[kj] Bye Bye Tower Records

[TB]

The Tower Records music/video/book chain of stores here in the US has been 
sold to liquidators who are immediately selling off all the assets and will 
close down all the stores in the coming weeks.

Personally for me, I have a lot of great memories of seeing on-store 
appearances by bands at several California stores, especially the big one on 
Sunset Blvd in Hollywood. They also carried a lot of decent imports as well 
as off-the-wall magazines that you'd never find just about anywhere else. As 
more and more record stores disappear, Tower has been one of the last music 
based stores I still liked browsing through on a slow day.

True, most of their catalog cd prices were high, ranging upwards of $18.99 
but even right up to the end before several record companies cut off their 
distribution, you could still buy a new cd release for anywhere from $9.99 
to $11.99. Basically big chain stores that sell cds as a "loss leader" have 
undercut them as well as internet sellers( who do the same thing) in growing 
numbers over the last decade. Along with the shrinking number of smaller 
"mom n' pop" record stores, it'll mean far smaller sales for small 
independent bands and an overall further lack of diversity in what you'll 
easily find in the remaining big retail stores like Walmart and Best Buy.

Starting this past weekend, they're beginning to discount everything and as 
the next few weeks progress and they struggle to unload the rest of the 
harder to move inventory, you see basically "fire sales" leading up to the 
store closures.

T.B.