Tower Records Files for Bankruptcy

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My local Tower is down to 30% off most CDs, which just about brings it to regular prices. The place is still quite well stocked. I'm waiting eagerly for the drop to 60% though, so I can complete my New Order collection at $4 a pop.

― Vinnie (vprabhu), Monday, 13 November 2006 15:06 (seventeen years ago) link

Down across the board to 40% now.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 16 November 2006 16:22 (seventeen years ago) link

i guess i know where i'm going on my lunchbreak then. ;_;

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 16 November 2006 16:28 (seventeen years ago) link

I gather the goal is still to complete this thing before Xmas, so hopefully more precipitous dropoffs are forthcoming.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 16 November 2006 16:29 (seventeen years ago) link

naw everything i've heard says january at the outset. i wouldn't be surprised if prices drop a ton just before xmas tho.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 16 November 2006 16:34 (seventeen years ago) link

The 40% is more appetizing. Seattle's store was looking picked over last week, but still well-stocked with CDs and DVDs. I'm hoping some of the Asia Extreme movies stick around for the 60%+ price drops. When they're the same price as a theater ticket, I'll be happy. Initial retail prices for those DVDs were $27+, versus < $20 online. Very steep. I wonder if they bumped their prices even higher, prior to the liquidation sale.

― lumberingwoodsman (Chris Hill), Thursday, 16 November 2006 16:35 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm waiting for 60%, then box sets here I come!

― hank (hank s), Thursday, 16 November 2006 16:46 (seventeen years ago) link

At the Alexandria, Virginia Tower they have a sign on the door that they're looking to hire people to work during the holiday season, so I think they'll be around to January I guess.

Lots of the box sets at that store and at the DC store are gone, although they have a sign up in the VA store that new stuff is coming in from their warehouse every day. I'm skeptical that there's much left in a warehouse--or at least much left of anything but real popular stuff.

― curmudgeon (DC Steve), Thursday, 16 November 2006 17:22 (seventeen years ago) link

there's still plenty of box sets at the Cambridge store, probably because they keep 'em behind the counter like they were porno mags or something...

― hank (hank s), Thursday, 16 November 2006 17:38 (seventeen years ago) link

It's dangerous to look through a discount bin with hstencil. I put it all back but N.Y No Wave.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 16 November 2006 20:24 (seventeen years ago) link

Vinnie, there will be no new New Order left at 60%... Republic will be flying off the shelves at 40%, even.

All New Order is sold out already at the Tower in Seattle/Lower QA. (although they may stock more later.)

Tower's liquidators are pulling off a great scheme here, I have to admit.

― gwynywdd dwnyt fyrwr byychydd gww (donut), Thursday, 16 November 2006 20:29 (seventeen years ago) link

Classical and Jazz have been already rummaged and rendered practically useless at Seattle Tower.

The only domain left where there can be finds still? African.

(ohseattlepaws, etc.)

― gwynywdd dwnyt fyrwr byychydd gww (donut), Thursday, 16 November 2006 20:36 (seventeen years ago) link

oday:

papa m, "papa m sings" (seanote) cd
rose tattoo, "scarred for life" (repertoire) cd
cristina, "sleep it off" (ze) cd
caspar brotzmann, "mute massaker" (thirsty ear) cd
bodeco, "callin' all dogs" (safe house) cd
windy and carl, "the dream house/dedications to flea" (kranky) 2cd
rufus thomas, "stax profiles" (stax) cd

$67 at 40% discount

also found roky erikson 2cd, lizzy mercier descloux cd, scott walker "the drift" cd various other good things that i already have.

wtf morbs you put back the roky 2cd?!?!? you're insane!!!!

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 16 November 2006 21:37 (seventeen years ago) link

and donut how do you not already have every new order release?!?

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 16 November 2006 21:37 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm not quite enough a Garage Boy to need that much Roky.

I almost took the Rufus T tho.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 16 November 2006 21:42 (seventeen years ago) link

a lot of that isn't garage?!? weird.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 16 November 2006 21:44 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, but you could still put a car in it.

and I didn't even get to the DVD store!

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 16 November 2006 21:45 (seventeen years ago) link

I had about a hundred fifty bucks of stuff in my hand, but put everything back but the four Funkadelic remasters that I was thinking might be gone by next week (by the way there are more copies of them hiding under the displays if you're in SF and head to the Tower Market--I got scared when I came in and realized the copies I had been coveting over the weekend were gone which was ultimately what convinced me I should buy now!) World and Jazz were heavily picked over, but hip hop is still pretty strong and there are a bunch of good rock/pop things left (no more Eno though haha.) I may make a trip down to the Columbus one this weekend actually.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 17 November 2006 03:23 (seventeen years ago) link

Could not find a single thing I wanted after 45+ minutes of looking. I guess it's just all been picked over already.

Strangely enough, they had at least 20 copies of the Melvins out of print 10 Songs CD (not the 26 Songs version)

― Lee is Free (Lee is Free), Friday, 17 November 2006 04:22 (seventeen years ago) link

I went to the downtown Tower in NYC on Monday. Not too much left in jazz and especially classical - I guess I'll have to get that Mozart flute concerto another time. There was still a fair amount of stuff in rock/pop. I only ended up getting one Creedence Clearwater Revival CD though, which was about $8 after the 40% discount.

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 17 November 2006 16:28 (seventeen years ago) link

Went to the West Covina store today, and it was looking pretty bad. It was picked through pretty hard. Lots of singles left though.

― van doh (van smack), Saturday, 18 November 2006 21:51 (seventeen years ago) link

xpost to stence.. i'm not a crazy NO fan actually, so I'm missing Republic and a few other peripheral things, but that message was to someone above who was hoping get NO stuff well after the discount, if I read it correctly.

― gwynywdd dwnyt fyrwr byychydd gww (donut), Saturday, 18 November 2006 22:44 (seventeen years ago) link

went to the LQA store in Seattle today. made off with some old rave comps, the remastered Belle Album, Classic New Jack Swing Mastercuts, and the Ray Charles box. I have more I'm scoping out but not mentioning yet. (This is like playing the stock market, innit? "I'll leave this one till later because it'll still be here but if I don't get this RIGHT NOW I never will see it again.")

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Sunday, 19 November 2006 00:53 (seventeen years ago) link

Is there still much Al Green @ the Seattle store?

― Rodney... (R. J. Greene), Sunday, 19 November 2006 02:58 (seventeen years ago) link

The remastered Belle album sounds horrible. The version from the mid-90s is much better.

― These Robust Cookies (Robust Cookies), Sunday, 19 November 2006 08:02 (seventeen years ago) link

the one in emeryville is devoid of any interesting records, or at least, anything I wanted. no neil young back catalog, none of the depeche mode remasters, and what imports they had of things were still overpriced even with the 40% off. maybe their stock will adjust later on, but color me disappointed

― kyle (akmonday), Sunday, 19 November 2006 14:44 (seventeen years ago) link

I think the Philadelphia Tower needs another week to ripen.

― R_S (RSLaRue), Sunday, 19 November 2006 15:33 (seventeen years ago) link

(OTOH, a lot of stuff is already gone. I'm mostly waiting for the Latin music to drop down a bit more.)

― R_S (RSLaRue), Sunday, 19 November 2006 15:34 (seventeen years ago) link

donut, there is no reason to own "republic."

― hstencil (hstencil), Sunday, 19 November 2006 16:16 (seventeen years ago) link

the south st. location has closed!

― blackmail (blackmail.is.my.life), Sunday, 19 November 2006 16:27 (seventeen years ago) link

I never even made it down there (since the close-out sale started). I mostly just stick to the Broad Street store. I used to go there all the time, but that's a long time ago, when the selection of esoteric imports was better (and I didn't have much cheaper online sources for them).

― R_S (RSLaRue), Sunday, 19 November 2006 16:41 (seventeen years ago) link

I wanted to get a bunch of the cheap freakbeat/girl-group/psych import compilations, but they all disappeared along with their rack before the Dallas store hit 30% off.

― milo z (mlp), Sunday, 19 November 2006 18:37 (seventeen years ago) link

The Village NYC Tower box sets were pretty ravaged, except for a Van Der Graaf box, a Venom box, and tons of the giant-deluxe cube package version of the last Red Hot Chili Peppers CD.
Plenty of copies of the Scott Walker Drift CD, though i was hoping to nab the super-young Scott disc when he had an Elvis haircut that I kept putting back over the last year.

Does anyone know the close date of this store by chance?

― Brian Turner (btwfmu), Sunday, 19 November 2006 18:47 (seventeen years ago) link

donut, there is no reason to own "republic."

Sigh, I know. At this point, the only reason I want it is just for anthological reasons i.e. hey, kid, here is where the gang totally misfired, etc. I still don't have it because I refuse to pay more than a buck for it, although I see it used all the time but for $8 or something and never any less.

― gwynywdd dwnyt fyrwr byychydd gww (donut), Sunday, 19 November 2006 18:50 (seventeen years ago) link

not one thing to buy at the Harvard Square store...after the person that snagged the Comsat Angels cds i hid. i hope you feel a twinge every time you listen to them.

― nerve pylon (flat_of_angles), Sunday, 19 November 2006 23:47 (seventeen years ago) link

Plenty of copies of the Scott Walker Drift CD

don't rub it in, brian!

no word on close date yet.

― hstencil (hstencil), Sunday, 19 November 2006 23:51 (seventeen years ago) link

the memphis store is getting a little slim and there is virtually no hip hop left. I picked up the reissues of Can - Soon over Babaluma and John Cale - Paris 1919. When the prices drop again I may pick up the latter era Can reissues (of which they had plenty).

― fffnnnsss (fffnnnsss), Monday, 20 November 2006 00:13 (seventeen years ago) link

The one on Clark in Chicago had lots of stock left, but really nothing too exciting. As mentioned, the imports are still overpriced even at 40% off. I did grab one of the last two Fall Peel Sessions boxes though, figured $36 was a good deal.

― jonviachicago (jonviachicago), Monday, 20 November 2006 00:19 (seventeen years ago) link

An extremely good deal.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 20 November 2006 01:43 (seventeen years ago) link

my purchases yesterday at the SF Market St. locale (most from the 60% off already-clearance prices):

hacienda classics 3xCD $20
fierce freestyle 3xCD $13
melchior productions 2xCD $5
villalobos - au harem blahblah $5
the glimmers eskimo mix $4
2manydjs #9 $4
the fall - slates $3
alter ego - transphormer $4
shitmat - english breakfast $4
mark one - one way $4
grime 2 comp on rephlex $4

― that's so taylrr (ken taylrr), Monday, 20 November 2006 02:57 (seventeen years ago) link

I did grab one of the last two Fall Peel Sessions boxes though, figured $36 was a good deal.

i looked at that today. ended up getting Scott 3 and Scott 4 for less than $20, though. there's still much to be had, but i'm waiting for the 50-60% off daze.

― john. a resident of chicago. (john s), Monday, 20 November 2006 02:59 (seventeen years ago) link

Haha the funny thing about that clearance section is that MOST of the CDs were down at $4-5 a month ago and then they when they went into crazy ass special mode they took down the sticker deal-io which made them 50%/75% off and all the prices went UP. I will miss that clearance bin a lot. As documented above I got some unbelieveably ridiculous deals there.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Monday, 20 November 2006 03:09 (seventeen years ago) link

Fighting Memphis traffic after Thanksgiving would be kind of insane, but I'm tempted to go Wednesday.

― Joe Isuzu's Petals (Rock Hardy), Monday, 20 November 2006 03:14 (seventeen years ago) link

NYC update: Got Wreckless Eric BBC Sessions, Jospehine Foster and a Saccharine Trust CD. The racks were REALLY depleted of quality stuff, I found most goods mixed up in the dumps. The World section was completely blown through, empty section cards for Bali, Indonesia, etc., and these had hundreds of CDs at one point. Sad.

― Brian Turner (btwfmu), Monday, 20 November 2006 05:20 (seventeen years ago) link

Fighting Memphis traffic after Thanksgiving would be kind of insane, but I'm tempted to go Wednesday.

isn't thanksgiving uh thursday?

i saw that sacchrine trust cd there, brian!

― hstencil (hstencil), Monday, 20 November 2006 08:15 (seventeen years ago) link

i had the same experience as alex in SF. stuff that had looked appealing at $3.00 is now appalling at import price, less 50%. also they just put out all of the unpriced used stuff with $18.99 stickers, even if it's a 10 dollar domestic disc. and they put it at 50% off.

anyway, somehow the schulze + tangerine dream reissues i wanted to grab are gone now, but i did get a copy of "zeit" and a copy of "alpha centauri" for 7 bucks each. not great, but whatever ...

they still have like 5 copies each of all of the soul jazz comps i don't own and the get physical releases. and a bunch of other dance import stuff that looks vaguely buyable. and a cluster disc i don't have. and they're all single discs marked at tower's default import price of $28.99. hey, at 50% off, they're down now to what i would be willing to pay for them if i was rich!

are they not serious about liquidating, or what?

― HUNTA-V (vahid), Monday, 20 November 2006 08:22 (seventeen years ago) link

it will suck if they decide that instead of getting down to less than 5 bucks a disc they'd rather sell it all off to half.com or something.

― HUNTA-V (vahid), Monday, 20 November 2006 08:25 (seventeen years ago) link

it's funny to see that the same titles are still plentiful at the different locales...(I guess that's what they call "overstocking")...

― hank (hank s), Monday, 20 November 2006 14:12 (seventeen years ago) link

Fighting Memphis traffic after Thanksgiving would be kind of insane, but I'm tempted to go Wednesday.
---

isn't thanksgiving uh thursday?

I can't figure out your post, stencil. But yes, Thanksgiving is happening on Thursday this year. I might go before Thanksgiving, like maybe Wednesday, to avoid the Friday-Saturday retail frenzy.

― Joe Isuzu's Petals (Rock Hardy), Monday, 20 November 2006 14:28 (seventeen years ago) link

thanksgiving happens on every 4th thursday every year

― jack (sweatypalms1234), Monday, 20 November 2006 14:43 (seventeen years ago) link

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