The famous chain is closing all of their stores. .
Like many people, I used to love going to Tower Records. I loved browsing through the LPs and later CDs.
However, I haven’t been into a Tower or Virgin music store in years. CDs and DVDs are easily bought online without blaring rap music or clueless teenage clerks yapping on their cell phone while they’re ringing up your purchase.
So, I have mixed reactions to this.
Another touchstone going away…
Before I moved to L.A. my friends and I would drive down to watch films. Of course we had to stop at Tower Records on Sunset.
I too, buy my music online. Usually I’ll hear a piece of music and think, ‘I’ve got to get that!’ And Amazon is a few clicks away. And even then, I don’t buy as much misic as I used to. I was really into The Pogues in the '80s. I had to get their stuff on vinyl and CD. There just aren’t any bands I care enough about anymore to go shopping for them. As it is, I can play my iTunes/iPod 24 hours a day for a solid week without repeating a track. I gave away my stereo ages ago. I kept the turntable (a nice Technics), but I don’t currently have anything to attach it to.
Ah, Tower! I’ve driven past you many times and wondered how you were doing. Now I know. You’re going the way of Licorice Pizza.
I’m officially at that age where I’m getting immune (almost) to the stores of my youth vanishing: Wanamakers, Altmans, Doubleday, Scribners, the Horn & Hardart automat, now Gotham and Coliseum bookstores, and Tower Records.
I know how my mother felt when Peck & Peck, Best, and Leary’s books closed . . .
That’s a shame. Tower Records had even ventured into Canada; they had a store in downtown Toronto when I last lived there. It seems to be the coming thing - brick and mortar record stores closing down. It’s so convenient now to be able to shop at any number of places online, not have to deal with kids who know nothing about your kind of music, and to not have to pay any sales tax.
Still, it’s sad that so many young folks will never know the pleasure of having searched for a record or CD for years on end, and then one day, browsing in the bargain racks, there it is! - and for cheap! Now, you just look up your elusive disc on gemm.com and order it from the least expensive dealer. That’s better in one way, and worse in another.
Tower closed its local store a few months ago, to my regret; the only bricks-and-mortar place to buy most CDs left in town is Best Buy. Ick. I realize it’s usually cheaper and easier to buy online, but sometimes it’s just nice to browse through racks for something unusual or interesting.
I remember when Rose Records was THE place to shop in Chicago years ago. They went belly-up at least a decade ago. I’m glad I can still buy music at the bookstore (what the…??). I’m dreading the day when all music will be a download.
You’re still supposed to pay it, (depending on what state you live in, that is.) You’re supposed to report all of your online purchases on your tax return and pay the appropriate tax then.
I wonder how many people actually do it.
I believe the way it works is that if you buy an item online in your home state, you are charged sales tax. If you buy from out of state, they can’t charge you sales tax, because there are no tax laws yet to deal with interstate tax collection from online purchases. You can bet they’re working on a way to make it happen.
wow, that’s a shame. The Tower Video on East 4th St in Manhattan is one of the best places to rent DVDs. They carry most of the new releases that Netflix doesn’t.
I remember when Tower on Sunset Blvd opened up (late 1960’s?) and what a supermarket of sounds it was! Stacks of LPs[sup]*[/sup] in the aisle, and the price of most was, IIRC, $1.19. (“Imports” were a dollar more.) Before such stores, you had to buy records at mom & pop shops, who charged retail ($7.95?), and where the selection was limited to Mostly Mantovani, the management thought Sinatra was the cat’s meow and never played rock in the store for fear of alienating customers.
[sup]*[/sup] LP: An obsolete form of analog audio data storage, where a thin disk of vinyl plastic was pressed with small V-shaped spiral grooves, one per side, encoding the music. Typically 12 inches in diameter for “albums”, it could be played on a “turntable” or “phonograph” with a tiny needle (“stylus”). The needle would vibrate along with the informational irregularities imbedded in the groove and transfer the data to an amplifier, then to speakers or headphones.
The soft plastic surface was subject to damage even with best of care, and the sound quality quickly deteriorated over the lifetime of the record. Contempory with magnetic tape storage in a cassette, both were superceded by the CD.[sup]*[/sup]
[sup]*[/sup] CD: Short for Compact Disk, an obsolete form of digital audio data storage…
I think I went into Tower Records in downtown Toronto maybe twice; once with a friend who was looking for something in particular, and the other time on my own, also looking for something in particular (which they didn’t have). It seemed like an okay place, but they were located too far south of where I usually went downtown – which was usually either a mom 'n pop DJ shop (because they usually carried a lot of really cool obscure LPs and mixes) or Sam The Record Man, which had the iconic sign outside with the spinning neon LP. Later I also patronized HMV a lot 'cos their lower level always had some great CDs, lots of import CD singles and bands you often couldn’t find anywhere else.
Hey! I worked at Sam The Record Man, in the basement stockroom, 1980-1981. It was one of my favorite jobs, ever!
I also worked at the A&A location right next door to Sam’s, in 1985.
And I still have the records to show for it!
I hope they keep their website. They have the best online search.
In Colorado, the seller is required to collect sales tax if they have a physical presence within the state. If not, the buyer must file a “use tax” form and pay the appropriate taxes for their locality. To the best of my knowledge, most states require something similar.
I always felt Sam’s had a better selection than A&A, even if their prices weren’t great. Sunrise across the street also had some obscure stuff neither Sam’s nor A&A had, too, and their prices were usually good. Mind you this was from about 1987 onwards so things were probably a wee bit different. I still have some of the records and tapes I bought from those stores, too, even though most of them have either been ripped to MP3 or replaced by CD. Ah, the good ol’ days.
I remember when Tower opened up in Nashville back in the late 1980s. It was the place to go. They had all the cool and obscure stuff one could ever want, and their bookstore was just as edgey. A few years ago they closed their bookstore, which was a bit depressing, and eventually, I quit shopping at Tower because I found that I could pick up the stuff I was interested on-line or other places for a hell of a lot less money. The few times I’d been in there recently, I’d spot something I liked, notice the price, and think to myself, “You know, it’s just not worth spending that much money for it.” A few dollars less, and I’d have picked it up, but for what they wanted, no way. I also noticed that their magazine selection had seriously declined in quality and I wondered how much longer they could stay in business. Now I know.