Why are so many record stores still closing?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by radickeyfan, Jul 15, 2016.

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  1. tremspeed

    tremspeed Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    Records are worth what people will pay for them. If that's $15 for Thriller, that's what it's worth. There is only "no need" to charge more if it won't sell. There is no arbitrary dollar amount that most records are worth.
     
    bootbox likes this.
  2. Ash76

    Ash76 Wait actually yeah no

    I went into a record store today that I only discovered last month, though has been in business for about 3 years.

    The place was packed as they had turned it into a mini record fair inviting a number of sellers along with their own sections.

    When I arrived there must have been a couple of hundred people crammed in.

    I still walked away with a couple of great albums, though they weren't cheap but consistent with the lower end of current Discogs prices.
     
  3. jimac51

    jimac51 A mythical beast.

    Location:
    Allentown,pa.
    Sorry,advancing age has me confused some times. That corollary should read:You can't cheat an honest man. Another title from a Fields flick, this one with Edgar Bergen and essential.
     
  4. jimac51

    jimac51 A mythical beast.

    Location:
    Allentown,pa.
    Having a gooder one than many here,I suspect,since I had to log off yesterday and play basketball with the 12 year old grandkid.
    Back to a topic within a topic.
    When a record stores opens first day,I would suspect that someone coming in first time would be looking for:Beatles,Led Zep,Black Sabbath,Stones or Bruce. Even if they aren't buying,if a customer doesn't see a presence of superstar material they feel they are not in a record store. Now,a store specializing in r&b,better have a presence of Otis Redding or Aretha. Oldies?No Elvis,no reason to open. Jazz-Miles,Brubeck & Blue Note. Country? A fickle world much more based in the here & now,but it's a pretty safe bet that if you don't have at least Johnny Cash,there is no reason to look for anything else. It just is.
    All of these artists have a wide variety of product and,remember,condition reigns supreme. If someone is charging under five bucks for any of superstar material,condition is usually gonna be less than mint or perceived as such. So,if the store is not meeting customer expectations,to quote Sinatra:the end is near.
    There is nothing inherently sinister about retail record buying or selling. It is filled with knowledgeable folk,beginners,folks with a bankroll and those with just pennies. But there are crooks,thieves and shoplifters mixed in. Anyone not facing the realities of all of this should not be opening up shop. In many cases,the landlord is the first thief a shopkeeper has to deal with,and the guy who puts many a padlock on a shop after opening.
    My issues go back a bit. Recently retired but I can trace my life in retail to my Dad's store and only able to ring up penny candy because the "one cent" button was in my reach and I could ring it as many times as there were pieces of candy. I was maybe five years old. Over the years ,I've seen a fire,a death of a customer,roof cave -ins(yes,plural),floods,multiple accidents and injuries,thieves from the back door(truck drivers) to the front door(including a state trooper's kid). Oddly enough,never a true robbery-that is,emptying the register. Gypsies trying to take money from an open drawer,but never a stickup. I've had a shoplifter and her daughter drive backward in a parking lot so it would be difficult to get a license plate. I had a guy return a stolen coat because he found religion. And I have seen people(the store manager) doing things on top of a food freezer that would make one blush. A few unlucky folk that didn't quite make it to the bathroom. A daily deposit bag got stuck in the bank vault and a worker stayed on the scene for over an hour till help arrived. A deposit picked up by the local cop somehow never made it to the bank. to paraphrase the insurance ad:I know a thing or two 'cause I've seen a thing or two.
     
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  5. ToddH

    ToddH Forum Resident

    Location:
    Mansfield, Texas
    true, but if a number of stores within a 10 mile radius or so have recently started gouging their customers and someone else opens up and sells the same record for 5 dollars or so I would think customers would go there. Especially if they were cleaned and put in a sleeve.

    Like I said, All these local places sold all their used vinyl for about 3.99 or a little more and then all of a sudden raised the prices. One of the places has a guy who goes through the vinyl and has them all marked like its a record store. I recently saw sammy hagars VOA for 15 dollars. It will never sell. And this is what is happening at these places because I go in all the time and all the vinyl is just sitting their and it never sells. I used to go in and the stuff was new constantly now its all the same stuff just sitting there because they raised the prices so high.

    It makes me mad because when I am in there I see teenagers buying 20 dollar copies of beatles records that looked like someone threw them down in the driveway and drove over them. i just do not think its necessary. So yes I guess a record is worth what it is worth but if there is competition I think that changes the equation. And again its important to realize that I am not talking about rare or hard to find albums, just the usual suspects for people trying to build their collection. I see no reason to gouge people for pat benetar albums.
     
  6. hutchenstance

    hutchenstance Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Arlington, VA
    a good record store I think should be based on turning over records as fast as possible.... ideally newly put out records should be picked up quickly and not sit in the racks forever.... and if stuff is sitting you should reprice it cheaper.....
     
  7. jjhunsecker

    jjhunsecker Senior Member

    Location:
    New York city
    Join the club...NYC is a dead zone for music shopping , and we need an Amoeba or even a Newbury's here ASAP
     
    bhasenstab likes this.
  8. Danby Delight

    Danby Delight Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston
    We must like very different record stores. It would never even occur to me to look for albums by those artists in the bins. I've had those albums since junior high, I don't need to buy them again.
     
  9. Classicrock

    Classicrock Senior Member

    Location:
    South West, UK.
    There's over 100 closing in Canada - HMV - because they are bankrupt. That suggests that unless you get your market right there is not enough demand for physical product. So easy to order from Amazon.
     
  10. Nostaljack

    Nostaljack Resident R&B enthusiast

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    We had one open and close within a few months at a mall here in the DMV. It was a little shop that specialized in skateboards and vintage video equipment but they also had a healthy selection of both used and new records. When it first opened, I was excited that it was there and would spend money there often in an attempt to support them. That all ended when the manager of the place tried to justify the $25 price tag on a record that had clearly suffered from water damage and likely was barely playable. I decided he didn't need to be supported by me any longer and I didn't go back. About a month an a half later, he closed.

    My point is that sometimes, record stores close because the management doesn't understand the concept of selling albums and is just trying to make a buck. You have to have some institutional knowledge of record grading and this genius didn't have a clue...so he didn't last.

    Ed
     
  11. Eobard Thawne

    Eobard Thawne Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canada
    Now hmv Canada....
     
  12. Gaslight

    Gaslight ⎧⚍⎫⚑

    Location:
    Northeast USA
    This should almost be a separate thread topic. But I'll reply.

    Not sure why the culture would bother you - RSD I get as it can sometimes feel more like a Walmart Black Friday crowd that a bunch of music lovers conversing together and enjoying the day (in my area, it leans towards the latter, fortunately). Perhaps you just met a few bad eggs.

    QC of pressings I also get, but imo it's not like this hasn't been an issue since you and I were young. One advantage we have are larger retailers like B&N / Amazon where we can return or exchange, plus the Internet where we can sometimes get a heads up on bad pressings in advance (my local stores I usually shoot for pressings with less chance of a known issue). Example of issues I knew about in advance was Blackstar and the last Bon Iver LP. And storage I also get...like yourself, I have digital files and the LP's are more for the "best of the best" I want to keep, just to keep the space under control.

    With FLAC appreciation, there is really no underlying culture that I know of. It's just enjoying music so perhaps that was what you were looking for?
     
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  13. Marc Perman

    Marc Perman Forum Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    Fair enough, I wasn't counting the general letter sections and I tend to stick to rock. Still, Ameoba has a fraction of the used LPs it had a few years ago, and pricing is much higher.

    What are people's experences selling used vinyl there? Based on my few times they seem to pay less than their competitors, perhaps that's why there's less stock these days?
     
  14. Marc Perman

    Marc Perman Forum Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    What's your favorite place among what's left? On recent return trips I've had luck at Academy and Captured Tracks in Brooklyn.
     
  15. Scott S.

    Scott S. lead singer for the best indie band on earth

    Location:
    Walmartville PA
    The answer to the OP is that there's no reason for anyone to buy music anymore. Anybody with a clue can get whatever they want for free. Why spend money unless you have it to throw away and most of us don't.
     
  16. Nostaljack

    Nostaljack Resident R&B enthusiast

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    Oh, there's definitely reason to buy; a lot of people simply don't as they've decided that music should be free. A shame, really.

    Ed
     
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  17. RiCat

    RiCat Forum Resident

    Location:
    CT, USA
    Online sales, availability of quality "used" merchandise, cost of "new" merchandise, customer population relative to geographic locations, cost to maintain a retail brick and mortar store and most important being an individual with the knowledge, interest and passion to service the vinyl buying community.
     
    dee likes this.
  18. eddiel

    eddiel Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    I think the free market has really been overtaken by the cheap market i.e. streaming.

    I don't think it's so much why throw away money than why spend money on something I can get for much less leaving me money to buy other things like $10 coffees that are really deserts. :)
     
  19. Deuce66

    Deuce66 Senior Member

    Location:
    Canada
    Do you get paid for your work? or is that free for the taking also?
     
  20. Scott S.

    Scott S. lead singer for the best indie band on earth

    Location:
    Walmartville PA
    It is available for free, thanks to songfiles. Sure you can make a donation if you want. Of course it's a shame.
     
  21. Scott S.

    Scott S. lead singer for the best indie band on earth

    Location:
    Walmartville PA
    I don't get paid for running IMP. I get paid for my realtime business. I don't sell much of my music. Why should anybody buy it when it can be had for free?
     
  22. Scott S.

    Scott S. lead singer for the best indie band on earth

    Location:
    Walmartville PA
    I'm not even talking about streaming, I'm talking about apps that allow you to download music off any site that streams music.
     
  23. Nostaljack

    Nostaljack Resident R&B enthusiast

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    Downloading got out of control and it's become far too easy to just steal what you want rather than to pay for it. This is absolutely not helping music retailers - brick and mortar or otherwise.

    Ed
     
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  24. The Elephant Man

    The Elephant Man Forum Resident

    Maybe if you move out of Walmartville and head towards Costcoville, the jobs may be better paying there. Get you some extra spending cash to support music you like. Hahaha.
     
  25. DeRosa

    DeRosa Vinyl Forever

    Amazon killed them over 10 years ago, and someone forget to send HMV the memo.
    They're only just now getting the message their business model is a money loser?
    It would have saved them a lot of money to just shut it down back in 2011 when they
    ran out of money back then. Somehow they managed to get enough new investment
    to temporarily keep going. It's a mystery to me who thought they were anything but
    the walking dead.
     
    Last edited: Jan 28, 2017
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