Eliot Van Buskirk

File Under Symbolic: Tower Records Is Over

Tower Records was sold to a company specializing in liquidation that is rapidly shuttering every single one of the company’s 89 stores, according to the LA Times. The sales have already started, although from what I hear, the "10-30%" off advertised at the door tends towards the 10% side of the scale. Over the next […]
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Tower_sf
Tower Records was sold to a company specializing in liquidation that is rapidly shuttering every single one of the company's 89 stores, according to the LA Times. The sales have already started, although from what I hear, the "10-30%" off advertised at the door tends towards the 10% side of the scale. Over the next few months, expect some truly massive sales as the once-dominant music retail giant rids itself of all merchandise at bargain prices.

The article quotes a Billboard analyst as saying that this isn't the end for music retailers:

"But Tower's demise is not a death knell for traditional ways of buying music:
More than half of album purchases are from retail outlets, said Geoff Mayfield,
an analyst at Billboard. 'That would be an obituary that is too early to write.'"

If not now, then when?

(Image of the Tower Records in SF's North Beach where I used to shop courtesy of TowerRecords.com, and thanks to Jim Griffin for pointing out the delusional quote at the bottom of this article.)