Independent As Fuck?
Earlier this month, Tower Records announced that they were going out of business. All their assets were bought by a liquidation company, which would begin conducting going-out-of-business sales at all locations. My initial reaction was of slight sadness- I kinda liked Tower. They had a pretty good selection, carrying older releases and indie labels that get overlooked by places like Best Buy, at slightly higher (but still reasonable) prices. I certainly didn't shop there with any regularity, but on those occasions when I needed to have something somewhat obscure right this very second, I'd walk over to the Loop location after work and there was a good chance they had it.
Then the excitement hit...going-out-of business sales mean discounted music...and considering Tower's deeper catalog, I'd probably be able to knock a few albums that have resided on my 'buy eventually' list for cheap. I stopped by about two days after the announcement, and things were only marked down only 10%. Not a good enough deal, so I took a quick gander at the hip-hop selection and walked out.
This past Sunday, after an all-you-can-eat sushi dinner with friends, we walked over to the Lincoln Park Tower location. The hip-hop discount was up to 30% (good, but not great), so I picked up the two most recent Coup albums. On Monday, I went back to the Loop location to check on the discount there. It was also 30%, so I noted a few titles I wouldn't mind buying at 40-50% off levels and then purchased, of all things to randomly find, an Astronautalis album.
And that's brought back me back to feeling sad over Tower's demise. It was good to have a chain where people could stumble upon things like Astronautalis. However, the more I thought about it, the more hypocritical I felt. I rarely purchase music from the smaller chains or the independent music stores around town. I've become so price conscious with my music...wanting to spend the absolute least possible on a single CD, so that I can buy more music overall. This attitude leads me to make 90% of my music purchases from Best Buy and Amazon. How can I be upset at the loss of Tower Records, when I did nothing to support such a store and only visit it with regularity when it's closing and selling off all inventory? And if stores like Tower are hurting so badly, what does that say for all the mom-and-pop shops? I'm sure 3 or 4 times as many small independent stores have closed across the city this year. Am I really OK with that? Why don't I shop more at the independent stores? Is saving a couple dollars by buying new releases at Best Buy and older titles from Amazon really worth the loss of cool, unique, and interesting record stores where you can actually find cool, unique, and interesting titles??
Maybe I can make myself feel better by repeating "Well at least you still actually buy CD's..." a few hundred times...