John Smyth wrote:

>I thought I was dreaming.  I stopped in a Tower Records in Davis, CA, and
>found that their entire Classical Section was 30% off.  It turns out that
>they are liquidating the section to make room for other merchandise.  Lucky
>day for me--but was the delirious laughter I was hearing not my own, but
>Norman Lebrect's from above, heralding the End?

1.  Lebrecht is an idiot.  (I have to get that in at any prime
opportunity.)

2.  Tower is going sidelines crazy and we at the Dallas store have had
to tighten up the classical space too, although we didn't reduce it too
terribly much, and much that was returned was dud product.

>Probably not.  While it is rather disappointing that the CM section of a
>Tower Records would have to fold in a college town, it's important to note
>that a Border's opened down the street with a very large and inclusive CM
>section, and Border's offers their CD's at $15.99 rather than Tower's
>$17.99 list.  Not only that, but Sacramento, eleven miles away, has five
>Towers, two with stand-alone CM sections; two Borders, and one Virgin
>Megastore.
>
>I don't think that one of the Seven Seals has been broken in Davis.

The thing that we must realize is that Tower and all other stores are
businesses, not libraries.  They will stay if they make money!

>However, Tower has introduced two new policies that have lured me back into
>their business.  The CDs may be $17.99, but you can exchange them, open(!),
>for a one-time credit towards another.  I've used this privilege three
>times, and the employee has been fine about it--I didn't sense any extra
>vapor on his nose ring that would betray hidden feelings of annoyance.

I dare say that these are not policies, but you have gotten lucky to have
found an easy going manager.  We at the Dallas store will stretch the rules
for a good customer, but I assure you that if you did this stunt three
times, your priveleges would be cut off.  It's just too easy to copy a cd
these days to allow the lending library approach to shopping.  Besides, the
labels will only give us return credit on a limited amount of product that
is open but not defective.  I expect that you would not abuse the system,
John, but there are nut cases out there that do.  (I can think of four
of our regulars already that are absolutely exasperating with this
behaviour.) Trust me when I tell you that those of you who do the incessant
return/exchange nonsense are looked upon as 1.) a big pain in the ass and
2) as someone we all wish would go away.  Your level of customer service
could show a marked decrease if you abuse return/exchange.  This is not
directed at John, but these kind of customers do not represent profit.
They represent time wasted that could be better spent with better
customers!

>The other new offering, at least in Berkeley and Davis, is a used CD
>section and buy-back program.  I've mentioned on here many times how much
>I enjoy the well-stocked used CD stores in the Bay Area.  The treasure hunt
>atmosphere and excellent prices have led me to make some very aesthetically
>daring purchases--Bach, Tallis, Schumann...and look, now I like these guys.

This is very new indeed. It must be an experiment at this particular store.

Kevin Sutton