A Brief Lament for Music Stores
I miss browsing through a music store. Sure, sure, you can go online and find any and everything you want, but the act of browsing was much more enjoyable in a brick and mortar store, at least in my opinion.
Part of that had to do with the fact that there was music playing. Perhaps something you liked, perhaps not. Or perhaps it was something new and it sparked your interest. Many was the time I heard something playing and headed over to the desk to ask "Who is that?" Usually that was followed by someone pointing or leading me to a particular genre of music and pulling the CD out of the rack for me to look over.
There was something, too, about going into a store that was very particular. Music stores are just an example, but I didn't go for convenience sake - I didn't plan to pick up any groceries at Cat's Records. Instead, I went to peruse the music. I may not have had any intention on buying anything but I enjoyed being surrounded by the possibilities.
Perhaps the absence of music stores and the collapsing idea of shopping malls is a throwback to a less connected past, but I do miss specialty stores. Now, it sometimes seems, big stores have a little of everything or, more to the point, a little of the same things. You just pick your brand loyalty (Wal-Mart, Target, K-Mart...well, maybe not K-Mart. It seems to be fading faster and faster), and that's where it all takes place. Sure it saves time, but at what cost? The absence of stores that feature more possibilities.
The other facet of this is that specialty stores start branching out to keep up with competition and turn themselves into less of a specialty store into more of a store that focuses on one thing while having more and more of what every body else carries. Music stores became multi-media stores. Fast-food stores begin to stop being burger joints and start advertising "Our New Breakfast Menu" or "Our New Healthy Menu" (which implies that the former food was not healthy) or "We Now Serve ____ Just Like Our Competition!"
Maybe it is inevitable assimilation, adaptation, or amalgamation into indistinguishable blobs of consumerism, but I do miss the music stores.
RIP Tower Records!
Part of that had to do with the fact that there was music playing. Perhaps something you liked, perhaps not. Or perhaps it was something new and it sparked your interest. Many was the time I heard something playing and headed over to the desk to ask "Who is that?" Usually that was followed by someone pointing or leading me to a particular genre of music and pulling the CD out of the rack for me to look over.
There was something, too, about going into a store that was very particular. Music stores are just an example, but I didn't go for convenience sake - I didn't plan to pick up any groceries at Cat's Records. Instead, I went to peruse the music. I may not have had any intention on buying anything but I enjoyed being surrounded by the possibilities.
Perhaps the absence of music stores and the collapsing idea of shopping malls is a throwback to a less connected past, but I do miss specialty stores. Now, it sometimes seems, big stores have a little of everything or, more to the point, a little of the same things. You just pick your brand loyalty (Wal-Mart, Target, K-Mart...well, maybe not K-Mart. It seems to be fading faster and faster), and that's where it all takes place. Sure it saves time, but at what cost? The absence of stores that feature more possibilities.
The other facet of this is that specialty stores start branching out to keep up with competition and turn themselves into less of a specialty store into more of a store that focuses on one thing while having more and more of what every body else carries. Music stores became multi-media stores. Fast-food stores begin to stop being burger joints and start advertising "Our New Breakfast Menu" or "Our New Healthy Menu" (which implies that the former food was not healthy) or "We Now Serve ____ Just Like Our Competition!"
Maybe it is inevitable assimilation, adaptation, or amalgamation into indistinguishable blobs of consumerism, but I do miss the music stores.
RIP Tower Records!
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