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Camelot, Suncoast, Sam Goody, Musicland


mediamongrel

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Anyone remember their favorite mall music store before FYE took over the mall music craze and raised prices 30-40%

I can also remember one in Winston called CD Superstore.  They were open right at the beginning of the CD craze (1990 or so)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Do you know where that shopping center is in Winston, near hanes mall, where they now have a chilis and office max. well, where that mattress firm superstore is in that same shopping center there used to be about 3 music stores in that SAME location! there used to be a blockbuster music, turtle's audio, and some other one I can't remember.

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I remember Record Bar! All their stores used to have this fern and stained glass motif like a TGIFridays! In the '80s, they were trying to modernize their image and started renaming their larger stores Tracks.

Blockbuster Entertainment bought Tracks in the '90s and briefly we had Blockbuster Music. Then they sold out to Wherehouse Entertainemt and we had Wherehouse Music. there's still one big-arse Wherehouse Music left in Roanoke.

There was also:

National Record Mart / NRM

Oasis Records & Tapes (NRM on steroids)

discount records! (actually written like that)

Sound Shop (really country towns)

Disc Jockey (ditto)

Tape World

Record Town

The Wall

Mothers Records

...and so many more

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It seems a lot of mall music stores have gone away or downhill. I've had memberships for Musicland, CD Warehouse, Camelot, as well as a number of other stores. Now it seems that I'm stuck having to buy CDs in Target, Barnes and Noble, or Best Buy. FYE doesn't have the best variety IMO, and they are pricey.

Best Buy surprises me because they sell SACDs, though their selection is small and most of the releases are just SACD'd versions of normal CDs. This is a good thing as it shows SACD filtering a bit into the mainstream consumer world.

Suncoast seems to have a diminishing inventory of oddball movies. It seems that nowadays your best bet to get something at a low price is to buy it online and wait for it to arrive.

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The Internet definitely is the culprit when it comes to the loss of mall music stores, but in the last ten years or so, the price of CD's and DVDs in mall stores has gone up significantly with no real explanation. I understand they have to compete but they must know that no one is going to pay $18.99 for a brand new CD when they can probably get it online for $12.99 or downloaded for $8.88 (legally). I wouldn't be surprised to see FYE go out of business by 2010. I remember in the late 80's/early 90's when I worked at Tape World, and they sold new release cassettes and CD's for like $12.99 How did they sky rocket 25-30% in ten years? It must be the Internet. The majority of CDs at FYE are $17.99 and up. Double CDs there are like $29.99, and DVDs? Forget about it! They start at $29.99 and go up from there...

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Anyone remember their favorite mall music store before FYE took over the mall music craze and raised prices 30-40%

I can also remember one in Winston called CD Superstore.  They were open right at the beginning of the CD craze (1990 or so)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

FYE did not raise the prices. Camelot was the biggest price gougers around. I remember they charged 20 dollars for new releases. I never bought anything from them. Suncoast is still in every mall. They are very expensive. I think FYE charges the same as all of them. CD warehouse always had the cheapest prices. FYE is still expensive though. Nothing like Camelot was. Camelot was the worst.

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Also Target, Walmart, Best Buy, Circuit City have ate into the big music retailers pockets. Especially the first week of a release. Why pay $16.00 plus for new CD's when you can get it on sale the first tuesday-saturday at Target or Best Buy for $10.99. I only have shopped at big music retailers for the occassional CD single.

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Does anyone remember Tape World? It was unique because when it first started out as a chain, it sold nothing but cassettes (and LPs) Then they ventured into CDs, and when they finally folded the "Tape World" name, they were selling more Cds than tapes, but they were still called Tape World.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Suncoast is still in every mall. They are very expensive.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Are they still overpriced? I stepped into one a couple weeks ago and thought it looked like they had brought prices back down to earth. I know they used to be $5-$10 more per item than larger retailers.

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