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

From a distribution point of view, I can definitely see how their shutting down would've caused huge problems. But, as someone who grew up record shopping in NYC, Tower was ALWAYS seen as a last resort -- a place to shop only if one wanted to pay more. Honestly, once I got into jazz, I only went there to pick up Japanese Blue Note imports. For everything else, J&R had the best selection and best prices in the city. It was my Tuesday lunch hour hangout for the better part of a decade. Sadly, now the jazz store there is literally only a shell of its former self.

 

Inventory is down across all the locations I have visited. Harvard Square possibly being the exception.

On top of that all locations seem to be moving into the closest mall which is a deal-breaker for me.

 

Right, I went to Harvard Square a week ago, and that location seemed as full as ever--both in terms of product and shoppers. But that appears to be the exception.

 

Yes..nothing different in that store.

 

I visited the Avon store a few weeks back and I almost asked the clerk if they were closing ....the CD racks were almost empty.
I bet they will not renew the lease in Avon.

 

Another sign is the non-presence of owner Mike Dreese. Almost like he's gone into the bunker.

 

Yeah...Haven't read anything from him in some time. I used to get his "state of the union" reports by email periodically...

 

I still go there so for once it wasn't me contributing to this.

 

I was in Natick today and saw that both the CD and DVD/BRD sections have shrunk while the vinyl section has increased in size. They admitted that the music selection has decreased in size due to simple reduction in sales. They still have a far greater selection than the big box chains; they're just not at the high level that they had set for themselves. Whatever they can do to keep the doors open and staff employed is fine with me, but this is a sign of the times...

 

Right you are. I prefer to think that visual artists, people who play music just to play music, and people who write because they enjoy the writing process will continue to do so. The fact that commercial opportunities may be fewer is a cause of some concern because it will certainly cause fewer people to even consider putting in the effort. To be sure a, great many creative people (and also a great many not-so-creative people ;-) ) pursue their craft in hopes of making a living, if not actually achieving fame and fortune.

From another angle, and addressing the paradigm shift to which you so correctly refer, a great many people, primarily but not exclusively younger, are embracing, just for example, the new reader technologies (Kindle, Nook) so the written word is still being published. To what degree those writers are being compensated relative to the past I cannot say. I will suggest though that IF levels of compensation are substantially reduced from some earlier period of time it is far more likely that that is due to an oversupply of people trying to get published. Simple supply and demand. I think you can argue similarly about music. The demand for musical product is always going to be there. What is at issue is the form in which the musical product is created--likely in an electronic file--and then sold (likewise).

Three areas of art culture that cannot be "watered down", in the process of this paradigm shift, are dance, visual art, and theater (as in staged plays with actors and actresses). Yes, all three can be represented visually via some recorded digital record but the loss of the "artistic essence" (for want of a better expression) is far greater than, say, going from watching a given film in a theater and watching the same film on hi-rez video at home on a large screen . (I do recognize that there are films for which the downsizing represents something far more egregious.) Visual art...that ought to be quite obvious. Aside from sculpture being 3D, paintings, which traditionally make up the single greatest quantity of visual art objects (unless you want to count prints, or drawings, maybe I should qualify a bit more clearly...) simply cannot be adequately experienced online, and the people who consume that sort of art, either as museum goers or patron purchasers, know that. So I think that those areas of culture are relatively safe.

The question, however, is one of demographic sophistication. Put bluntly, is the generation raised on TV and video games going to somehow discover the joys of those other, somewhat more esoteric, art forms that remain in their (relatively) nascent form?

 

Big novels still sell, so there is a market for people who read -- though they might be reading on an iPad, a Kindle, or a Nook. So I have faith that people will always be willing to pay to hear a great story. (The Twilight series notwithstanding...)

 

Excellent post. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

 

I'd say that any local, Boston or NE-area Newbury Comics CD customers should get while the getting is good. Their stocks are shrinking, and they don't appear to replace inventory as quickly or as reliably as they did just a short year or two ago. If you see a cheapo $4 or $6 or $8 disc, buy it on the spot, don't wait.

 

A lot of their new inventory shows up on Amazon these days.

 

Usually for prices well in excess of what they charge in the stores. I bought an ECM album in-store for $7.99 they were selling online via Amazon for $20.

 

35% off everything in the store this weekend...

 

Egad...sounds like they are folding.

Visited the Peabody, MA location last week...as i like to stop in once in a while and see what they have for used movies.

Noticed that the entire animation/family film Dvd section is gone. Just GONE. One large rack has tv show Dvds on one side, mainstream block-buster films on another. I was surprised....as they seemed to move a LOT of family/animated discs. I was a regular shopper.

The Peabody location is definately more focused on the clothing/gift /fun stuff items. There is a small vinyl section, and a decent CD section...but most of the space is filled with things you would find at other comic shops or even Spencers.

It does not look good...and Peabody just moved into the mall a few months ago.

 

I believe that this was to promote their 35th anniversary and they've done this in the past.

 

I went to the Manchester, NH Newbury Comics a few days ago. I hadn't been there in a few months, but in that stretch of time, I was absolutely shocked at how much the store had changed. The CD inventory was cut way back; it seems the focus of the store is now on rock t-shirts, posters, bumper stickers and general nic nac junk. Sad to see this happening.

 

This should be no surprise- I believe Mike Dreeese(president) has come out publicly stating the "State of Newbury Comics" and how the stores would change. I believe this was posted to their Facebook Page some time ago, and snippets of this were posted here as well(If I am not mistaken). They would re-image themselves as needed to maintain the health of the company.

Much of their sales has moved into the clothing type sales.

Chris

 

I was in there Saturday for their 35% off sale and walked out with a bunch of movies. About the only music I thought long and hard about buying was a US pressed Beatles vinyl box that I could have gotten for $195.

 

It's no secret that Newbury Comics has been shifting their inventory more in the direction of clothing and other "lifestyle" items, and away from music and movies.

 

Yeah, I almost freaked out myself reading that... I used to live just around the corner from the Newbury St store (and Tower as well, when it was there and thriving, which tells you how long ago that was). I do miss those stores dearly...

 

I haven't been to Newbury St. in a while, but that store is still open. It had moved down the block a few years ago. As Abraham Lincoln once said, "Statements read on the Internet aren't always true".

 

You want to be shocked? Go see the new Nashua, NH store! It's in the pheasant Lane Mall. I found out that they had quite a few RSD LPs left over on Monday and when I went in to pick them up, I found out why. You can't even see the CD/vinyl stuff from the front of the store. It looks like a clothing store! Since it's in a mall, they probably didn't even open until 11:00 when the rest of the mall opened. So sad to see.