comment #1

tholl-yung says ...

Are you crazy? Amoeba Arclight is a goldmine, but the smaller Tower location could be a satellite. Did I read, in Rolling Stone, that the kid who downloaded iTunes billionth song said downloading is less trouble than having CD's all over the place?

comment #2

D.Z. says ...

It's the driving experience which probably ruined sales for the Sunset Tower Records. Too many drunks, too much congestion, and not enough parking. (Plus, many of the connecting streets are a pain to cross, because they're on steep slopes.) And I go through all that for what? Stuff I can find at better prices and better locations at Best Buy?! I'm not going to blame record companies for Tower's owner's inability to sell music and movies at competitive prices. Even the people running Virgin have the sense to slash prices on stuff no one's buying.

comment #3

jeffmcm says ...

There's no reason except dire nostalgia for Amoeba to move from their huge, prime location to a castly smaller building in a less accessible part of town.

comment #4

Walter Sobchak says ...

(by the way Jeff, you're welcome for the pic tip)

I stopped by there yesterday to check out their "Going Out Of Business Sale"... I entered the store choked up with nostalgic melancholy... then I found that the "sale" was pretty much "everything 20% off".... that is, 20% off of the LIST PRICE... I told the guy at the info desk, "not much of a sale, eh?"... he shrugged and said that the prices on their summer sale were actually better, but everything must go.... suddenly my sentimentality turned to anger and I thought, "fuck you.... 20%!?!... are you kidding me?!... I hope you die a slow death in bankruptsy!".... then I calmed down

comment #5

TheLongshot says ...

Tower will be missed because of the selection and that it was open late. Unfortunately, to have that selection, you have to charge a premium for that.

I'd like to go there and pick up some stuff, but as the previous poster said, 20% off isn't much of a deal. Course, that doesn't stop some from buying.

comment #6

D.Z. says ...

LongShot: "Unfortunately, to have that selection, you have to charge a premium for that."

I think they should have started realizing that wasn't economically feasible around the time the iPod was created.

comment #7

jeffreywells says ...

Wells to Sobchak: That's funny what you wrote, and thanks for the tip. A serious going-out-of-business sale would slash prices at least 30% or 33%. You're right -- Tower deserves to die.

comment #8

bmcintire says ...

Tower was offering pretty good deals of late on first-week-of-release CDs and DVDs, often as low as $8.99. But the crappy pricing now is due to the management consolidation company handling their bankruptcy proceedings (much like the ass-hats that closed down Aron's Records earlier this year). They are pricing down merchandise at a truly glacial pace from the SRP, so by the time prices trickle down to 40% or 50% off, nothing of any value will be left. Of course, if you really want to get raped, go to Amoeba and by something new (not used). Barnes and Noble is a better fucking deal.

comment #9

TL says ...

I'm sure Tower can return a lot of the merch to the distributor for wholesale, so it doesn't make sense for them to discount it more than ~20%, and I bet their creditors would pitch a fit if they did. It's a little misleading for them to act like it's a fire sale though.