Interesting Rumor about Best Buy

I was talking to my dad tonight on the phone and he was telling me that he was in Best Buy over the weekend, and while talking to one of the salespeople, the guy told him that Best Buy is gonna start phasing out cd starting in June of this year.

Now I know my dad has had problems getting the facts straight for as long as I've known him and who knows if the salesman was yanking his chain, so I'm taking this info with a grain of salt. But it's an interesting turn of events if true. I'm almost exclusively buying my music online now anyway, but I do like to shop at Best Buy, especially if it's a cd I want right away. I could see them doing away with cd's, I just never thought it would be so soon. If it is true, I hope they have a monster clearance sale like Tower Records did. I got a boatload of music for a song.

Anyway, take this infomation anyway you'd like. I have nothing to back it up, but I thought some folks would find it interesting.

That would suck. There's a Best Buy right up the road from where I work and I've been visiting it quite frequently of late when I want to pick up a new release. I just got the new Overkill and Scorpions CDs from there about two weeks ago.

Their CD selection is way better on their web site, but I've had pretty good luck finding stuff in that store of late. It must be in a metal intensive area.

i do not buy cds from them anyway.

I only buy their CDs with exclusive bonus tracks. But if this were true it would be a crappy turn of events for those of us that still buy CDs. Online retailers will start charging more if this becomes the norm.

I buy CDs from them on occasion because they always seem to get the bonus tracks on initial pressings of some releases. Still, that sucks.

ult

Online retailers will probably do to these mega stores what the Best Buy's of the world did to the independent record stores and wipe them off the planet when it comes to album sales.

I never buy anything in a store anymore. But then I'm too lazy to drive there from my cow town.

WORD BRIAN! They got it comin' as far as I'm concerned.

mc666 wrote:

i do not buy cds from them anyway.

Yea, I always thought their Anal C*nt and Dying Fetus selections were lacking anyway.

They got it coming? I always thought Best Buy did pretty good by music. Their prices are often much cheaper than most retailers, especially during the first week when a new CD can be priced at $6.99. And I like how they had exclusive deals with labels/bands and had Best Buy-only bonus tracks. They seemed to think outside the box, and as a music buyer, I dig that.

THAT'S RIGHT...THEY GOT IT COMIN', i don't really know what that means exactly.

I don't traverse Best Buy that much anymore except for DVDs. The BBs, at least in my area are not what they used to be. At one time I could get just about any metal CD I was looking for but over the years they've become more and more mainstream with what they carry. I get all my new metal CDs mostly from Virgin Megastore whose metal selection puts most other non-online stores to shame. Still, it will suck because I could at least get more mainstream music from them (Virgin is further away and the CDs cost, on average, about $2 more than BB).

That sucks. Best Buy is about the ONLY place around here that carries a decent selection of music, even if it isn't what it used to be.

I do 95%+ of my cd buying on-line so this only interests me IF they do go out of business and drasticallly reduce prices. However, they'll likely have very little I'm interested in. The new Nightwish was $19.99 so they have some work to do!!

I went into the local Best Buy at lunch today to pick up the new Heaven & Hell. I haven't been in the store since back in November when I bought Chinese Democracy. They did some re-modeling since the last time I went in and I must say that I was shocked at how small their cd selection now was. It's never been huge, but what was once at least 6 or 7 aisles is now down to 3.

There is no doubt in my mind that they are phasing out compact disc sales. Looks like I'll be moving to almost exclusively on-line shopping from now on. Other than the few used shops left, I'm about out of retail stores for music.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I went into the local Best Buy at lunch today to pick up the new Heaven & Hell. I haven't been in the store since back in November when I bought Chinese Democracy. They did some re-modeling since the last time I went in and I must say that I was shocked at how small their cd selection now was. It's never been huge, but what was once at least 6 or 7 aisles is now down to 3.

There is no doubt in my mind that they are phasing out compact disc sales. Looks like I'll be moving to almost exclusively on-line shopping from now on. Other than the few used shops left, I'm about out of retail stores for music.

Wow. That sucks. Looks like I'll be doing the same (on-line shopping, used cd stores).

Who cares? Dont give your money to big franchises like best buy, support local record stores as much as you can if you have one.

Stender wrote:

Who cares? Dont give your money to big franchises like best buy, support local record stores as much as you can if you have one.

Easier said than done my friend. Independents are going the way of the dinosaur.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Easier said than done my friend. Independents are going the way of the dinosaur.

I'm sure it depends on the city/town as well, Austin still has tons of independent stores...most of them supplement their income by catering to specific clientele or also offering DVD/T-shirt/ticket sales, etc.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Stender wrote:

Who cares? Dont give your money to big franchises like best buy, support local record stores as much as you can if you have one.

Easier said than done my friend. Independents are going the way of the dinosaur.

Sure, but if your giving all of your usual CD buying money to independent businesses it would probably make it a bit easier for those kinds of stores to stick around longer right? I'm tracking with you though.

Now that Best Buy has no real national retail competition it only makes sense that they drastically cut down or phase out their music section. The cds were only there in hopes that customers would purchase another item or two while they were there that hopefully had higher margin than the cd they came in to buy.
I also won't be surprised when they start cutting down on their dvd selection as well for the same reasons.

Unless you live in or near a city with some good indie record stores your retail choices are shrinking by the day. I buy a good bit of my music online but I also enjoy the local music store experience, especially when the store has a good selection and nice knowledgeable staff.
I'm fortunate in that the indie store near me has all of that plus they run a club connected to the store that draws some great local, regional, and national acts.

I'm a really lucky fellow as we have two of the best (one, Earshot, is the absolute best) independent music stores around anywhere. I sure will hate it though when they go, which is probably inevitable. Here is a link to the best indy store around. Heck I even found the new Believer for sell a few days before release day. www.earshot.com