Vinyl's Resurgence

[DOUBLE H]

Originally Posted by via chicago

To be honest, the big boxes dont really pose much of a threat. Their vinyl selections are tiny and comprised of big name represses and a handful of pop artists. Thats about it. I think most people interested in vinyl have far more expansive (and niche) tastes than that, and are already shopping at the local places to begin with. (honestly, who buys music in a store that also sells refrigerators?).

Not in the big cities anyway. I lived in the Denver area for a few decades and fortunately there are still some damn good ones, one of my favorites being in business since 1974. I was one of their earlier customers, first time I went in there I was 25 lol!

But when you are getting in to the smaller areas, yea the Best Buys and Circuit cities sold a LOT of cd's. Don't know about the vinyl end. But people miss that personalized service, that personal recommendation, being able to bring in some music titles, get trade value out of them, and then pick up that $16.98 release a little cheaper.

And then there are the trade shows, huge hotel rooms in the bigger cities where collectors, sellers, and store owners meet.Tables and tables of tunes! Yes!! Can't beat 'em! Sheesh, I'm getting cabin fever just talking about this!

[kevxu]

Originally Posted by via chicago

...honestly, who buys music in a store that also sells refrigerators?.

I love it! That line is so good it deserves to be used in a play or film:

Woman A looking seriously at Woman B, "I mean, you could really sleep with a guy who buys his music in a store that also sells refrigerators?"

The possibilties are endless.

[DOUBLE H]

Originally Posted by kevxu

I love it! That line is so good it deserves to be used in a play or film:

Woman A looking seriously at Woman B, "I mean, you could really sleep with a guy who buys his music in a store that also sells refrigerators?"

The possibilties are endless.

Now THAT'S a good way to make some coin! Print up a couple hundred t-shirts and sell them at the mom and pop record stores!

Ironically, it was those very appliance/entertainment superstores that immediately threatened, and eventually closed up a lot of vinyl stores back in the mid 90's. Why? Customer convenience. Around the early to mid 80's I don't remember Target or Woolco or Gibsons or the other sizable discount stores getting carried away with stocking vinyl, cassettes, 8 tracks (when they were fazed out in 1981), or the new format-compact discs (which entered the market in 1983). They did have sizable selections-yes! But not thousands and thousands of titles.Regarding chain stores in the malls, you had the Sam Goody's, Musiclands, Tower, Record Bar's and other various chains that I can't think of off the top of my head. But at that time the biggest warehouse record retailer, at least in my area, was the Sound Warehouse chain.

And then in the late 80's there was a seismic change starting up. Best Buy and Circuit City stores started popping up and in no time at all they marauded across the country like General George Patton's troops moving across Europe in World War II. The smaller mom and pop appliance stores started folding like decks of cards. Shortly after that the vinyl used stores were next. Why? Buying power. When you have an account with Columbia, RCA, and the other various record labels, you are not only able to buy your product at $1 to $2 less than an individual store, as you are in a position to create your own distributorship (aka your own warehouse). And sell your product at $3 to $4 less than an independent store. And then in the early 90's, here comes Walmart.

When you have an account with those record companies, when you can buy titles by the gross. You create your own distributorship; you are your own middle man. Small stores don't have a chance against money like that, so they had to REALLY step up the energy to compete. By the early 90's, a number of the small stores were waving the white flag. The ones that survived and are going today had to cut down on the number of album collections they were buying and start allocating money to develop a compact disc inventory. In the early days, that inventory didn't come cheap. CD's in their early days was around $17.98 list price, obviously more if the recording was a double or triple album release. A small store bought product from the distributorships for around $12, maybe $12.50 a disc. And that was through the distributorships (aka "one stops") , NOT the labels themselves. They weren't getting rich off this by any means. If they sold compact discs at list price, their profit margin was around 30%, maybe a tad more. The appliance/entertainment superstore on the other hand, had buying clout. They bought titles at a cheaper rate as they could buy at volume quantities, and they had their own warehouses. The average consumer couldn't quite figure out why those type stores could sell discs at three to four dollars cheaper per unit. I remember getting into arguments with lots of my friends about why small individual stores were 20% higher than a huge chain retailer.

In the meantime the record labels done what they set out to do, phase out vinyl and phase in the new format. Believe it or not, in the early 90's Best Buy got into the market of vinyl, but it was cut-outs (deletions). Hundreds of different titles sold at $1.99 or so. That went for few months, and then they were done with vinyl.

These type "superstores" could have given a bleep regarding a great selection or customer service, which is how a mom and pop business survives and thrives. Their idea was to handle every item that classified as entertainment, from tapes to cd's to stereos to big screen tv's, etc., etc., Stock ALL of it, and regarding the consumer dollar, GET all of it.