Comments on: Tower Records Going Out of Business

By: Raymie

Raymie — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 21:02:31 +0000

Allan: What happened with Ward is that a catalog retailer acquired a bunch of the old Montgomery Ward intellectual property and revived it. Service Merchandise was resurrected by its former chairman, interestingly enough. Both are using logos from older periods instead of the ones used right before they went bankrupt.

By: Margaret Duhon

Margaret Duhon — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 21:14:30 +0000

I think it totally SUCKS that all the cool record shops from the past are going away. Some of my favorites were:

Penguin Feathers Virginia/Washington DC Area
Raccoon Records Lafayette, Louisiana
Tower Records French Quarter/New Orleans
Record Bar Was in most major malls, better than Musicland
New Generation Baton Rouge & Lafayette, Louisiana
Audio Hideout Opelousas, Louisiana
Play It Again Sam Houston, Texas
Unfortunately all the above stores are only memories now!!!!

All these shitty stores like Wally World, Best Buy, Circuit City are basically stealing everything great from the past. And for that reason, I avoid these stores like the plague!!!!!

By: Jonah Norason

Jonah Norason — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 15:07:42 +0000

Well, it seems Tower Records have gone under the way the other stores were: the whole business dies, but someone buys back the name and domain. Examples? Montgomery Ward. Service Merchandise. The Wiz.

By: Allan

Allan — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 13:02:22 +0000

They’re interestingly enough, still around, but only as a web-exclusive retailer now(a la other retailers which’ve reverted to online-only, instead of operating stores, such as Montgomery Ward and Service Merchandise).

I know at about the same time as when the Chicago location of Virgin Megastore closed, they also were in the process of closing another location of Virgin somewhere else in the states(believe it was the Salt Lake City location that closed).

By: Jonah Norason

Jonah Norason — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 18:29:42 +0000

I think Virgin is in some cities like in New York or Orlando. Is Tower Records still around as web-only, or have they gone completely kaput?

By: Allan

Allan — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 00:18:10 +0000

I’m so very late to post my comments on Tower folding up last year, but it still saddens me greatly that they did go out of business, even though it was less than a year ago(it always feels like to me that its been more than a year since they went out of business, though I know it was less than a year ago).

The only store that came close to Tower Records was Virgin Megastore, but sadly, they don’t have many locations left in this country(the Chicago location, the one I always went to, closed after Sat., July 14). It’s too bad now that the closest Virgin Megastore locations to Chicago, IIRC, are all the way in Dallas or Denver(places I don’t normally travel towards, never mind that I’ve only been to Denver once in my life, and never’ve been to Dallas).

And I totally second gil’s comment about other chains, i.e. Best Buy, Borders, FYE, etc. providing blander music shopping experiences, than Tower or Virgin ever provided. Though I’ll give Borders one thing: I do love how you can always sample 99% of all albums ever released there, and that I just can easily find it at another indie or used music store for cheaper, and/or pick it up at Best Buy.

By: Jonah Norason

Jonah Norason — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 23:33:31 +0000

I think I remember the last Tower Records I saw was in Vicksburg, MS, near a Shoney’s and a stand-alone Baskin Robbins with a playground.

By: gil

gil — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 16:33:26 +0000

Same here..I dread the prospect of shopping for my music in such sterile, bland places such as BestBuy, FYE or walmart. I really enjoyed the “Tower Experience” here in the Dc area, the selection and the employees who knew and loved music. I also enjoyed the wide magazine selection as well, which IMO rivaled that of Borders and Barnes and Noble. It’s like losing a friend, really

By: Mike K

Mike K — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 20:25:47 +0000

I was in my local “Tower” store a couple months back for the first time in years. This particular store was once called “WOW” it was a prototype store that featured Tower Records on one side and Good Guys electronics on the other. This store opened in the mid 90’s and was a very popular place for several years then Good Guys closed last year and the Tower side of the store remained open with only an 8ft ply-wood partition seperating the once lively Good Guys and the Tower side of the store. On my recent visit I even mentioned to the friend I was with that they were not going to be able to make it. The store had no energy. There was no music playing and inventory was low. The only thing still in place were the knowledgable employees.

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 16:13:07 +0000

Ah yes, Tower Video… the only place with windows you can buy porn and not feel self-conscious. There are Netflix-like places for porn now. I guess all those things cut into Tower’s sales.
Scott