Blog

I went to Tower Records on Wabash and Jackson today, and man was it desolate. A few months ago, Tower announced it was going out of business and selling off all it’s stores, probably mostly because of lack in sales dues to iTunes selling downloadable music, Amazon selling cds for a lot cheaper, and the like. So I stopped in a few weeks after the announcement, and it’s shelves were still pretty full, and the store was still pretty busy with people shuffling through their cds for good deals. But at 30% off, I still couldn’t get my self to drop cash for a cd. In a store that’s going out of business and discounting their merchandise, their prices were STILL higher than i would pay on-line. I went in there again today, and most of the shelves were empty, they were selling all their hip hop cds at a dollar each, all their electronic music at $1.50, all their remaining magazines for 25 cents, and everything else was pretty much 70% off. Now I bought a bunch of cds, as the stores on its last leg, gasping for its last breath of air. Tower was always a fun stop while I was on my break at school, and on my lunch break now. But over the past decade or so I’ve been stopping in, I’ve only got a few cds to show for, but the ones I bought were significant for me. Joi’s One and One Is One from Tower, one of the first Asian underground cds I ever bought. I bought Kenny Burrell & John Coltrane from Tower, one of the first jazz cds I ever bought. And my memories of and my uber-curiosity when buying those cds are still so clear. I doubt I’ll keep memories like those from purchases I make on Amazon… so I’m sad to see Tower go.