Comics was a required stop; I still remember buying TMBG's Flood there.
I graduated and wound up living in Camberville. HMV opened in Harvard Square, Virgin replaced Tower, HMV closed; Lechmere disappeared and was replaced by Best Buy. Amazon and the iTunes Store came along, but neither really compares to the fun of browsing store aisles for me.
Both Tower and Virgin tended to have deep selections but crappy pricing; Best Buy is the master of having cheap prices on the Big New Release but never having heard of the less popular[2]. Newbury seems to have found a niche by having not a complete super selection (which Amazon tends to overwhelm), but having a good set of stuff at reasonable prices. (And stuff that I can pick up and look at before buying, then take home immediately if I do buy it. Instant gratification works.)
[2] One week, I used the Newbury Comics list as a reference when I was at the Galleria, and found that Best Buy had none of the four CDs I wanted that were released that week. None. Zero, zip, nada. But the MBTA runs a bus from Lechmere right into Harvard Square...and Newbury had them all.
Newbury has also made some good moves in tracking their hot sellers and being able to respond instantly; this Globe article gives an example, when they were able to reorder Napoleon Dynamite DVDs on release day. It also discusses their non-music (and non-comics) merchandise, which doesn't interest me but if it keeps the lights on in the stores...more power to them.
So, between last night's run to Virgin and tonight's to Tower, I've done my share of grave-robbing. (Both nights I also bought something from the nearby Newbury Comics, so not all is lost.)
Oh, and by way of grave-robbing? I'm still using a CD wrapper opener that I got as a trade show handout.
The logo on it? Genuity.
[1] As opposed to "wee" (the original Newbury Comics space) and "not so wee" (Newbury Comics after expanding into an adjacent storefront).
The current Virgin Megastore is down to 50% off music and movies, and the stock is getting more and more picked over, but there were still a number of good pickups when I went there on Monday night. (There were fewer after I left, heh heh.)
Tower Records, which opened that location as their superstore while I was at BU (and damn, does that ever date me) has also gone poof, with a liquidator taking over after their second bankruptcy. When I looked tonight they were still at 15% off, which almost makes their stuff almost worth buying. (Crazy-ass overpricing is their middle name.)
I'm worried about the future of their spaces.
The Winter St HMV is now a Mattress Discounters or something, and the Harvard Square HMV is still empty after how many years? I don't see anyone jumping to take over the Mass/Newbury space, and with HMV's One Brattle still empty will anyone want the smaller(?) Tower space?
(Actually, I wouldn't be too surprised to see Newbury Comics move out of the Garage and into the Tower space if the price is right. There's no way for them to expand where they are.)
My history of music buying during the CD era covers a lot of ground that isn't there any longer. After getting my first CD player (which I bought from the old Lechmere, before the Galleria), I bought a bunch of CDs at the Kenmore Square Strawberries (long gone, though their Downtown Crossing store hangs on somehow) during a "midnight madness" sale. Tower opened just one stop away on the T, and I shopped their aisles many a time. On trips to Harvard Square, Newbury Comics was a required stop; I still remember buying TMBG's Flood there.
I graduated and wound up living in Camberville. HMV opened in Harvard Square, Virgin replaced Tower, HMV closed; Lechmere disappeared and was replaced by Best Buy. Amazon and the iTunes Store came along, but neither really compares to the fun of browsing store aisles for me.
Both Tower and Virgin tended to have deep selections but crappy pricing; Best Buy is the master of having cheap prices on the Big New Release but never having heard of the less popular[2]. Newbury seems to have found a niche by having not a complete super selection (which Amazon tends to overwhelm), but having a good set of stuff at reasonable prices. (And stuff that I can pick up and look at before buying, then take home immediately if I do buy it. Instant gratification works.)
[2] One week, I used the Newbury Comics list as a reference when I was at the Galleria, and found that Best Buy had none of the four CDs I wanted that were released that week. None. Zero, zip, nada. But the MBTA runs a bus from Lechmere right into Harvard Square...and Newbury had them all.
Newbury has also made some good moves in tracking their hot sellers and being able to respond instantly; this Globe article gives an example, when they were able to reorder Napoleon Dynamite DVDs on release day. It also discusses their non-music (and non-comics) merchandise, which doesn't interest me but if it keeps the lights on in the stores...more power to them.
So, between last night's run to Virgin and tonight's to Tower, I've done my share of grave-robbing. (Both nights I also bought something from the nearby Newbury Comics, so not all is lost.)
Oh, and by way of grave-robbing? I'm still using a CD wrapper opener that I got as a trade show handout.
The logo on it? Genuity.
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no subject
Date: 2006-10-18 06:20 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-18 06:56 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-18 07:12 (UTC)The logo on it? Genuity.
Look upon my works, and Despair...
no subject
Date: 2006-10-18 10:54 (UTC)I think classical was the only thing I went to HMV and Tower for, ever. I'll have to see if I can get into Boston this weekend and hit the Virgin sale -- my father's obsessed with opera box sets, and I can't see those being a quick seller.
I can get anything on amazon or amazon.de, of course, but I liked being able to find bits of the long tail in stores to look at.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-18 15:50 (UTC)I was amused by the story Mike Dreese told about how they dealt with Tower's "we accept competitor's coupons" deal, though. "$5 off all Classical CDs" coupons!
no subject
Date: 2006-10-18 18:41 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-18 19:04 (UTC)It's too depressing. And even the Marliave is gone.
What happened to the Wordsworth space?
I only hope that whoever killed off all those great stores ends up bankrupt and in debtor's prison...
no subject
Date: 2006-10-18 21:25 (UTC)That's a lot of empty space.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-18 21:59 (UTC)1) The repeal of commercial rent control, about the same time as residential rent control in 1995/96 or so.
2) Starbucks.
This has resulted in raised rents, far above what the market can bear.
#1 isn't actually so bad, well, it depends on your view... it means rents go up, so space is less affordable to "local boutiques" but still affordable to big chains. But it also means landlords can afford to maintain their buildings, which was clearly becoming a problem when the change was made.
#2, or so I'm told, is the real killer. Apparently, when Starbucks moves in the area landlords raise rents a lot, because Starbucks will pay whatever is asked for the location they are looking for... but "location" is general, so the rates have to be raised over the whole area for a landlord to cash in on it. Apparently, landlords make more money fleecing Starbucks and letting their other - now overpriced - properties stay empty, than being reasonable. Or something like that... all I've really heard is that when Starbucks moves in it raises the retail rent in an area, and this can kill off the retail area as a result.
Kiralee
no subject
Date: 2006-10-18 22:01 (UTC)Kiralee