That would be my guess, I really can’t see them doing any more than that.
One might think that if 'Smiths have store space available to this end (and it seems they do?), they may be better to give the likes of HMV an in-store concession?
Shopping for vinyl in 'Smiths years back wasn’t a great experience, certainly not compared to the likes of HMV.
Not in the UK, still growing through H1 2024. I think it was the US that peaked
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Will Boots the Chemist be next?! Woolworths and Rumbelows no longer with us sadly!
I’d love it if they brought back Tower Records to Piccadilly Circus!
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Wow yes, the highlight of a trip to London!
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Yes when I was an undergraduate in London, Tower Records in Piccadilly was where I got my first CDs… great shop, but was ultimately an un sustainable business model once more and more was done online
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It was open to around midnight I think so you could roll into there after the pub/concert and peruse the racks.
The transparent floor tiles on the first floor leading into the jazz section were unnerving though, for those of us wary of heights !
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I spent many happy hours searching through the racks in Tower Records looking for U.S. and Japanese import cds. They had a massive selection in all genres and I rarely failed to find what I was looking for. Sadly the company filed for bankruptcy in 2006 but there are some shops still open in Japan.
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I spent most of my exile in Dublin (2007 - 2008) browsing through Tower Records on Wicklow St and another branch they had on O’Connell St.
Fortunately slow communication to Ireland of Tower Records demise has resulted in Tower Records still having a shop in Dublin on Dawson St.
For all lovers of vinyl and music this is a must see film.
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Yes, did that regularly after the BBC Proms concerts. No 9 bus from RAH to Piccadilly, or tube from South Kensington to Piccadilly Circus. There was an entrance to the Tower Records lower ground floor from inside the Tube Station!
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Early ‘90’s, not much happened on a Friday evening. I used to finish work in Putney a little after 5, get home to Earlsfield and then often drive, yes drive, over there, took about 20 minutes.
Then park, for free, at the bottom of Regent Street right by the side entrance and then happily browse for a bit, take my purchases home, invite my downstairs neighbour up to share the latest additions over a couple of drinkies. Take a break for a laugh with The Word, then get back to the sounds. Happy days🙂.
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Yes, I remember those tube station steps. Stairway to heaven !
My favourite though was the Tower Records on Sunset Strip. Good discount deals to be had in there, I remember picking up the early Miles Davis boxes at about 15% off plus it was $ for £ on CDs at the time. They also had free parking.
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For my 50th birthday I held a large party. For the table plan, I sat an old friend who was once the manager at my local WH Smith shop who was also into motorbikes, so I sat him next to a younger friend of mine who was also into his motorbikes.
They somehow recognised each other from many, many years ago and it turned out the manager had nabbed the younger friend some 36 years earlier for attempting to nick a Buzzocks LP from his local WH Smith shop…
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Watching now whilst in bed having been caught with Covid… this new variant is a bit of a bugger.
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Oh dear not much fun - but I think you will enjoy the film.
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Yes quite a good watch… interesting to watch how it surfed the changes in the recorded music consumption. Implication is the recorded music industry hastened the death of such stores… possibly.
I also smiled at the early reference to streaming as ‘beaming’ in the US, I think in the UK in the mid 90s we used the term ‘On Demand’.
Clearly much emotional investment from many of the staff.
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I worked at Tower Piccadilly from before it opened in 1986 to 1989 - best job I ever had. The music retail biz was awash with money in those days thanks to CD and to a lesser extent video. Hardly anyone in Tower was over 30 and the only qualification you needed to work there was that you knew about music and that you cared about it. The pay was terrible but it really was fun - and truly sex and drugs and rock ‘n’ roll (or jazz, classical, soundtracks, soul, world etc).
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Tower Records to me was a bit like Foyles when Christina Foyle was still in charge: a bit higgledey piggledey, probably because of all the levels it was on, Virgin Megastore on Oxford St was a bit soulless. Best one for me was the big HMV west of the 100 club, not the original smaller one near South Molton St.
WH Smith look like stores on the edge of closure to me and my wife.
Stocking vinyl at this juncture seems redolent of when Dixons started stocking Pokèmon products to get a belated piece of the action. I didn’t think that sort of thing would sell, and it didn’t. IIRC most of it went on clearance as the Pokèmon boom ended…
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