In perhaps yet another sign of 3CM the loser's urban bias, the topic of this SNLC nominally relates to the recent death of Russ Solomon this past Sunday at age 92 (NYT obit by Robert McFadden here), and the now-defunct record/CD store chain that he headed, Tower Records. For those here old enough to remember LPs (never mind CDs), Tower was a mecca for record nerds, even in the ultimate niche genre, classical, like with self the loser. However, much more important and influential figures than the present diarist were steady customers, as McFadden noted:
"[Bruce] Springsteen, Bette Midler, Lou Reed and Michael Jackson were regular patrons."
Solomon did note his business' biggest fan and customer, though:
"Our favorite regular was Elton John. He probably was the best customer we ever had. He was in one of our stores every week, literally, wherever he was — in L.A., in Atlanta when he lived in Atlanta, and in New York.”
Solomon noted how he started with Tower, back in the day:
‘“I stole ideas from supermarket merchandising,” Mr. Solomon recalled. The store, he said, stacked hot-selling items on the floor, to encourage impulse buying and to suggest plentiful supplies, reinforcing the impression that Tower would be well stocked when competitors’ supplies had run out. The store also set late-night closing hours.’
Solomon’s key idea, though, was local control of each store:
“But the most important innovation, he said, was hiring a staff so well versed in the local music scene that the store could order its own inventory. It was a task that music chains typically assigned to a central office to achieve economies of scale for their outlets. But Mr. Solomon found that local judgments were more profitable, and decentralized ordering became a pattern for all his stores.
“We wanted people in the store to run the store — they’re your strength. Central buying is just a bad idea. You can’t make decisions on what to do in Phoenix if you’re sitting in New York or London.”
For a long time, it worked well:
“Tower began opening stores abroad in the 1980s, starting in Japan and spreading in Asia, Europe and Latin America. In the 1990s, it became the nation’s largest privately held music retailer, with nearly 200 stores in the United States and 14 other countries.”
But times changed, underpinned by technology, and the underlying attitudes that evolved regarding stealing the recorded work of musicians:
“Mr. Solomon acknowledged that he had underestimated the internet’s threat to store retailing. Pirates downloaded music without paying for it, and paying customers turned to online vendors and price-cutters like Wal-Mart and Best Buy. The owner blamed himself.
“I was overextended,” Mr. Solomon said. “I was swamped by the debt.”
In all of Solomon’s business dealings, the company remained in private hands, i.e. Solomon’s:
‘But it never went public. “That was the dumbest thing I ever did,” Mr. Solomon conceded. Selling stock might have paid for further expansion. Instead, he borrowed to finance more stores, and his debt swelled to $300 million. In 1999, Tower sales topped $1 billion, but its financial tailspin had already begun. The company lost $10 million in 2000 and $90 million in 2001."’
Of course, we really don’t know how things would have shaken out had Tower gone public, and raised funds on the stock exchange. The Napster generation would still have nibbled at Tower’s overall sales, or perhaps stockholders would have bailed in the wake of erosion of sales of CDs and albums in general. We’ll never know.
I remember going to Tower's site in Lower Manhattan back in the day, and also to the newer more uptown Manhattan location on Broadway near Lincoln Center. Though I was never anywhere near fortunate enough to meet any big pop music names like those mentioned in the obit, I did meet the soloist for a New York Philharmonic concert once in the classical section, who was very gracious when we chatted. Probably the one Tower Records location that I frequented most often was the Philadelphia store on South Street, when I lived in the Philly area. I recall a group conversation that included Wayne Connor, the late host of WHYY's "Collectors Corner" show (when WHYY had classical music regularly, pre-1993). I still have one or two selections that I bought from the Philly, South Street location. I once visited Tower's San Francisco main city location (the exact address escapes me). In the final years for Tower, I went a few times went to the Chicago downtown location, on Wabash just next to the Loop, and very close to Symphony Center, whenever I traipsed to Chicago for a few days.
Of course, it seems that pretty much all the music chain stores seem to have gone down (e.g. Sam Goody - now there's a name to remember). Perhaps that Tower Records spirit still lives on at indie record stores, like Amoeba Records in the SF area, Academy Records in NYC, or even a local STL spot like Vintage Vinyl (the last obviously without much in the way of classical, compared to hip-hop, rock et al.). While the staff at Tower was a mix of both genders, truth be told, as far as the customer base goes, from going to these various Tower and non-Tower locations, it was disquieting to see dorky guys as the main customer base in such stores, myself included. This is especially more so as so much of music sales have gone digital. But some of us still buy (and even sell) physical music recording product, however more marginalized we become. Someone has to keep it going, I guess. It is unfortunate that Solomon lived to see his business empire crash out in flames, after building it up. But when it was good, at least he did some good in his time here.
With that, time for the standard SNLC protocol, namely your loser stories for the week.....