RECORD STORE TALES Mk II: Getting More Tale
#326: Not the Best Buy
I don’t shop in the big corporate record stores that often anymore. Hell, I don’t even really shop in stores anymore! I used to, even at the big stores. When I started working in Cambridge, my buddy Chris and I would go to Future Shop once a week at lunch time to check out the new releases. I would typically buy a new movie and a new CD release at least once a week, sometimes more. I’d stock up on blank CDs, or just impulsively buy a guitar there. It happens!
We would do the circuit around the store. We’d start with the new releases up front, then head to the movie section. I would detour over to CDs while Chris would look at electronics and computer games. We’d meet up at the bargain bin as we left. It’s there that Chris and I acquired two copies of Back to School with Rodney Dangerfield on DVD for $4.99 each. The girl at the front counter was jealous and asked if there were any left! She always knew us as the “Tuesday new release guys”. We sometimes wondered if she thought we were a gay couple since we rarely went in without the other!
Sometime in the last few years, both Future Shop and Best Buy (which are the same company) really started to change. They moved the music and movie section to the very back of the stores, providing more room for cell phones and tablets. It was a sign that things were getting worse for people like myself who enjoy owning physical product. Chris is similar to me. He likes to own “whole collections” of movie or TV series. Some of us are just like that. He always likes to own the ones he really loves. (Such as the Police Academy series. Yes Chris I just outed you.)
So, we stopped going to Future Shop at lunch. In fact we haven’t been in ages. Same went for Best Buy. Strangely enough, a Best Buy soon opened in Cambridge, right next to the Future Shop. Even the new Best Buy store didn’t have much in the way of music and movies, so we just stopped spending our money at lunch time.
I can tell you exactly what CD it was that I purchased the last time I bought one at Best Buy. It was the 2 CD/1 Blu-ray/1 DVD version of Led Zeppelin’s Celebration Day (2012) which was a brand new release. And even a release that monumental was hard to find at Best Buy!
I walked into the store a few days after the initial release. I saw that all they had on the front “new release” display was the DVD combo sets. I went over to the Zeppelin section in music – nothing there. I checked the same in the movies. Nada. Then I found a Zeppelin display at the side of one of the aisles. All they had there was CD and DVD; none of the 2 CD/1 Blu/1 DVD.
I found a customer service person that wasn’t chatting up her co-workers, and asked her where they kept the brand new Zeppelin Blu-rays?
In the back room, apparently! She found one for me and I purchased it, a little confused why a Led Zeppelin new release on the hot newest format would be in their back room.
So I bought the package; the very last CD set I have purchased at Best Buy. Best Buy have really abandoned the physical music releases, and that’s too bad. I used to enjoy buying music and movies at that store due to the prices, two nearby convenient locations, and the fact that I could usually find everything I was looking for. No longer. Sorry Best Buy: you and I are no longer besties!
mikeladano.com 
Yeah, that’s too bad. I remember when they dedicated half the store to music. Now it’s only one aisle.
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It’s such a bummer. How much stuff has changed just in a few short years. Other record stores are going 1/3 music, 1/3 movies, and 1/3 books and memorabilia.
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*cough* hmv *cough*…
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You said it not me!
It’s been a couple years since I’ve spent money in an HMV too. Last time I went looking to buy the latest Simpsons blu ray (new release) but they were only carrying the DVD.
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We don’t have either FS or BB in our town. In fact, our closest branches from here would probably be in your town! However, when I did live in the vicinity of a FS (10 years ago, in Saskatoon), I used to go all the time. They were part of the rounds, same as everywhere else that sold what I wanted (CDs). But that’s a msnomer – it was lnger than 10 years ago because we’ve lived back in ON that long. I gave up on FS a long time before that because, as noted in Sarca’s comment, they whittled their selection down to almost nothing. So long away from them now, I don’t even think of them. Huh.
It’s possible that that Zep being in the back room was an oversiiiiiight. Maybe someone on staff didn’t care to read the stickers and notice the difference between the DVD and Blu formats. It’s possible. Pay a teenager very little and there’s two reasons you couldn’t find what you wanted!
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It’s position Zep was an oversiiiiight. But I would imagine the different stock codes are there to help with that!
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We still Have future shop here in Tbay…..there’s hardly any music…one row of crap!
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Yup, and a bunch of sales people who stand around, right?
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Time for a name change people! This ones for you Sarca!
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Next time you can be Bubbles with them glasses!
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Come to Tokyo…there are still plenty of record stores here!
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Would LOVE to come to Tokyo.
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Regretfully, as I have discussed here before, Best Buy is the ONLY store near me that still stocks most new releases on Tuesday’s here in Northville, MI USA. All the independent CD stores near me have gone belly-up/out of business. Best Buy has a decent stockist there on Tuesday: a woman who works for what I think is an outside company and she lets me pick out whatever I want/need off her cart, before she has a chance to put CD’s on the racks, where most will be lost forever…”what’d you say the name of the band is?…Red…Dragon…Cartel?” I try and catch her early, but anything BB doesn’t get in, I am forced to order on-line. I try to support brick-and-mortar/indie stores, but it’s tough.
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I’m lucky in Australia. We have a place called JB HI-FI that specialises in electronics and stuff. It has a large (and I mean large) section devoted to physical DVDs, CD’s, Blu Rays, vinyls and that sort of stuff. It’s great, although it’s hard to find rarer stuff there, it’s still really good to have.
Oh and you’d better have a good excuse for that Frozen Blu Ray
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I do! A guy at work loaned it to me and I never watched it :)
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