Big Box Panic - Why retail giants like Wal-Mart won’t take over the world

[BridgeTheGap]

On the corner of Newbury Street and Massachusetts Avenue in Boston sits one of architect Frank Gehry’s least inspired creations: 360 Newbury, a big box of a building, which is appropriate considering that its first three floors have long housed big-box record stores. But for the second time in 10 years, its retail space sits vacant. Its last tenant, the British-owned music giant Virgin Megastore, broke its lease in 2006 after four unprofitable years hawking CDs and DVDs to local college students. A company spokeswoman promised “to seek an alternative Boston location.” It has yet to do so.

Virgin snapped up the space in 2002, when the failing music retailer Tower Records vacated the building ahead of its descent into bankruptcy. Back in 1987, when Tower launched its largest megastore in the Gehry building, the future of Boston’s independent record store business looked grim.

Vinyl merchants and industry experts predicted that most independent retailers would feel the pinch of the big box; megastores like Tower would have more stock on hand and, it was presumed, would offer significantly discounted prices. The three-story Tower Records would pose a direct challenge to small, local stores like Newbury Comics, a comic book merchant turned record shop specializing in independent music, hard-to-find imports, and seven-inch records by local bands. To make matters worse, the new Tower store would be situated on the very same block as Newbury Comics.

But it wasn’t just the specter of Tower that frightened small retailers like Newbury Comics. The music business was experiencing rapid growth in compact disc sales, and chain stores were expected to become the dominant players. Giants like Recordtown, Strawberries, Coconuts, Musicland, and Sam Goody—most of which have now either disappeared or declined—would come to dominate the industry, the Boston Globe predicted. Among independent stores, the Globe wrote, Tower’s arrival was precipitating a panic. So ominous was the thought of a big-box music store in Boston that the New York Times covered the store’s opening, suggesting that the independents might as well throw in the towel, since Tower “has virtually no competition in its league.”

http://www.utne.com/2008-05-01/Politics/Big-Box-Panic.aspx?utm_source=iPost&utm_medium=email

[sshan2525]

1. Tower wasn't like the others.......

It was a great store with a great selection of music unlike the other chains mentioned, which specialized in selling "hits". What killed Tower wasn't it's size, it was Napster and Gnutella and P2P file sharing which led an entire generaton to believe that music should be "free" and didn't patronize music stores as my generation did. If people aren't buying your product, you aren't going to make it.

[asthmaticeog]

2. Way to miss the entire point. Did you even read the article?

Blaming file-sharing is, frankly, lazy and incorrect, and it doesn't account for the indie shops' ability to continue thriving, which in most markets, they still are. The panic about Tower ignored one great truism about record stores, a truism that holds true for bookstores as well. They don't necessarily cannibalize each other. When there's more than one on the same stretch, it attracts record shoppers who'll hit both (or all of the) stores. Think about the Village pre-Giulliani, Cleveland's Coventry and Madison districts in the '80s and '90s, Philadelphia's South Street since time friggin' immemorial, not to mention the Sunset Strip or the Lower Haight. All of 'em were/are lousy with record stores, and thus were/are meccas for music fans. File sharing hasn't changed that. It's the sterility of the big box shopping experience that's hurting big box stores, not the three-to-eight years out-of-date file-sharing protocols that you've cited.

[Bluenorthwest]

4. Ok, name 4 record stores...

On the Sunset 'Strip'...today. You say it is lousy with record stores. Last time I looked it was lousy with chain stores and botiques. Are there still a bunch of small independent music stores on the Sunset Strip? I mean today?

[asthmaticeog]

6. Couldn't say about today, haven't been.

But are there NO indie enclaves in L.A.? None? Being out of date in name-checking the strip doesn't negate my point one bit, there's still a place like that -- if there's one in friggin' Columbus, which there is, there HAS to be one in a city L.A.'s size. Some of the old indie meccas in the midwest are gone, too, but the survivors are doing extremely well, and new ones are cropping up. :shrug:

[sshan2525]

5. Speaking of missing the point.....

First of all, who the fuck are you to call me lazy? Secondly, you obviously have a comprehension problem. I was citing Tower as an exception to the rule (at least it was until the last few years of it's existance) of big box music stores. It was one of the few places where you could find a wide variety of music spanning pretty much every posible genre. It was it's size that, in large part, made that possible. That is not the point of most indie stores which tend to carry a small, albeit eclectic, selectiion of music aimed at a younger buyer than me. You seemed to infer that I have a problem with downloading music. On the contrary. I have nothing whatsoever against P2P file sharing. I do it myself. I don't know anything about the Sunset Strip and other large cities but here in RI (and, I'd bet most of suburbia) almost every independent music retailer except Newbury Comix (and I don't even consider them to be an independent) has gone under. Every one I've known of, including one that I used to work at owned by a close friend, has cited online music as the main reason for their demise. The big chains went under because not only were sales down due to P2P but the biggest box of all (Wal-Mart) was kickimg their ass. Tower was a great resource in it's day. The day of needing a physical medium such as a record or tape or CD is drawing to a close. It will all be digitized as a file to be download into whatever device. There will always be places to go where one can "touch" music but those will be for the nostalgic and/or luddites and have little impact on the "economics" of music.

[asthmaticeog]

7. Had you posted THAT to begin with...

this would have been a different conversation.

By the way, I don't believe I called you lazy. Only said that the line of reasoning you used in re file sharing was. If you can't parse the difference I can't help you, and if the shoe fits, wear it. But you might be imagining the fuckin' shoe, friend.

[sshan2525]

9. I'm well aware of what you were saying....

You were calling me "intellectually" lazy. That was personal and I take offense. Don't try to pretend otherwise. Parse that, friend. And by the way, why jump all over me about such a trivial topic, anyway? Get a life.

[depakid]

8. Wrong

Economic studies have shown that sampling music via P2P actually INCREASED sales of CD's and revenues to record companies, by providing customers an introductory listen and through free marketing and advertisement that most artists rarely get on commercial radio anymore.

Lack of support on generic radio and the stubborn resistance to lowering prices and profit margins on CD's in a changing market doomed the big box stores. File sharing per se had little to do with it.

[sshan2525]

10. I'd love to see those studies....

It may have increased sales of CD's but not in any store that I'm aware of. It's probably helped online retailers, though. Amazon, CD Baby and the like are great because of the selection they carry. Online retail alo has hurt traditional retail and I should have mentioned that. That was my point about Tower. In their day, they were a great resource. That day has come and gone. As I said, it doesn't matter. all music will be in a file format soon. The CD will be as relevant as an 8 track in the next few years.

[C_U_L8R]

3. Tower lost its soul.

For a while it proved that big didn't have to be so synonymous with bad.
In fact they were pretty revolutionary. Do you remember the first Tower you ever went to?
Unfortunately they lost their groove and seemed to stop trying... they stopped innovating.
So now as always, places like Newbury Comics and Amoeba Music (yay Amoeba) are the cool places to go.
Simply put, they have spirit. Lots of energetic uncontrollable independent and infectious spirit.