With demise of places like Tower Records where are collectors buying their dvd's? (1 Viewer)

[RobertGr]

Eric

You know your post is very timely and points our what is wrong with America. We have all been dumbed down we were once a great country, a country of innovation and creativity, now the bottom feeders are destroying what took two hundred years to build.

I recently went to a Funeral, I cannot tell you how many people were wearing jeans in the church!

On stores think about how many have been closed in the last few years TOWER, SAM GOODY, THE WIZ, in our area LASERLAND etc. We have gone from a country with a middle class to a country of $7.00 an hour workers at Walmart and now the subprime mortagages are going bust.

Petty soon we will be watching our dvd's in caves!!!!


We are all to blame why, we keep voting these bozos in for term after term, when we all learn that if they do not do what they said they will in their first term next term outsource there job to another candidate, for these bozos to have a career job for 30 or 40 years in the Congress or Senate is ludicrous.

This is filtering down to young kids working in these stores whom never heard of CITIZEN KANE or CLARK GABLE and BETTE DAVIS or RITA HAYWORTH. It is the dumbing down of our country and getting paid $7.00 an hour.

 

[TravisR]

This thread has taken a really weird turn.

 

[Ira Siegel]

I'm about 8 years older than Eric and I agree, so many things have changed since we were kids. Like RobertGr, I decry the fact that many of our politicians have become even less intellectually honest while becoming even more vicious and venal.

However, I do not lay the blame for the changes on the politicians. We are concurrently benefiting and suffering from the advance of technology. I think we are, on balance, benefiting more than suffering.

In connection with the subject matter of this thread, advances developed by the founders of Amazon and FedEx and WalMart, not to mention all the developers of the Internet, are among the principal reasons traditional brick and mortar stores are having problems. (In the 1960s and 1970s highways were considered to be killing traditional downtown brick and mortar stores in many towns.)

In any event, Tower on Sunset and Wherehouse on La Cienega used to be fantastic places to browse and their prices were usually sufficiently low so that I bought there (often walking out with as many as 10 DVDs) even though sales tax and otherwise low prices might have made online purchasing less expensive. Circuit City's DVD organization and display makes browsing difficult, and I only buy there when a really inexpensive DVD catches my eye as I'm walking though CC to get something else. Best Buy is much better than Circuit City, but it is never as good as Tower and Wherehouse were. Amoeba Music, also on Sunset, is still very good for browsing and the music being played is fun, too, but I find its prices almost always too high. So, I do most of my DVD shopping the way Eric does.

 

[Eric Huffstutler]

You know, every morning as I go to work I think of the ants rushing to get to work with no consideration for others on the road. Why? Because they wait to the last minute to do anything since "they can". All courtesy of the computer age. I often wonder if that is a good thing because isn't technology supposed to help mankind - make things easier for them so in essence save time and effort? If that is the case we should have more time to do things than 40-50 years ago. Right? Why don't people buy homes but instead condo? So they don't have to maintain lawns or exteriors. Why did auto manufacturers switch from whitewall tires to blackwall? Because people don't wash their cars on the weekends like they use to. And yet we have plenty of time to eat and become the fattest nation on earth. I remember when what we now consider a Happy Meal at McDonald's being a meal for an adult even in the 60s. Hamburgers were just that, a small hamburger. A 6 ounce Coke in the bottle was enough to quench ones thirst.

OK... I am rambling on but I guess what I am getting at is that people have changed along with their 21st century ways of living. That includes being in a hurry, having no time to "read" or learn (includes movies). Becoming a nation of excesses where we want it "all" but not appreciating what we have nor sharing with others. Sharing also goes with knowledge and having done it - not having it done for you. And wasting all that time saved.

So... if we have all of this free time, why don't kids who now work those $7 an hour jobs have the skills and knowledge of what their are doing or selling (includes DVDs)? Why haven't they taken the time to learn or have the thrill of wanting to? We all suffer and the nation will when these X-Box couch potatoes who get time outs in a self sufficient room with no self esteem take over America!

RANT OFF

Eric

 

[Adam_S]

When I was a kid if we wanted to be entertained we had to throw rocks at our little brothers! And they liked it!

 

[Will_B]

One of my housemates got a part time job at a book/dvd store (a well known chain) and they do provide the staff members with a fact sheet with the terminology of different audio and video formats. I skimmed the sheet and if it I were grading it for accuracy I'd have to give it a "C".

I'm sure many of the employees are self taught and know more than what the corporation is handing out. But at $7 an hour you can't really expect anyone to spend any of their free time studying up -- that would make the $7 an hour even less.

 

[RobertGr]

Thanks to the last few posters for letting me rant a bit too! Now back to the point of the thread. It looks loke we all are buying more and more online for various reasons which are, better prices, the fact that B & M are becoming extinct and the ones open have people working there that do not know what they sell.

Can anyone offer solutions to the B & M problem? How would you operate them if you were in charge?

 

[Jason Seaver]

I honestly don't know if there's a "solution" to be found, or even necessarily a problem. Amazon is the next evolution of the Towers of the world, in terms of using economies of scale and a deep selection. The best idea I have is to find some way to make your shop a draw in ways other than price, because you're not winning that battle.

Thinking of a couple places near here, I think Newbury Comics does well because it's fun to browse - there's toys and other pop culture stuff all over the place, the staff is identified by a lanyard/nametag (street clothes otherwise), and they seem to be interested in what they're selling.

There's a place in Arlington that seems like more of a screening room than a store, and if I had a couple hundred thousand dollars burning a hole in my pocket, then I might try something like that on a larger scale - a one or two screen theater playing classic, foreign, indie and/or second-run films where the lobby is a video and film merchandise & memorabilia store.

It's got to be something that's more than just shelves of keepcases, at any rate - something that makes people want to come in, look around, and find something they might not otherwise have known existed.

 

[Sean A]

Hey robert- if I see a copy again at that price, I'll grab it for ya !

 

[RobertGr]

Thanks Sean!!

 

[RobertGr]

Hey Jason

I like BORDERS but the one thing bad about them is that most of thier dvd titles are in glass cases and only a few are on open shelves. Barnes and Nobles is useless I never got a dvd on sale there at all!

 

[Eric Huffstutler]

RobertGr...

I am afraid the damage has already been done to a point of being un-reversible unless something dramatic happens to our nation and economy where computers become useless.

But to answer the question... I would have a store that isn't brightly lit like a football stadium but low light and spot lights. Have movie memorabilia on the walls, movies playing on monitors, have some loss leaders to lure shoppers in, maybe drawings or bonuses. Then I would hire people who have a passion for movies and train them myself about the various formats and genres. And I would carry a wide selection of hard to find titles and offer special orders. Have kiosks in the store, advertise titles coming and special prices. And only handle movies - not music. Then I would keep the store open until midnight.

Eric

 

[RobertGr]

Eric

I feel there is a demand for the type store you describe. Although I do order on-line from DDD and Amazon and have saved money I like the experience of going to a store and browsing and being able to hold the package and read the back of the box etc to see what is included on the disc etc. This is why I feel video on demand will never really rpelace home video as consumer what a product that they collect. I feel if someone is smart out there with money to invest and open a place that caters to movie lovers and that would have at least on copy of everything they can stock in store people will find it and make it their shopping mecca!

 

[Jeff Willis]

Eric, Robert, I agree that such a B&M store would do enough business to turn a decent operating profit. There's something that can't be replaced with online shopping...window browsing, taking it home in hand, etc. Although I do all of my DVD purchasing online at present, I'd drive the distance in Dallas for such a store. The closest things to me that have decent shelf space are our local Fry's Electronics Warehouse stores. The closest drive time from me is about 25 min's. The local BB's, etc are closer but the shelf spaces are too small to stock anything except for the popular-selling movies and some TV/DVD sets, new releases and some of them don't get to those stores either. I really shop online mainly to save drive time, gas. The $$ savings are part of it but I like the time-savings and door delivery online.

If I win a lottery or strike oil down here in Texas, I'll open up that store. "Y'all c'mon down and shop a spell, hear?"

 

[Ray_R]

I mostly order online from:
DVDPacific.com
DDDHouse.com

B&M's are:
Wherehouse
Circuit City
Costco
Suncoast (occasionally)
Borders (sometimes)

And I wholeheartedly agree with Eric there should be a store like that. Where they don't carry pan & scan whatsoever either.

 

[DanFe]

I hardly ever bought dvds at Tower and wouldn't buy any at any B&M outside of Costco and occasionally Target.

BUT, cds are what I miss the most at Tower. Seattle, where I will be moving has Silver Platters--not a bad place, but the best in the NW is Music Millenium. It is a wonderful store in Portland. May they never go out of business.

 

[Jason Seaver]

See, everything about that sounds more expensive than the mom & pop shops that have already gone under. What makes you think this would succeed?

 

[RobertGr]

Jason

I feel the consumer is hungry for a store that would stocj dvd's properly and also have employees that know thier films. If this would be combined with an inviting atmosphere for film buffs and if they can good prices then I feel they would have a chance!

 

[Jason Seaver]

By "the consumer", though, you mean "us". And I have my doubts that we're enough.

 

[RobertGr]

I think yes consumers (US) would support a haven for fim buffs. I have mentioned LASERLAND here in Long Island. I remember going in there and seeing the clerks coming to the front desk with a box with twenty or thirty dvd's in them for certain customers. Whom would pre-order titles, special order items and have the order waiting for them. I had an account with the store I would go in pick up 4 or 6 dvd's and put them on 30 day net. The store had tons of customers like that enough in fact to support 3 locations.

What killed the store BEST BUY, why when it first opened you could not beat their prices. Now when you shop there and see fellow ex-LASERLAND customers every waxes poetic about the loss of LASERLAND and the fact, they would special order stuff, pre-order stuff and also do rentals!

I guess the agage is true "you never knew what you had till you lost it" or something like that!