Friday, August 04, 2006

RIP Tower Records?

Is this the death knell for Tower?

18 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:12 PM

    "At least three major music companies have cut off CD shipments to Tower Records after record executives said the MTS Inc. retailer stopped paying its bills, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday."

    I don't think that's anything new. Hasn't the company always been in a perpetual state of "reorganization?" Years ago, some guys at my old distributor job went down to Tower in West Sac (the Best Sac) with a rented van to bring back merchandise that Tower was way delinquent in paying for. They were turned back and I don't know if the matter was ever settled. We must've been just one of many creditors Tower owed all kinds o' moola to.

    President, Sacramento Appreciation Society of San Francisco

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  2. good fuckin' riddance. sorry to all those working there now, but fuck russ soloman with a nice sharp stick. worst, most underpaid 2 months ever. music industry needs to change in a huge way, can't wait for corporate music america to die and see what replaces it.

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  3. Anonymous1:11 AM

    I think it was reported in Sweat Socks Monthly that one of the higher ups at Tower embezzled all the money and spent it all on young boys' sweaty sweat socks.

    --sock monkey

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  4. Anonymous10:16 AM

    Yeah, Fuck tower records if you don't like working there..and fuck those overpriced persian rugs at pottery barn too.

    So word is on the street that Whole Foods might be moving into some of the former Albertsons locations. This could be good folks.

    http://sacramento.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/2006/07/31/daily17.html?surround=lfn
    Whole Foods will bid on closed Alberston's stores
    Sacramento Business Journal - 1:30 PM PDT Tuesday
    by
    Kelly Johnson
    Staff writer

    Whole Foods Market
    plans to bid this week on some of the stores Albertson's LLC recently closed, trade publication Supermarket News reported Tuesday.
    Jim Sud, executive vice president of growth and development, told analysts of Whole Foods' intent in a third-quarter conference call Monday.

    A Whole Foods spokeswoman had no further information Tuesday afternoon.
    Albertson's announced in June that it would close 37 "under-performing" stores in the north state, including four in Greater Sacramento


    -Leon (partying too hard in LA and forgot my password at the moment)

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  5. Anonymous2:10 PM

    Ummm.. I don't think old King Soloman is the one who is going to suffer if Tower closes...instead it is going to be the thousands of people around the country who depend on Tower for their livelihood, and who work there because they have a genuine love of music...

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  6. Anonymous2:30 PM

    That's what the love of music will get you. If they don't like it, why don't they find a high paying job at a movie theater?

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  7. Anonymous5:06 PM

    I'll take Tower over Walmart and Best Buy any day. That's who wins when Tower closes.

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  8. Anonymous5:09 PM

    I have friends that work for Tower & I'd feel really bad for them if it closes down - but Tower sunk itself. And everyone from the top down knows it.

    miller

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  9. Anonymous1:24 PM

    The loss of Tower Records in the marketplace is just the latest in the continuing war by major media companies to wrestle ownership of entertainment goods away from annoying middlemen and consumers.

    We're now in the world of low-fi downloads that are not transferrable and see subscriptions replace owned media products and real libraries in homes.

    For those of you on this little blog that hold such contempt for Russ Solomon, my guess is that you never knew him. He was a visionary that brought music retailing to unimagined heights while fighting corporate suits intent on destroying an industry in the name of conglomerate control of intellectual property.

    The real losers are, of course, the music fans who have fewer offerings to browse in the brick and mortar world and now must subscribe for choice on computers ill equipped to reproduce any quality of tone.

    You can thank the oligopoly of Warner, Sony, Disney, GE/Universal, EMI, BMG, Fox, Viacom and Microsoft for the closure.

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  10. Anonymous2:02 PM

    I worked for Tower for many many years and encountered Russ Solomon on more occasions than I want to think about.

    He may once have been a visionary, but he was an awful man to work for by the mid-eighties. Several of the Sacto store managers of that period were his cronies who could not be fired for any reason, (including sexual harassment, ridiculous amounts of in-store drug use, blatant theft of store property, and racial/homosexual slurs). By the time i met him in the late eighties/early nineties he struck me as a pathetic drug casualty...

    And for fun, check out his mangled spelling in the inscription on the photo of him and the owner of the Tower Cafe that hangs right by the cafe's bathroom. Yessir, another admirable captain of industry...

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  11. Anonymous3:07 PM

    > ...and at the same time us in A/P are
    > told to put payments on a delay.

    I worked in A/R on the opposite side...so it was YOU who kept us from getting paid for product shipped. Ha ha...

    President,
    Sacramento Appreciation Society of Sacramento

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  12. Anonymous3:17 PM

    I didn't mean A/R at Tower. I was from A/R at one of the distributors you guys owed moola too...

    Pres,
    SASofSF

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  13. Anonymous7:54 PM

    As for Brick & Mortar--Stores like Esoteric/Records on K are hecka more brick n` mortar than Tower.But i have to say Tower hooked me with a RCA $3.99 cassette of David Bowie "ziggy stardust.."Then i found esoteric with cassettes/dusty records and a nice weird staff.Keith the twinkeyz drummer guy was always nice and had funny stories to share.He gave sweet deals too.Last time i was in there the prog guy did an altoid can of cocaine was like tottally paranoid and put the can in my face.Dave Downey has a wicked story about the guy.It`s been 3 years since i even step in esoteric--that`s tottally sad.Record shops here in japan have good selection especially lots of old soul n` r n`b which i dig.They give ya coupon cards which are gravy..take care jay

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