Bye Bye Tower Records

[Isaac]

Yesterday I was at the Buena Park mall looking around Tower Records. As I was leaving the store I noticed a sign in the window that read "everything on sale", then another one which read "everything must go". I thought to myself 'Are they closing the store ? It's barely been open for 3 months!' I took another step and saw another sign which read "store closing". 'Are they going out of business ? I hope not!' Then I saw another sign which read "going out of business". DAMN !!

Tower Records to be liquidated; 3,000 are expected to lose jobs

By Randall Chase

The Associated Press


WILMINGTON, Del. - After a lengthy auction stretching over two days,
a federal bankruptcy judge on Friday approved the sale of
California-based Tower Records to Great American Group, which plans to
liquidate the music retailer.


After almost 30 hours of what attorneys described as "robust" and
"vigorous" bidding, Great American won with an offer of $134.3 million,
beating Trans World Entertainment, which had hoped to continue
operating at least some Tower stores.


Peter Gurfein, an attorney representing Tower Records, said the company
will be sold for an aggregate of $150 million, including the sale of
various leases and properties.


Gurfein said Great American plans to begin the liquidation process and
going out of business sales today, which eventually will result in the
elimination of the jobs of some 3,000 Tower employees.


"This is not an easy decision," said bankruptcy Judge Brendan Shannon,
who nevertheless noted that the Tower debtors and other parties had
agreed the bidding process was conducted fairly.


Tower Records, which has 89 stores in 20 states and owes creditors
about $200 million, filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in August. In
its filing, the company said it has been hurt by an industrywide
decline in music sales, downloading of online music and competition
from big-box stores such as Wal-Mart.


Tower's Chapter 11 filing came two years after initial reorganization
that resulted in bondholders forgiving millions of dollars in debt but
taking an 85 percent stake in the company, leaving founder Russ Solomon
and his family with 15 percent.


Solomon founded Tower in Sacramento, Calif., in 1960, starting by
selling records out of his father's drug store and eventually opening
the company's landmark store on Hollywood's Sunset Boulevard in 1969.
As part of the bankruptcy auction, the Sunset property will be sold for
$12 million.

[€uroMeinke]

Hmmm - better bring along my shopping list

[Snowflake]

me = Tower Employee #3795

I moonlighted at Tower for 10 years to support my vinyl then CD habit. While I find this very very sad, I have to admit, it's been a long time since I walked into a Tower and browsed the racks.

I feel most for the long time long term lower rung Tower employees, Russ Solomon the founder and the bigwigs in Sacramento bled Tower for years. I hope those lower rung management and staff have 401Ks and good options.

Tower was never noted for being overly generous, even after my 10th anniversary, the employee discounts were not close to what they once were. Salaries sucked and the benefits were not great.

But, the fond, fond memories, it was great fun.

[Capt Jack]

me = Tower Employee #3795

But, the fond, fond memories, it was great fun.

yup. the one by me during my youth had THE best head shop in the area.

bye Tower....its been..........uh....


...dewd! I totally forgot what I was gonna say! :p

[Ghoulish Delight]

An era ends. In my view (and filing for chapter 11 seems to be pretty good support for my view), they failed to adapt their business model in a way that kept them relevent to today's music market. Not that I have any brilliant ideas on what a successful model might have looked like, but I knew that wasn't it.

Makes me want to search for a good little music store near our new digs...

[Snowflake]

yup. the one by me during my youth had THE best head shop in the area.

bye Tower....its been..........uh....


...dewd! I totally forgot what I was gonna say! :p

Oh yeah, the San Jose Tower had a great head shop, I was not old enough to go in there when it was still in business, but it was endlessly fascinating to me as I peered at my sister through the window. I totally forgot about the head shops! :-)

[€uroMeinke]

I still miss Licorice Pizza

[Gemini Cricket]

Yep. Saw this the other day at the Cambridge Tower Records. Very sad. :(

[Cadaverous Pallor]

I still miss Licorice PizzaAnd Moby Disc - we grew up down the street from the original.

Remember when Wherehouse went down, only a few years back?

[NirvanaMan]

Good riddance. They were always way overpriced. Can't say I ever bought a single CD there.

Might be worth checking a local one out for some out of business bargains though.

[lizziebith]

I still miss Licorice Pizza

http://lafanforce.com/Gallery/albums/JediBith/lic.thumb.jpg

I still have my badge and tee-shirt! :)

[JWBear]

Another icon of my childhood gone.... sigh....

[RStar]

Back when I was a teen in the mid 70's, we use to hang out there. It was about the only place open late (other than Denny's). It closed at midnight.

Lots of great memmories, and like GD said, a sad end to an era....

[innerSpaceman]

Tower was one of the only record chains I never worked for in my youth (and, heheh, Licorice Pizza was my first ... hence why I have long ago eaten my lifetime quota of licorice and you won't see me ordering any at the multiplex snackbar ... but I digress)

This is a sad end of an era for me ... Tower was always the place that had the generally biggest selection. Amoeba eclipsed them, but they have only one So.Cal store, and Tower had many ... including my local one in Marina del Rey. Having to head to Hollywood just to buy music will be the coffin nail in my CD-purchasing habit.

Good riddance. They were always way overpriced.
Pfft, with Tower gone .. and before them Wherehouse and Music Plus and Licorice Pizza ... and every mom&pop operation ... all that's left is Borders. If you think Tower prices were high, check out what CDs sell for at Borders for the height of chutzpa.


Sad though it is, I'll probably wait a week or so for the discounting to get really steep before I go on my carrion-run to the local falling Tower.

[Gemini Cricket]

I used to work for Wherehouse. Even with the employee discount, the CDs were still expensive... :D

[NirvanaMan]

Pfft, with Tower gone .. and before them Wherehouse and Music Plus and Licorice Pizza ... and every mom&pop operation ... all that's left is Borders. If you think Tower prices were high, check out what CDs sell for at Borders for the height of chutzpa.


Internet dude, internet. F' borders. I hate that joint anyway. It is sad that all the smaller joints are gone. The place I bought my discs at growing up used to sell CD's for around $11 when tower wanted $18. They deserve what they got. The people have spoken.

Now...was there really a joint called Licorice Pizza? Did they sell Pizza too, or just music?

[Not Afraid]

Other than independent stores (which I still frequent the few that are lefr) I was a die-hard Tower fan. I worked at Licorice Pizza and then at a small independent in HB called Map Platter. But, Tower always had the best selection and I could always find those hard to get CDs at Tower. Virgin NEVER held a candle to them and Wherehouse was a joke to me.

I'm really sad, but I knew it was going to happen.

[Alex]

The only Tower Records I ever frequented was the one at Kahala Mall in Hawaii. And then only to play video games while waiting for a movie to start at the multiplex next door.

There was a stor on NPR the other day blaming the demise on a combination of peer-to-peer and the death of the single. Apparently singles were the primary driver of getting kids in the store on a regular basis since they could afford those. When the labels mostly stopped selling singles the kids stopped coming.

[innerSpaceman]

Tower always had the best selection ...Virgin NEVER held a candle to them and Wherehouse was a joke to me.
Tower is indeed the class act, and certainly the saddest to see go. It was a long-time coming, but I'm more than usually sad for their employees ... and I feel much more end-of-an-era than I have for any other failed commercial entity that I can recall.

Internet dude, internet. F' borders
That's just it ... with the entire brick&mortar music monopoly in the hands of price-gougeing Borders, I will likely never purchase a piece of music in the real world again. My 93% music internet purchases (or other means of acquisition) will climb to roughly 99% - - and an entire way of life will be gone forever.


:snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: Tower Records

[Bornieo: Fully Loaded]

Hey, there's a Wherehouse by me! They have great deals on used cd & dvd's.

I remember Tower on Sunset Blvd. so well. It's almost a landmark. So sad.

[lizziebith]

Seriously, we used to make pilgramages to Tower on Sunset from O.C. Our friend Frank got his transmission ruined by one errant knee on one packed-sub-compact trip... And, no, Licorice Pizza did not sell pizzas...though I'd happily take orders from the crank-callers who tried to pull that when I worked there...I worked with Sub-Lagoon and Boss Radio at the one in Orange, and never learned to like licorice in the 5 years I spent there. Sorry I wrote you guys up!:blush: Remember "you get it nicer at Licorice Pizza?" I remember us saying "just be glad you get it at all" once we got bought by the big corporate idiots...

Tower gone = end of my vinyl-buying days makes a headline. But now I only shop Amoeba anyway. *sigh* l love Amoeba...But Tower: RIP old friend.

[Prudence]

Cellophane Square was always cooler than Tower. I interviewed at Cellophane once, but never worked there. Bought lots of crap there. I think it was during my Posies phase.

[€uroMeinke]

I used to love the selection of music Tower had, but these past few years I've seen fewer and fewer interesting selections - I guess the buyers knew when to get out. The Internet, and used CD stores are now my favorite places to shop for music.

[Isaac]

I'm bummed that Tower Records is going out of business but I gotta agree that usually their selection was never quite big enough and the prices were often too high.

I prefer buying music online at allofmp3.com, Amazon, eBay, and occasionally visiting Amoeba in Hollywood.

[Snowflake]

I used to make pilgrimages to the Sunset classical annex store. Now that was like finding Mecca. The buyers in that store were awesome, same for the New York stores.

My time as a buyer in the Mountain View store was shared by three of us (still all good friends) and I have to say, we had the best classical section (vinyl) in the Bay Area. In the golden days when the dollar was doing better, we could bring in imports from Japan, the UK and France that never saw the lgiht of day in the US from the domestic distributors. We loved it and so did our customer base. When I moved to SF I was the part time classical buyer in a couple of years and it was great fun.

The other special people were the sales reps from the various labels, especially the smaller indie labels, they had the same passion we did for the music.

Tower was a great place to hang out and it was a good place for a bargain. What I also loved was the exposure to many musical genres, I was always hearing something interesting or great (or not so great). Back in the heyday, during the Xmas season, the lines of customers were incredible, sure we lined the pockets of old Russ Solomon (the markup vs. actual cost was astounding, and not just classical) but we'd have pairs on the registers and races to see who could ring up the most in their shifts. Before the days of barcode scanning, this was also fun and a VHS or laserdisc of cartoons on the video screens kept the customers amused while waiting in the long lines.

I remember when CDs came to town, literally. And back then, there were 3 classical discs from Phillips (I still have them, in fact) and they were expensive, $22 a pop. Eventually the prices for a full price, new release classical CD came to $12-13 and all was great for about a year. Then, Tower decided they were not making enough money and raised the base price across the board, first $14 a disc, then $16 and I had stopped buying in a store by then. Amazon, eBay and other places got more of my money than Tower.

Virgin, Wherehouse, they were never an option, never had the selection and the prices were mugh higher than Tower. Borders and Barnes & Noble are a joke, I love looking, but I rarely buy books from them, not when I can get them more reasonably online.

I love Amoeba in the Haight and in Berkely. The store I miss most was Magic Flute on Frderick and Stanyan, now that was a treasure trove for used vinyl.

As I said before, I feel for the employees of Tower, especially the long term ones who have had a career at Tower. The pop buyer in the Bay Street store I ran into on the street here a month ago and we caught up and I asked him about the future of Tower and he said, oh fine, we'll get bought and things will go on as before. The bigwigs of the company raped and pillaged and got all the perks, the big profit cuts, the payola from the labels, you name it. The drones in the stores got very little.

I will always remember the time I did at Tower as a happy time and I am sad at the demise. But how can I be surprised when I have not walked into a store in years? I cannot have been the only one. Even Tower online was unsatisfactory, better selection elsewhere and better prices too. The little guys that are still around get my business in person, but 99% of my purchases are online.

Farewell Tower, you were great fun, I met some dear friends through you and it was great while it lasted.

(sorry for the mega long trip down memory lane)

[innerSpaceman]

Well, I for one still went into to my local Tower once in a while. Prices did get higher, and selection smaller ... but I could still likely find something that I was looking for if I wanted it NOW. I will miss that convenience.


(btw Virgin on Sunset had a better selection than any Tower anywhere, but their new Hollywood store is a mere shell.)


I will say, though, it's not high prices that have driven me from the CD market ... but not knowing which will have spyware or piracy protection that won't allow me to make my own legitimate copies. It's the studio's own lame efforts to combat music "stealing" that have led me to steal so much music. Not paying the 4000% markup on CDs is just icing. Tower Records simply failed to adapt.

But it's too bad I'll have to drive half an hour to Hollywood if I want a CD in my hands today. Somehow that doesn't seem like progress.

[Gemini Cricket]

Jake Shears was right. No wonder people download/steal music...

[Prudence]

I sometimes buy CDs from CD Baby online. Not the biggest selection ever, but they've got some of the less mainstream stuff and allegedly they bypass distributors and work directly with the artists so that the artists get more $ per sale. Or something.

But mostly it's because their emails amuse me.

[Not Afraid]

We stopped bt Tower tonight to check out the "bargins". Most CDs and DVDs are only 10% off and that's off a price of $16.99. Not much of a bargain. We came out empty handed - a first in many years. Maybe when they drop to 20% or even 30% I will make another attempt. Their "international" selection is pretty good still and I don't think it's going to go fast. I also will take a look at the Criterion Collection DVDs if they go on sale. But, unless they go below $9, I'd rather shop used at Amoeba or Fingerprintz.

[innerSpaceman]

Yeah, I'd heard it's just 10% off now. Woohoo, no sales tax! No Thanks.

I'll take my chances with reduced selection and wait till the 30% fire sale starts.

[€uroMeinke]

Yeah, essentially Tower is now giving everyone the same discounts we've been anjoying as KCRW members - so really there's no price diff for us - maybe next time.

[Not Afraid]

If tprices get really good, I may want to use this as an opportunity to fill in my "have on vinyl but not on CD" collection. There are quite a few recordings I don't own on CD that I'd like to.

[Morrigoon]

10%? Pfffft... Disney gives me a better discount on in-park food!

The music stores just flat out wanted too much, and even then I often couldn't find what I was looking for. Tower usually did have the best selection, but best does not mean great, and you can have every CD I've ever dreamed of, but if you charge too much, I'm not buying.

The CDs I have bought in the last couple years (and they are few and far between) have been from Target or WalMart. Not a good selection at all, but if they have the CD I'm looking for the prices can't be beat. And if the music's old enough that they don't carry it, then I can probably torrent it.

[Alex]

The Tower near us had people out on corners waving signs advertising 30% off this last weekend. Of course, I lived within a mile of this Tower for the last 18 months and had no idea it was there until two weeks ago so maybe they are in more dire straights.

[€uroMeinke]

There are some books, magazines and posters at 30% off, but the CDs and DVDs are still only at 10% at the Tower we visited.

[Boss Radio]

Seriously, we used to make pilgramages to Tower on Sunset from O.C. Our friend Frank got his transmission ruined by one errant knee on one packed-sub-compact trip... And, no, Licorice Pizza did not sell pizzas...though I'd happily take orders from the crank-callers who tried to pull that when I worked there...I worked with Sub-Lagoon and Boss Radio at the one in Orange, and never learned to like licorice in the 5 years I spent there. Sorry I wrote you guys up!:blush: Remember "you get it nicer at Licorice Pizza?" I remember us saying "just be glad you get it at all" once we got bought by the big corporate idiots...

Tower gone = end of my vinyl-buying days makes a headline. But now I only shop Amoeba anyway. *sigh* l love Amoeba...But Tower: RIP old friend.

You raise an interesting point - even though we worked at a record store, where did we go on our precious day off? To the Hollywood record stores, of course: Aaron's, Renee's, the Sunset Licorice Pizza and Tower. And, of course, the infamous Capitol Records swap meet, where you could find bootlegs, rare vinyl, or in Lizzie's case, giant cardboard Dream Police...

[Gemini Cricket]

The signs say "Up to 30% Off" around here. When you go in it's 10% of CDs and 305 off books.

[Not Afraid]

The Dram Police, they live inside my head.

Tower did have a large selection of toys - cool action figures, Nightmare stuff, Ugly Dolls, etc. I know a few swanky kids that would enjoy these.

[Alex]

It appears that things are truly in their last days now.

Assuming they are all on the same schedule the final day is Friday. I drove by our local one this evening and saw that so I decided to stop in.

They're selling the shelving if you want it. Absolutely everything was 70% off and 99% of it was crap but I managed to find a handful of DVDs to buy. I didn't even look at the music.

[innerSpaceman]

Yeah, that was the whole problem with this .. and other close-out sales. The initial discounts aren't low enough for me ... but that's when all the good stuff eventually sells out. By the time the discounts are really what I would consider Going Out of Business Sale prices, all that's left is sh!t.


Bottom Ironic Line: I've visited my local Tower zero times in the past 3 months of their prolonged departure, and would probably visit (and buy) 2 or 3 times in any 3 month period before that since the day they opened.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Yeah, that was the whole problem with this .. and other close-out sales. The initial discounts aren't low enough for me ... but that's when all the good stuff eventually sells out. By the time the discounts are really what I would consider Going Out of Business Sale prices, all that's left is sh!t.Yeah, it's almost as if things for which demand is high cost more than things for which demand is low. Weird.

[Alex]

But if you're willing to wade through the 95% crap there are some good things to be found (assuming all stores are in about the same condition as my was). Particularly if you stray outside of the mainstream new release type fair. I got several decent finds in the foreign films section.

Nothing great, but I still managed to spend $50 on the visit. None of them were things I'd spend full price for (especially Tower Records full price) but $5 sure.