"The day the music died..."
I just read in today's Seattle Times and Seattle Post Intelligencer that a long time favorite "hang" of mine, Tower Records in Seattle (and nationwide), is going out of business.
"Peter Gurfein, a lawyer representing the 46-year-old chain, said it will be sold for a total of $150 million, including the sale of various leases and properties. Gurfein said Great America plans to begin the liquidation and going-out-of-business sales today.
John Mittelstaedt, manager of the Tower store at Fifth Avenue North and Roy Street in Queen Anne, said all music will be marked down 10 percent, all books 20 percent and all magazines 30 percent. Tower's other store is at 4518 University Way Northeast." - Seattle P.I.
I can still remember when Tower first announced bankrupcy status all those years ago. They were still going to stay in business and sell me my music and DVDs. But there were some weird decisions made.
The Bellevue store first decided to move from it's old run down space to a new space at the Bellevue Galleria. It was nice, but the area was belagured with bad parking and too large a space. Then they reduced hours (they weren't even open until midnight on Mondays (going into Tuesdays) for new releases), and then they got rid of thier lower floor. Then they closed all together. Thus marked the end of a decent record shop in the Greater Eastside area. So off to Seattle I took my business.
The two other Tower stores in Western Washington also made moves, and while those have been more successful, I still wonder why a chain that was amidst a bankrupcy crisis was rennovating new spaces to move into.
I know I've been guilty of feeding the machiene that lead to Tower's demise (I've been buying a few singles here and there on iTunes, gotten a majority of CDs and DVDs from Best Buy and Target, and purchased import CDs from Amazon and Siren Discs), but nothing will really replace my experiences of browsing through aisles and aisles of CDs, not looking for anything in particular. Tower also kept a very good selection of Magazines and DVDs, and more recently, action figures.
"Peter Gurfein, a lawyer representing the 46-year-old chain, said it will be sold for a total of $150 million, including the sale of various leases and properties. Gurfein said Great America plans to begin the liquidation and going-out-of-business sales today.
John Mittelstaedt, manager of the Tower store at Fifth Avenue North and Roy Street in Queen Anne, said all music will be marked down 10 percent, all books 20 percent and all magazines 30 percent. Tower's other store is at 4518 University Way Northeast." - Seattle P.I.
I can still remember when Tower first announced bankrupcy status all those years ago. They were still going to stay in business and sell me my music and DVDs. But there were some weird decisions made.
The Bellevue store first decided to move from it's old run down space to a new space at the Bellevue Galleria. It was nice, but the area was belagured with bad parking and too large a space. Then they reduced hours (they weren't even open until midnight on Mondays (going into Tuesdays) for new releases), and then they got rid of thier lower floor. Then they closed all together. Thus marked the end of a decent record shop in the Greater Eastside area. So off to Seattle I took my business.
The two other Tower stores in Western Washington also made moves, and while those have been more successful, I still wonder why a chain that was amidst a bankrupcy crisis was rennovating new spaces to move into.
I know I've been guilty of feeding the machiene that lead to Tower's demise (I've been buying a few singles here and there on iTunes, gotten a majority of CDs and DVDs from Best Buy and Target, and purchased import CDs from Amazon and Siren Discs), but nothing will really replace my experiences of browsing through aisles and aisles of CDs, not looking for anything in particular. Tower also kept a very good selection of Magazines and DVDs, and more recently, action figures.
Anyways, Tower Records will be dearly missed my my sister and I. We must now go on to support those smaller record and DVD stores like Easy Street and Silver Platters to keep those alive.
posted by choitoy @ 2:11 PM
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