Borders might disappear...

[fighthefutureofhd]

"allow the economy to 'clean shop' and make way for better and more innovative retailing concepts. " so what better and more innovative retaling concepts came when tower records folded? cause it's been 3 years and there's been nothing new that beats it. neither brick and mortar or online. i can guarantee you that tower records would've had elvis costello's mighty like a rose deluxe edition brand new in stock. it also would've had sinead o'connor's limited edition of i do not want what i haven't got and grand duchy's petits fours day of release.

[camper]

Originally Posted by fighthefutureofhd

"allow the economy to 'clean shop' and make way for better and more innovative retailing concepts. " so what better and more innovative retaling concepts came when tower records folded? cause it's been 3 years and there's been nothing new that beats it. neither brick and mortar or online. i can guarantee you that tower records would've had elvis costello's mighty like a rose deluxe edition brand new in stock. it also would've had sinead o'connor's limited edition of i do not want what i haven't got and grand duchy's petits fours day of release.

And yet...that wasn't enough, was it? If it was, Tower would still be open.

I've been to stores that would make you cream yourself, they were that cool and had so much neat and interesting and hard to find stuff. They still failed, because of either mismanagement, high prices, or lack of demand.

Simply having cool stuff and lots of stock doesn't automatically equal success. Those business owners who think it does, usually end up closing their businesses when times get slightly difficult.

camper

[fighthefutureofhd]

i agree with that and that is one of the points i was making. tough times all around. if a company like tower records or like any of the ones you've been to get it right and still can't stay open what does that say for those new, better, and more innovative retailing concepts? more innovative doesn't always mean better.

[nick1091]

Originally Posted by fighthefutureofhd

i agree with that and that is one of the points i was making. tough times all around. if a company like tower records or like any of the ones you've been to get it right and still can't stay open what does that say for those new, better, and more innovative retailing concepts?

It says that despite what they were getting it right, there was something they were doing wrong. It's the same with any business - you have to look at stores that failed and figure out what went wrong and what can be done differently.

Businesses have two obligations if they want to stay in business; they have to keep customers happy, of course, but they also have to make money. Sacrificing one for the sake of the other is how businesses can fail.

Take Circuit City. They had products people wanted, but if you look at all the threads about them, you hear time and time again about how shabby the place looked, disinterested/unhelpful employees, etc. The conclusion to make would be that they cut corners to better maximize profits, but they suffered from unhappy consumers.

If you look at Borders, people enjoy going there. There's lots of comfortable seating, knowledgable staff, it's well organized, etc. But when you create an atmosphere in a store like that which is too comfortable, people will come, "sample" your product for free, and might ultimately leave without buying very little. Just like Tower, their inventory is massive, but it can cost a lot of money to keep so many low-volume eclectic book or CD constantly in stock. The end result is happy customers, but much smaller profits.

[camper]

Originally Posted by fighthefutureofhd

i agree with that and that is one of the points i was making. tough times all around. if a company like tower records or like any of the ones you've been to get it right and still can't stay open what does that say for those new, better, and more innovative retailing concepts? more innovative doesn't always mean better.

Oh, ok...I gotcha. Yeah, too much creativity in ideas and setup can also force the company in the other way, too. What it comes down to is retail is retail...if you've got a gimmick it may work for a while, but when push comes to shove your prices and inventory have to be competative enough to allow for profit, without sacrificing your service.

The problem I had with Tower (the one in Boston I went to now and then), was they weren't cheaper then the little guy down the street who didn't have the mass buying power tower did. Best Buy and Circuit City swept in and were able to oust tower because they would price below MSRP on much of their stuff, and definitely the new releases. Sure, tower had hard to find CD's & DVD's and it was a cool store with lots of related merchandise, but that isn't enough to carry a 3 story store in downtown boston at the corner of one of the highest rent streets in town.

camper

[fighthefutureofhd]

this is true, but what tower carried and had over best buy and the lot wasn't even hard to find and rare cd's. tower had new releases of top artists on the very day of release. for example, sinead o'connor's i do not want what i haven't got was re-released tuesday in a limited edition 2 disc set. it was put by emi. best buy doesn't even have a single copy. nowhere near did. having to across town isn't always ideal or fun. tower would've had it no qualms. best buy never hardly stocks a lot of the new releases by many fairly big artists. best buy could never compete with tower records on that because best buy isn't a record store. sure, best buy was cheaper. but it doesn't matter when they have nothing in stock you're looking for. best buy is a lousy record store.

[ay221]

So with them going out of business, time to see if there are any good deals on blu-ray movies.