Best Buy's long, drawn out CD wake

Went to a local Best Buy this morning. The front door guy told me that their in-store CDs would be gone on July 1. I had thought they were going to officially bury the CDs on June 1, after reading about it several weeks ago.

Just out of habit, I went by their ever dwindling CD section. They still had plenty of Justin Timberlake and plenty of Eminem. Interesting divergence of demographics there. Nobody else was in the running.

Their retail CDs demise was sad enough, but then Best Buy didn't have any battery testers, what I really went to purchase. Best Buy, one of the last of the electronics big box retailers, not stocking battery testers either...? Really?

Yeah, that's what I thought.

 

Were the CDs discounted heavily?

 

I haven't even considered going to Best Buy for music in many years. I remember buying some SACDs there a long time ago.
I shopped for appliances there last year but ended up buying somewhere else.

Bummer.

 

Not yet. They still have five weeks, but very little to choose from that I saw. I didn't see anything I would have bought. Might want to scout them out closer to July 1.

 

Last CD I bought from them was their special edition of The Who's Endless Wire. Prior to that, the special edition of The Who's BBC Sessions. Those two are the only ones I bought there. Of course they were right across the street from Tower Records.

 

I hit up their five dollar bin the other day and got the remasters of ride the lightning and master of puppets. I didn't see much else I would buy though.

 

I have a $5 rewards certificate to use at BB. It expires in a few days. I can't find anything worth buying.

 

I stopped supporting Best Buy three Christmases ago, when they took more orders than they could fill, and then just before Christmas sent buyers an email informing them that they were issuing a refund because they could not fill the order(s). So much for inventory control....

 

My local Best Buy (Ontario, Canada) stopped carrying CDs a few years ago. Walmart still sells them here, although I'm sure that will end within a year or two.

 

Best Buy can sell or not sell whatever they wish. True of any store ~ any time, anywhere. Online sales in general will gradually overtake brick-and-mortar retail, if often at disadvantage to the customer. Things such as clothes, foods, and high-price items will do better at brick-and-mortar retail, where the customer can inspect the goods prior to purchase and get immediate issue-resolution when paying with cash. Online retail will do better with lower cost items that are less risky to ship, and where there is one less middleman in the supply chain. CDs will continue to sell well through online retailers since whatever one desires is right at their fingertips.

 

Strolling down
Best Buy Memory Lane, Aisle 9:

Making a quick trip to the local store, during lunch break, to pick up the latest new release of a CD that has bonus material...

I think the last one was Paul McCartney & Wings « Wings Over America »

Another one that comes to mind is The Jayhawks retrospective compilation.

In a way, I’m not missing Best Buy, inasmuch as just relishing the times when a record label/artist had that sales incentive to add extra songs to a standard release just to lure the buyer into their store, and away from the other competitors (at the time, Tower Records, Wherehouse, even Amazon, etc).

 

I bought the Best Buy version of Brian Wilson's That Lucky Old Sun back in 2007. It had 3 bonus tracks, 2 of which were duets with Carole King. The Best Buy disk was a no-brainer if you wanted the album.

 

Retail apocalypse will be complete before a small but significant minority of people stop caring enough about music to not want to own it in hard copy.

CD sales, like much of retail, has simply moved online.

 

Is Best Buy going to continue selling CDs online, or stop selling them altogether?

 

Appropriate forum purchase, $5.99 as of this writing: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/dynex-50-pack-52x-cd-r-disc-spindle-silver/9270594.p?skuId=9270594

 

Aside from record stores, I remember buying CDs at places like Best Buy, Circuit City, The Wiz, etc. Amazing to think how in the heyday these stores had so many albums - and how it has come down to this.

Not surprising, but kind of sad for those of us who still buy physical music.

 

Haven't bought a CD at Best Buy in forever, although I remember the last one I did buy there:

 

I’m way out of the loop. I actually went to Best Buy Saturday
looking for the 2018 Wings Greatest CD. I slinked out after seeing pathetic aisle of discs, wondering WTF I was thinking.

 

They don't want $4 profit on a cd, they want $400 profit on a tv.

 

I'm more upset about the demise of the dedicated music store, not so much the demise of the music section at the big box store. But that said, even dedicated music stores haven't been the same the past 10 years vs. where they were in the 90s.

And, so long as Amazon and ebay exist (plus a few local vinyl shops and a handful of other online retailers), then I'm covered.

 

When Best Buy first opened they had an amazing selection. Pretty much buried the "mom 'n' pop shops.

 

I remember it well. The Best Buy I shopped at had an enclosed, soundproofed room just for classical and folk music. Now just think about that - they sold enough CLASSICAL CD's for them to have a whole dedicated listening and shopping area. Now classical's the tiniest section of the tiny CD section in a Barnes and Noble, and I don't expect there's any at BB now. I spent hours in that store and bought dozens of beautiful classical and early music CD's at about $11.99 a disc. And then Media Play came along and they didn't have a dedicated classical room, but OMG did they have the selection, as well as tons of books and movies. Between those two stores and Borders, it was like having an Amazon on every street corner.

But unfortunately, they killed the mom'n'pop stores, and then Amazon killed them.

 

I''ve been referring to Best Buy as Average Browse for years now. It seems that I can never find whatever it is I am in need of at the moment, which is usually comparable to not finding bread and eggs when going in to a super market.

 

Not having seen this thread, I happened to swing through a Best Buy near my office today at lunch. CD's over a certain price ($6?) were 15% off. Nothing even remotely tempting.

I think the last CD I bought there was the Pet Sounds 2 CD reissue which came with a free 7" single by mail. Those are the kinds of offers I will miss from the likes of Best Buy and Target.