What's your perspective on retail? If every "thing" you buy is valued only by the "thing" itself and not by the tangentials that add the value; OK: You want the drive-thru equivalent of retail. Then don't be surprised by the limited menu of "things" being offered.

When I choose to support an independent; be it record store, book store, restaurant, I am making a personal investment in my community. The local record store I support in turn supports local bands. It's cultural Milorganite. Fertilizer for the future.

You may want to knock me for elitist martyrdom...but I live in Milwaukee and I'm old. I've seen lots of bands almost make it. I've seen bands "make it". We need to live somewhere where we feel connected to our community. So my local record store becomes more than just "a dollar more for a disk". It's where the aspiring punk rock kids run into the guys from long established bands. It's the place where the owners organize all-ages shows. It's the place that worked with a local club and radio station to bring the White Stripes, Interpol and numerous others BEFORE they got "big". It's the place that booked Brazzaville to play a neighborhood street party and then had all the same neighborhood teenage bands warm up the crowd.

I'm no Pollyanna; but if my dollar more pays for the perpetuation of my neighborhood... Hell, I'll pay it.

rocknrollwife

If dude found it on the internet for cheaper, it couldn't have been to "rare" of "a nugget".

It's this kind of record store martyrdom that makes me half-happy when the stores close. You make it sound as if calling around or looking through some catalogs to get a record for a POTENTIAL CUSTOMER is some major feat...

brandonsoderberg

I worked in the same shop my buddy now owns in the late 1980's. Not a day went by without a phone call asking for "Children of the Sun". I would say snobbery is created, not born.

It's the same today. You do the research, unearth some very rare nugget, order in for a guy only to have him tell you he found it cheaper on the internet. Nice.

How many of you heard something that you never would have had it not been for the ratty little record store? How many bands would have never had a shot without the local record store to take their shitty self-released cassette on consignment?

rocknrollwife

Maura Johnston

jckrbtslmz

Dan Gibson

exposition

Which brings me to my point. I've been trying really hard to support my local record store. Even paying more for the convenience of having them within quick driving rage. But, all too often, they don't have what I'm looking for. They're always glad to call me when they get more in or put an order out, but those calls never seem to come. It's just easier for me to jump on-line and get what I want from any one of a dozen places and have it at my door in a few days than wait for the locals to call, if they ever do, and then drive out and pay a premium on top of that.

I think I may be the only record collector who has never been a huge fan of record stores. The internet was the best thing to happen to my collecting hobby (and the worst thing to happen to my pocketbook.)

Captain Wrong

Tenno

Sadly all gone.

However, we still have Zia's, which is actually expanding miraculously here. Las Vegan's love their discs I guess.

Tenno

brandonsoderberg

As to the nature of independent records stores, it really is about local economies of scale. Just as the push is to "eat local"; you've got to "shop local".

Just suck it up. You want to live in a neighborhood, you've got to support the locals. Curb the aural gluttony. Spend the dollar more at your local place. This is the "Niemoller" of local economies...if no one shops at the local grocery store, then the hardware store goes out of business...you know the rest! C'mon, just do the right thing.

rocknrollwife

owenmeany

revmatty

noamjamski

Also (I don't know much about this stuff at all) but don't major labels do a lot that privileges giant retailers and makes it difficult/unwise for independent stores to do much business with them anyway?

AL

davidm

Dan Gibson

And you're right about the exclusives; I don't find them enticing at all.

AL