Bye Bye Tower Records

[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! 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.