Amoeba Hollywood morphs into t-shirt store

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Marty T, Mar 31, 2017.

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  1. e.s.

    e.s. Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    They have for a while now. Like, years.
     
  2. rjp

    rjp Senior Member

    Location:
    Ohio
    only if you are trading them in it seems.

    sellers, especially on ebay, still want top dollar.
     
  3. Brudy

    Brudy Senior Member

    Location:
    Portland
    It's a great store, I'm not sure how anybody could deny it. It can be a pain to shop there on the weekends, but it's just about the best large store anywhere, especially for new releases/reissues. Their lease is up in a few years, but I've heard they'll find another location.
     
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  4. bosskeenneat

    bosskeenneat Forum Resident

    If Amoeba winds up forced to leave the central area of Hollywood, it's going to leave a massive cultural sinkhole in the area. Wallach's is a memory, Tower is no more & chains such as Wherehouse, Peaches & Music Plus have all bitten the dust. It's every bit as dark as if the neighborhood movie theaters were suddenly put out of business. Hollywood built its name on movies & music creating critical economic industries.....cramming Sunset & Hollywood full of Starbucks, Dollar Tree & cheap chinese fast food will certainly put a bullet through its brain.
     
  5. Brudy

    Brudy Senior Member

    Location:
    Portland
    It's going the other direction - higher end with a crap ton of development happening right now. But in general I agree, it's a huge loss for the area.
     
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  6. rene smalldridge

    rene smalldridge Senior Member

    Location:
    manhattan,kansas
    I wish my local music emporium was assuming that position.
    Not bloody likely considering where I live.
     
  7. bRETT

    bRETT Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston MA

    Far as I'm concerned, Record Surplus on Santa Monica is where it's at. Problem with Amoeba is that you may find anything you want, but you'll hardly ever get a bargain there, especially with recent reissue vinyl. Whereas RS has lots of finds in the racks (While I was there I got the double sun-colored vinyl of Brian Wilson's "Getting In Over My Head" for $9). Plus some notable local musicians work there, and they'll dare to play Styx albums while you shop.
     
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  8. Pavol Stromcek

    Pavol Stromcek Senior Member

    Location:
    SF Bay Area
    Berkeley Amoeba has been shifting stuff around over the past few months. Their discount used CD section, which has been gradually shrinking (sadly) and is much, much smaller than it used to be, is now up front by the soul section, and half of it is now at ground level so that you have to squat down to look through it. At first I thought they were doing this to expand their DVD/Bluray section, but on my last visit, I saw a small modular stage all the way in the back just behind where the discount CDs used to be, so I guess Berkeley Amoeba is going to be hosting more in-store shows?
     
  9. Sax-son

    Sax-son Forum Resident

    Location:
    Three Rivers, CA
    Most record stores that I frequented, had some sort of t-shirt section. It helps keep the stores in business. However, having said that, my experience with Amoeba was disappointing.

    First of all, that store is way too big. It's almost overwhelming. In addition, the parking situation sucks. I didn't think that their used section was all that good and when I found something of interest, it was way overpriced. It has a "strange" atmosphere to the place. Give me the mom and pop stores every time.
     
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  10. Sax-son

    Sax-son Forum Resident

    Location:
    Three Rivers, CA
    Wallach's was never a record store in the true sense. It was a "music " store that had a record section. They sold musical instruments, pianos, and stereo equipment as well. Tower on the other hand was the true record store in Hollywood.
     
    Kwai Chang likes this.
  11. Pavol Stromcek

    Pavol Stromcek Senior Member

    Location:
    SF Bay Area

    Actually, I have to amend this: in the last two weeks, Berkeley Amoeba has done some major rearranging, taking everything out of the jazz/world music/etc. room and moving it all into the main room. They've also moved the rock LP aisles so that those are the first thing you see as soon as you pass the entrance area and turn right. Moving the rock LPs to this more prominent place makes total sense. But sadly, the discount rock CD section has been reduced to a few bins sitting on the small stage at the back of the room, and when I asked the cashier about it, she said the discount rock CDs were pretty much on their way out at that location.
     
  12. Rocker

    Rocker Senior Member

    Location:
    Ontario, Canada
    I should try ordering from them sometime, although I imagine the handling charge might get a bit pricey shipping up here to Canada.
    How does their wishlist system work? Do they notify you if they get something in stock that you want?
     
  13. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    There goes one of my reasons to take a weekend trip to L.A..

    It is indeed getting harder to find many CDs new and old, forcing people to shop online. Then, if you look for the same titles as dowloads, they cost just as much, or more, than a new physical CD, and you don't even get liner notes or artwork. The streamers have spoken and won.

    Someone should've started a campaign to convince people that it's better to buy than to stream.
     
  14. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    BTW, I went to a Zia on Camelback in Phoenix recently, and guess what I had to wade through to get to the music? T-shirts!
     
    ian christopher likes this.
  15. spherical

    spherical Forum Resident

    Location:
    America
    you know that they won't be too much longer there, right?.........i'm thinking 3 or 4 more years......yes..i know what you meen....
     
  16. Marty T

    Marty T Stereo Fan Thread Starter

    Location:
    NM - North of ABQ
    The recent music sales figures showing streaming being the big attraction and hard copy sales on a steep decline would support this prediction.
     
    ian christopher likes this.
  17. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Got Aladdin Sane mug
    No Space Oddity,
    Hunky Dory mugs.
     
    Marc Perman likes this.
  18. Greenalishi

    Greenalishi Birds Aren’t Real

    Location:
    San Francisco
    There are record labels that release only vinyl and downloads. Aomeba needs to adapt to survive. Younger people do not buy CDs. DVDs are also being trumped by Netfix and streaming. CDs and DVDs are not things the general public buy anymore.

    I love Aomeba's What's In My Bag? Bought many albums from the recs. The people who work there i really enjoy too. I sure hope they can adapt.

    Lots of posters and even a old postcard section now. I've traded in books there and bought books too. Bookstores have had to adapt with food or events like exclusive book signings and groups meeting there. We'll see what happens. But i love going to Aomeba. I spend way to much time and money there. But, it's my favorite place to go and hang and make a day of it. I will miss Aomeba a lot.
     
  19. Michael Rose

    Michael Rose Forum Resident

    Location:
    Davie,Fl
    I saw a middleschooler wearing a Rolling Stones lips shirt. I'm sure he was racing home to play his German pressing of 'Exile'.
     
    ian christopher and RandelPink like this.
  20. segue

    segue Psychoacoustic Member

    Location:
    Hawai'i
    Music Plus was started by former Wherehouse brass & employees. MP also owned the wholesale distribution outlet for many independent stores, so they were still making money by selling to their competition. They all made a killing when they eventually sold Music Plus to Blockbuster years later, at the perfect time... the Record Store bust was just a few years away. Blockbuster ended up in bankruptcy.
     
    Last edited: Nov 8, 2017
    ian christopher likes this.
  21. Fullbug

    Fullbug Forum Resident

    Location:
    Seattle
    Let everyone know you listen to vinyls, without having to actually listen to vinyls.
     
    SixOClockBoos likes this.
  22. Do they really want to lock out the younger crowd? If they do that, there are going to be parents who won't allow their kids to go. It is clear that streaming is going to win. I have a teenager, and NONE of his friends buy physical music . . . at all. They want all on demand, and they don't want to have to haul stuff around with them. None of them are heavily invested in video games either - it's not as if another media has displaced music so much. Once that generation matures and the one behind it consolidates this behavior, the library approach of having lots of physical media (which I enjoy) will be pretty much gone. There will be pockets of support and some physical stores for enthusiasts, no doubt, but I think the days of having a library of music on physical media in the home are going to go the way of the newspaper. And this is happening much sooner than any of us realize.
     
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  23. Pavol Stromcek

    Pavol Stromcek Senior Member

    Location:
    SF Bay Area
    The Berkeley Amoeba is getting ready to open a medical marijuana dispensary in what used to be the jazz/world/etc. room of the store. If that's what they have to do to survive, that's okay with me, as I would really hate to lose that shop.

    Fortunately, moving everything into the main room doesn't seem too have really impacted their inventory too much, with the exception of the vastly shrunken discount CD section (relegated to about three plastic bins at the very back of the store). If anything, I prefer the layout now, with the rock LP aisles being pretty much the first thing you see when you walk through the entrance.
     
    Greenalishi likes this.
  24. ian christopher

    ian christopher Argentina (in Spirit)

    Location:
    El Centro
  25. krlpuretone

    krlpuretone Forum Resident

    Location:
    Grantham, NH
    Yep, why make $4 on a $25 record when you can make $10 on a $20 t-shirt?
     
    Marty T and ian christopher like this.
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