Best Buy's long, drawn out CD wake

I used to go to Best Buy like once a week and would always leave with at least one new CD.

Now, I am lucky if I step in one more than once a year.

Sad state of affairs.

 

Best Bug has the best deal on printer ink.

 

I picked up the Rush R40 Blu-Ray book there, and an ELP live in Puerto Rico LP, a while ago. I thought it was odd finding vinyl at a Best Buy. Of course there were a few other things I found there too, but there are indie stores close enough, and a Barnes & Noble with a big music dept. BB was never my go-to for music.

Amazon sucks.

 

All the cd stores are disappearing from my home town. Even Walmart’s shelves are empty. LPs on the other hand are everywhere.

 

Last century, I spent mega-bucks for music and movies at many Best Buy stores. I even remember buying MFSL gold cd's there, Tull's Living in the Past as one example. BB's showcase store in Richfield, MN., withing a mile or 3 from their Corp. Headquarters occupied one end of a retail development, and a huge Borders anchored the opposite end. Well, you could score almost any catalog music/movie/book release just by stopping in. It was a great time. As a bonus, there was a Computer Renaissance store between them, and an Einstein Bagel shop too. BB and Einstein are still there.

Then again, I also recall frequenting J.C. Penney's record department......I think my parents bought The Beatles' white album for my Christmas, 1968 gift there.

Change is constant...for the bitter and the better alike.

 

It all comes down to having CDs for sale that people want to buy. Here at Walmart, they sold all of the Willie Nelson Last Man Standing copies over the weekend it was released. They had Gregg Allman’s Southern Blood, Glenn Campbell Adios, John Mellencamp Sad Clowns, Merle Haggard and Willies duet cd and others that they couldn’t keep in stock. George Straits Strait Out of the Box 2 and Hank Jrs boxed set sold really well. But still they want and expect you to buy Justin Timberlake and repackaged Eagles Greatest Hits and Beatles Greatest Hits and Roy Orbison Greatest Hits and Neil Diamond Greatest Hits and Elvis Greatest Hits. Get music I want to buy and I’ll buy it. It’s the companies failures here. Everyone has Sirius radio here, listen to what they play and get that music.

 

Use on the website, and have it shipped to the store for pick up.

 

HAHAHAHA Endless wire special Ed. yup,... me too !!\

was the last time i bought from them

 

Funny.....I went looking for the same CD yesterday! Had to go to Pet Smart on my lunch hour and since it was next door, decided to stop in. Just a sad excuse for the selection that's remaining. There was a time (not that long ago) that I picked up new releases there by The Church, Fleshtones, Guided By Voices, Paul Weller (to only name a few).

 

I have been scouring thrift bins (Salvation Army and Goodwill) for vinyl overall that has been a disappointment. But man, I found a lot of great cds unfortunately most of the stuff I already have (al lot of it from Best Buy).
Seems to me this is the time to be buying used cds, not vinyl. A couple weks ago I walked with a dozen Kings X, dream Theater and Liquid Tension albums, for like 15 bucks.

 

I don't go to BB often but about a month ago I browsed the $5 bin, plenty of CDs but the only thing worth buying was by Roy Orbison.

 

It's not that they don't want $4 profit on a cd.

It's that they aren't selling enough CDs to justify the floor space.

And mostly there margins on tvs are razor thin these days.

 

Amazon and Amazon marketplace sellers for instance have everything you could possibly want..... and then some. All at your fingertips and with a simple push of a button. I miss browsing in bricks and mortar establishments, but nowadays music is so easy to find on the net and extremely convenient.

 

Anyone else seeing the irony in most of these posts?

 

I used to grudgingly go into Best Buy when they had some kind of exclusive deluxe edition of a record I wanted. Usually, said item was never in stock by the time I got in there (afternoon of release day). I used to marvel at all the CDs they were selling for $18.98 when the same discs were $11.99 elsewhere. I stopped bothering with them after awhile.

Hard to feel bad for a big box store that put hundreds of indie shops out of business and helped create the discount mentality that enabled Amazon to kill off their own sales.

Out where I am Walmart is the closest place to find cds, albeit it's all top forty or classic rock budget items. I find some cool oddities in their $5 bins. Every time it looks like the cd selection is weakening and I think the section's days are numbered, they somehow get a huge restock in and the racks are full again.

The only indie shop nearby is 15 miles away. So I shop there sometimes, but mostly use Amazon or other online retailers. Best Buy has been irrelevant to my music shopping needs for about a decade now

 

To show how strong Best Buy was at one time. I was able to buy the entire Free catalog (7 CDs) going to three Atlanta area BB's. To stock the entire Free catalog was pretty strong imo. I also remember them stocking gold discs and imports. Oh well … time marches on.

 

Best Buy is merely Amazon.com’s showroom

 

^^^ It is called "showrooming", test-driving products in the field and then buying online.

I get why people do this (who wouldn't want to save a buck) but it contributes to the demise of brick & mortar retailers because it takes away the only advantages of buying in person: testing and instant gratification. Makes me wonder if the trajectory we are on with the loss of stores will someday reverse when buying in person becomes somehow hip again. Heck, if vinyl can make a comeback, anything is possible.

 

I used to go there during lunch every new release Tuesday because they always had some sort of exclusive release to Best Buy and also had a great selection. I would get the BB flyer on the previous Sunday and see what would be available that Tuesday.
I read that they never made a profit on their new releases CD's and DVD's and they had these sales just to lure you into the store to hopefully buy something else.

 

Yes, BestBuy (and CircuitCity) used to sell new releases as loss leaders to get you into the store. They sold them for less than small stores could buy them for wholesale.

 

Last BB Cd I bought was the 2 Cd Kansas live and I gad to go to 2 BBs in Richmond to find one. They don't even put a fly in the Sunday paper here anymore.

 

I remember around '95 best buys was great. they had a great selection. I was able to get the Samhain cds and import singles there. It went to crap by '98. However by then I was buying from cd now online.

 

My go-to store for music is FYE. Their prices are reasonable and they usually stock what I'm looking for. I fully expect them to have Ray Davies and the new Stones From The Vault on release day.

 

...which drove record stores into their graves!

 

Best Buy haven't been a place for CD's for years. The days of finding cool imports are long gone, and it's been little more than a place for the top 40 hits. Their movie section has also been dead for a while and I'm surprised they are still around. The ones in my area are often like a ghost town. But for us buyers (and reissue labels) of physical media, hopefully the online presence or buyer demand will not be going away anytime soon.