Newbury Comics : Are they still healthy...looks questionable...

This weekend, Newbury Comics, who are basically the last man standing in terms of what could be considered a "thriving" brick & mortar music/video chain (located in the New England states, for those unfamiliar), is having a buy-2-get-1-free sale on all CDs. That includes new CDs. And that includes new CDs that are currently on sale. They've had lots of similar sales on used product in the past, but to my knowledge not on new stuff.

Anyway, I drove over to one of the closest stores to me, in Burlington, MA. I was shocked at what I saw. The space, which used to be jam packed with merchandise, was now quite a bit more empty. Assuredly, the store is now too big for the stock they have there. I don't like the look of that.

Browsing at the CDs, it seemed they didn't have much stock in terms of brand new titles. Also don't like the look of that.

My question is: Does anyone know how they're doing? Mike Dreese, the owner, has traditionally run the smartest, tightest ship in the biz, which is why they're still around at this point. But maybe things have run their course? If Newbury goes down, I'd say that's it for new B&M...

 

I've bought many, many cd's at Newbury when I lived back East. I still recall cycling to the store to buy Zooropa the morning it came out.

 

The rows of cds at the Leominster store are receding faster than my hairline. It's def not the same anymore.

 

I started a job in October that's about a 2 minute walk to the Newbury Comics in Harvard Square. On my initial visit, I was surprised to see how much vinyl they had, and I've visited pretty much weekly since then.

I don't know if they sold it or sent it all back for quality issues, but the Beatles vinyl was heavily stocked and is now almost gone, but other than that the stock is pretty static, with a trickle of new releases coming in each week.

 

Is Burlington still in the strip mall or have they moved it to the larger mall across the street?

Natick's CD selection has decreased significantly (though their DVD selection is still pretty good). Bellingham is OK but not what it was. Norwood still has the largest music selection - both CD and vinyl.

 

Well.....

at least at in my 2 local stores, the USED cd section is thriving. Most often it's the older titles that sell....at least to me !!! I buy 'em !

But for new music/new cd's, considering it IS mostly the younger set that would normally buy...well....they don't ! So.......The reason for minimized stock or even discontinued inventory or closed up shops !

I worry a bit just from the shear fact of depleted sales of new, but in fact, the used cd has a higher margin for my shops...so I'm not too terribly worried. By the way, my local shops DO sell more new and used vinyl than cd's....but there are plenty of people coming in selling their cd collections and my store buyers know what I, and others who DO buy cd's....like. I'm finding used cd's to buy EACH time I go...and that's a couple of times a week at least.

 

I've bought a few things from them lately from Amazon and e-bay. Maybe they're transitioning to more on-line sales?

 

Newbury has been moving much of their CD inventory to Amazon's warehouses and selling it through Amazon as a third-party. They also are pricing their CDs more aggressively on Amazon than in the past, frequently matching the cheapest price offered in the same condition.

The death of CD at the retail level is what will kill the format, not declining interest.

 

I wish Newbury the best. I've ordered a lot of stuff from them over the years and wish we had a chain like theirs in Chicago, where the CD-retail landscape is beyond bleak and barren.

 

Was just at the store in Peabody this week when I was in Danvers on business... it had recently relocated from its own storefront and as of December 1 is located in the nearby Northshore Mall. Definitely a smaller footprint. I found some stuff there, and they had new releases and things, but as it is now in a mall, the main bulk of it was clothing/gifty things, and those were prominent in the front of the store.

I wasn't overly impressed with the stock there, but I figured that because they just moved (and had that sale mentioned above) that maybe it was just a little low. I'll check back when I'm there next month, as I'm in Danvers regularly now.

As an aside, is the Saugus store worth a shot? I drive by there on my way up to Danvers, figured I might stop and see if it has better/more stuff...

 

I stopped into that store in Norwood a while back and found some nice stuff.Their vinyl selection is huge.

 

Surely you've heard of Dusty Groove? From what I can tell, they're still thriving.

 

I have, but they have one location that's nowhere near me. If they were a chain like Newbury, that'd be a different story.

 

Every brick and mortar I know that is thriving is cutting back CD's. They are probably just making room for something that will be more profitable and get more foot traffic.

For example Park Ave CDs ripped out three aisles of CDs and replaced them with vinyl.

 

The one near me (Alewife) moved to a smaller location, then closed last year. The people who worked there all kept their jobs, moved to other locations. But it definitely is the case that the death of the CD (and the huge inventory of used CDs available out there) will shrink Newbury to boutique level, mainly vinyl (and, of course, comic books!). They are good people. I bought my first U2 album at the Newbury Street store (which closed several years ago) when I was in college. (You can do the arithmetic on that one).

 

When I was Back Bay in 94-95, I used to go to the Newberry location all the time. Good people.

 

The Alewife store closed? The Newbury Street store closed?!?!? Wow. I guess it's been a while since I went looking for those two stores. I used to love the Alewife store. I found tons of great stuff there over the years. And the Newbury Street store... they used to carry Classic Records Blue Note LPs back when no one else stocked them.

I'm feeling old.

 

I would have a REAL hard time believing the Newbury st store closed!!!
If that location goes- then Norwood ain't far behind. Granted Newbury St can be a hassle for outta towners who drive- but new Vinyl works there.
Mike put out a stement a coupla years ago- much akin to "the state of Newbury" showing his change in direction, and an understanding from the Music folks. Since then I've become less happy with going there. I've been fairly public on here about their prices on MFSL product $6 to $8 higher than list price(both SACD/Gold CD/Vinyl). Local Stores selections sux- so I gotta go to Norwood- which is harder and harder for ME to get to.

Chris

 

WHOOPS! A misstatement on my part. I was thinking of another location.

 

It's very sad to see this paradigm shift happening: the end of all physical media, including books, magazines, newspapers, music, video, and photography. I suspected it in 2001, but I knew for sure it was happening once Tower Records closed at the end of 2006. It's a scary new world out there, particularly when the number of stores that used to sell these things are all going away, slowly but surely.

I like to think that art, music, and literature can survive in another form... but it's not gonna be the same as it was.

 

Us Mass folk have had it nice with Newbury Comics. I hope they can keep going.

 

Me too.

 

Just out of curiosity, why was it Tower's closing that tipped you off? I always saw them as a poorly run, mismanaged, overpriced retailer who just eventually got what was coming to them.

 

It's going to be replaced by a world of cheaper, shallower content, mostly self-made stuff sold on the Internet.

 

A lot of people in the industry felt that Tower Records' demise was the beginning of the end because the parent company also ran one of the world's largest distribution networks. I believe it was called One Stop. When Tower/One Stop closed shop, 10s of thousands, maybe even 100's of thousands of CDs lost their distribution network and a lot of them never got paid for their stock that was already in the chain.