For those who are interested, Tower Records has relaunched their website and it appears that are selling vinyl only. I received an e-mail yesterday saying that they’ve relaunched their site and have over 40,000 titles in stock. I spent some time on the site yesterday and while it’s not the same as walking through a Tower store, it was pretty cool to be shopping Tower Records. The prices were good and they had a pretty good selection including Mobile Fidelity titles. I purchased a couple of things, looking forward to seeing how things play out.
I will have to check it out. This makes me nostalgic for the days I used to frequent their Broadway store.
Do you mean the store on Broadway in Sacramento? I used to live 8 blocks from that store when I was a poor, struggling college student. There were times when I bought records at Tower when I should've bought food.
Isn't this just importcds, Collector's Choice, Popmarket, Deep discount, Super D, Caiman, etc.,? a relaunch of a neglected property? All the same company, in fact the site looks a lot like the old Popmarket site. Ironically, Super D has major conflict of interest as a supplier ( a one stop) to local record stores with whom they then compete on price with through their many on line properties.
It was a weak store for the last 5 of 7 years of it. I lost the reason for going there. Prices were said to be doing down on CDs, and Tower was one of them that did not get the memo and felt they could hold and sell at list prices just because they were famous - like I should be glad I am allowed to shop there. Yeah, it came down to attitude there, and I was turned off pretty good by the end. Can they really compete with Music Direct, Bull Mouse, collector's choice, Amazon and ebay etc? So many options out there.
I hated shopping but I loved coming in from LI about once every two weeks to shop there! It was a wonderland for music lovers!
Contempt for their customers, unless you are a rich famous rock star passing through you were treated like they didn't care about your purchase. The loud abrasive music playing near the end at closing kinds said it all. Then they'd get on the PA 10 min. before closing and demand, everyone grab their item and get to the front or they will not be ringing up your purchase at all. Like a threat. They were a sick animal that needed to be put down. But the major labels did not want to see it closed because they were owned money and this store stuck to high prices when everyone else got real and dropped at least a couple of bucks off the list. So it limped along going deeper into debt for that last 3-4 years.
Man I can only speak for the locations nearest to me, but that was not my experience with Tower Records near the end at all. The employees were always super helpful and friendly. The prices were a little high, sure, but if you stuck with new release sale prices and were careful, you could get out with stuff being priced pretty similarly to other stores. The only complaint I really had those last few years was the increase of floor space to T-shirts, figures and other items. Addendum: The employees did get more salty as the closure became real and the vultures swooped in for the clearance stock, but understandable for folks losing their jobs.
No interest in vinyl, but I'll bet at least 20-25% of my CD collection came from the London Piccadilly store. I used to take an extra big suitcase every time I visited the UK and literally fill it up. Probably another 25% came from the stores in Rockville, MD and Tyson's Corner, VA.
I have a lot of great memories shopping at various L.A. area stores in the 90's/early-00's, but I don't know if the name means anything anymore. It was a great store at one time, but its last few years did its legacy no favors.
I have such fond memories of shopping the Beach Blvd (near home) and Tustin Marketplace (near work) stores for years. Also many hours spent in the Newport Blvd & 17th Street location. This doesn't excite me at all.
One of my most treasured CDs (Crosby, Still, Nash - Allies) was purchased at the London Piccadilly store! A co-worker of mine was vacationing in London, staying near Piccadilly. I asked him to drop by the Tower store there and look for that title. Much to my delight, he returned with that CD.
I bought a few CD's from a temporary Broadway Tower (in the West 70's) in the mid-1990's as their main one was being refurbished. Got a few classical things including one of Leopold Stokowski's 1947-51 RCA Victor recordings under the heading of "and His Symphony Orchestra." I.M.H.O., his 1950 rendition of Bach's "Little" Fugue in G Minor is a personal favorite. He came close on a stereo recording in the late 1950's for Capitol, but he truly nailed it for RCA in '50.
Loved shopping there in New York and London especially, but other cities as well. Will check their site out.
Looks like the same site I shopped from around 2007-2009, and yes, Caiman is what showed up on my credit card statement.
They never closed down in Dublin - shops been there for ages. Or maybe the news never got through to them
Japan, too. I don’t do “bucket lists”, but if I did, visiting the 9-story Tower Records in Shibuya would be on it. Tower Records Shibuya - Shibuya, Tokyo
Man, I miss Tower Records. There was a point in my early 20s where at least three quarters of my music purchases came from the Tower store in my home town (Paramus, NJ)
That Tokyo location was referenced in the documentary about the rise and fall of Tower Records - All Things Must Pass - that was produced by Darth Gump (a.k.a. Colin Hanks, son of Tom).
A direct link to their site: Tower Records I personally have no interest in vinyl and wished they sold CDs as well.