Whoa! Anybody check out Wal-Mart's CD prices??? (1 Viewer)

[Rachael B]

:frowning: The sales tax just went up to 9.25% here. It's as high as 9.75% in some Tennessee counties. E-tailers here I come!

 

[KeithH]

Larry,
I know that Seattle and Oregon aren't too close, but it was a thought. There is always the Internet.
Rachael,
Wow, I would never have guessed that sales tax would be so high in Tennessee. I will be in Clarksville for a few days on business in a little over a week. Guess I won't be buying any music on the trip. The Internet is a beautiful thing, ain't it? So is Delaware's lack of sales tax.

 

[Rachael B]

Keith, Clarksville is on the Kentucky border. You can step accross the line for lower taxes. That's what everybody does! Tennessee has been in a budjet funk for many years. There is no state income tax. The legislature has been unable to pass an income tax despite the overwhelming need for one. In desperation for $ they just raised the sales tax. This sales tax is not going to work out. Half the population lives on the borders. All the surrounding states, all 8 (Tennessee borders more states than any other) have lower sales tax. Collections will continue to drop.
The state sales tax is 7% with a local add-on of up to 2.75%. Most of the poor rural counties have the maximum rate.
So, you're taking the last train to Clarksville? Best wishes!

 

[John Tillman]

Sales tax blues does bite. My county on LI is 8.5% and bordered by water so options are few. I just spit $2500 non deductible sales tax dollars into the wind buying a car (built in Tennessee). Got a sister in Delaware, thought about going that route but I'd probably wind up sending post cards from jail.

 

[Paul E. Fox II]

Before this gets anyone mad, let me say that the following statement is not meant to be "Pro-Bootlegging" or "Pro-Pirating"...rather just something I have noticed.

After reading this thread on the price of CD's it makes me realize just why the File Sharing Servers like KaZaA and WinMX are SOOOOO popular. Fans want their music and if they can't get it at a fair price, then what do you think will happen in the age of the Internet?

Like many of you out there, I may have downloaded a song or two to check out a particular artist, but if it's something I REALLY like, I'll always buy the CD (case in point, my recent aquisition of the ENTIRE Dream Theater Catalog AND both of the Liquid Tension Experiment CDs). With the price of CDs on the rise at Wal*Mart of all places, how are we supposed to listen to the music of choice? DVDs are generally around $20.00 but nearly that for a CD? The Music Industry REALLY needs to take a long, hard look at itself!

 

[KeithH]

Rachael,
Thanks for the tip regarding Clarksville's proximity to Kentucky. I only looked at a map briefly the other day. Just close enough to realize that I should fly into Nashville.
I guess having no state income tax is good and bad. It's nice to have more money, but the sales tax is ridiculous. If I lived in Tennessee, I'm sure I would buy my big-ticket items in one of the eight bordering states. Many people from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland come to Delaware to buy big-ticket items.
Paul,
I am always amazed by how blockbuster movies come out on DVD for $15-20, yet some places sell CDs of fad "artists" for $18. It's pathetic. The RIAA and the like want to blame the pricing structure of CDs on the proliferation of illegal copying and downloading, however, high prices for CDs is nothing new. It's been a problem for years.

 

[Rachael B]

Keith, this tax structure won't last long. On paper it supposedly will generate 'X' dollars but it won't. It's too easy to avoid. Tennessee will have an income tax. It's only a matter of when. The state will continue to flounder and the schools will continue to decline. It's sad.
John, couldn't you get a boat and shop in your choice of several states ?
What's really pathetic about CD prices and possible CD copy-protection is, we're looking at the possibility of boot-leg software being the superior and preferred product. I hate to say that but it's true. The CD market is kind'a like Tennessee's sales tax situation. The higher they raise prices, the more people evade the prices. If a copy-guard is put on CD's that prevents me from recording them to my MD's that will be the last straw as far as I am concerned. At that point I will be firmly in the pro boot-legging camp.
I've never been OK with boot-legging. I never bought a single boot-leg vinyl record when they were readily available. I could change my mind if I don't see reform in the music industry...?

 

[Paul E. Fox II]

I'm firmly in the camp with Rachael on this one. I don't buy that much music anymore, in fact...prior to dropping the hammer on Dream Theater, it had been problem a yeah since I'd bought ANYTHING musically (I may be mistaken here as I don't really buy enough music to remember). If the RIAA doesn't do something quickly, EVERYONE may start to feel that way. Like I said, I'll normall buy a CD with stuff on it I like (after sampling from the internet) but if the price keeps going north, that will come to a stop QUICKLY!

 

[KeithH]

Rachael, you paint a sad picture of Tennessee there in regards to schools. Hopefully the lawmakers will wake up soon and institute a state income tax. I'll leave it that for fear that the discussion could turn political.

 

[Rachael B]

Keith, It's sad. U.T. used to be a top 20 research institute and it's fallen to 50. When it starts to hurt the football team, something might get done(!)? The K-12 education will actually decline under the latest budjet...and sales tax increase. Many systems will be laying off teachers. One of the counties north of here is having to lay off it's 4 or 5 (?) security guards, for example. The kids share or do without text books in many, many systems.
You see the, the heart of the problem is that the little childin's can't sell enough coupon books, chocolate, and light bulbs to suppourt their little education. Lazy little buggers, they be! It's the childrens fault really, the shape the schools are in, really!
It's the music business's fault they have become a lazy, fat, top-heavy industry with no logical business model. There's another analogy here, their management is comparably bad as Tn's! The music industry is "...lost in the ozone again,... one drink of wine, one drink of gin and I'm lost in the ozone again..." < thanks Commander Cody, how are the Lost Planet Airmen (?) Can you say one of my, my, my favourite new words, atmospheric, totally man... end of rant.

 

[KeithH]

Rachael, I did know that UT once held such a high position in research and had fallen. That is sad. You may be right about the situation. As long as the football program is doing well with 100,000+ packing in for home games, "What they worry?". I did my undergrad. at Penn State, so I know about the importance of college football. Things are not bad there at all in terms of research support and the rest, but everyone associated with the university knows the high place that football occupies. Hopefully Tennessee (and the record industry) gets straightened out.

 

[Thomas Newton]

I hate the fact that Wal-Mart edits their CDs and so I dont buy from them.

Do they do this with DVDs, too? How do you know which are the censored items (so you can avoid them)?

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Do they do this with DVDs, too? How do you know which are the censored items (so you can avoid them)?

I know they don't do it with DVDs. I believe they censor CDs mainly by only stocking the clean versions and not carrying CDs without a clean version.

NP: The Who - Teenage Wasteland

 

[Rachael B]

Keith, I used to work for a cancer researcher at U.T., but he took his grants off to the University of South Alabama for over double his U.T. salary. It's a typical scenario at U.T. and no relief is in sight. Best wishes!