Tower Records B & M Going Out of Business Sale has started!

Keep your eye on the Tower Records B & M stores, as the prices will dip over time and so will the selection.

I could find no indication on the website that this was going on, but I heard it on the news and went by my local Long Beach, CA store and sure enough, it is true. Tower going bankrupt.

As I post this:

20% off DVD's, CD's, Toys & accessories
25% off videogames
30% off Books
40% off Magazines

Right now, this is not so hot, but keep checking at the store as they will progressively take more aggressive discounts. My Tower store has interesting foreign films, documentaries, niche DVD's that you can't get at the bargain stores/web sites.

Fine said: Keep your eye on the Tower Records B & M stores, as the prices will dip over time and so will the selection.

I could find no indication on the website that this was going on, but I heard it on the news and went by my local Long Beach, CA store and sure enough, it is true. Tower going bankrupt.

As I post this:

10% off DVD's, CD's, Toys & accessories
20% off Books
30% off Magazines

Right now, this is not so hot, but keep checking at the store as they will progressively take more aggressive discounts. My Tower store has interesting foreign films, documentaries, niche DVD's that you can't get at the bargain stores/web sites.

And guess what! This is NOT a hot deal! Full retail - 10% on CDs and DVDs and toys is more than they were charging before the going out of business sale started! Wow!

Kwad

I agree, prices no good now. That is why you wait and shop there later after you have picked out items you may be interested in. Patience people. Bankruptcy sales get progressively better.

cmv said: Took long enough. I'm sorry for all the workers but I always wondered how they stayed in business with their insane pricing.

Yes, I will wait for the super sale.

Got a lot of vinyl along with a lot of single/maxi cd's back in the day(90's) from Tower. Used to drive an hour and a half to the local Tower store but haven't been to a Tower store in 7yrs.

No stores anywhere near here...oh well.

For those interested in the actual scoop on Tower Records:
ABC NEWS Article

too true... most tower stores stocked more offbeat stuff than the 'top 40' big boxes. they had a real vaiety instead of just the mass produced garbage. between this and the death of niche stores, its a sad day for retail music.

Thanks for the heads up, I'll check out Trump tower.

Those sale prices are going to have to drop drastically to get me in the store. I mean, they have (had) a wonderful selection, but the prices won't be that great even at 20% off. A couple of months ago I hit a going-out-of-biz event at a CD store here named Murmur and I bought 60 discs for $1.25 each. Great stuff, too (no Top 40 garbage). But, I'd guess if Tower even gets down to $5.00 per disc it will be a madhouse.

daregan said: Go hide the good stuff now, so that it's still around when the sale really gets some legs.

Don't give away my secret!!!

How about I hide the entire store?
daregan said: Go hide the good stuff now, so that it's still around when the sale really gets some legs.

JustinR said: I've shopped at Tower B&M in the past, and you certainly can find some offbeat stuff there, but they're still lacking compared to most specialized independent record shops. Here in Philadelphia, the big Tower Records on South Street is the mainstream store compared to smaller ones on the same block like Repo Records, Spaceboy, or 611 Records (or, if you travel a few blocks further AKA Music). It would bother me a lot more if any of those went out of business.

I shall consider you bothered then as in Philadelphia Spaceboy shuttered its doors over a month ago.

As for folks searching for deals, actually at a number of stores it will be difficult to locate any "Top 40 Garbage" as the four majors (yes I know, cartel/crap factories/etc/etc) all stopped shipping product to Tower since the first week of August. What you will find (at least hopefully what I'm hoping to find) is out-of-print titles, rare classical albums and a few scattered imports. Not to mention toys, books and box sets. Just something else fun to consider in the "screw the major labels" mindset many folks share - as many of these large music retailers close their doors, think of the artists, odds are few(er) if any artists will see royalities on product sold during these liquidations as first in line to get paid, the creditors...ie the labels. And for the sake of keeping on topic the Philly broad street store staff (reliable or not, TBD) is said they have until mid-December to close out the store...

grtgrfx said: fatoo said: thanks for the post. i went in to the tower in sherman oaks, CA earlier today and books even with the 20% discount were still about 30-40% more expensive than the same books on overstock or any other decent online retailer. no wonder that dump is going out of business. goodbye and good riddance tower. hopefully sometime in the next few months some decent deals will actually come through.

Well, obviously you don't get it. Tower and all its assets was bought by a liquidator; their previously discounted merchandise was raised to full list because the liquidator wants their money out of the company NOW, and they aren't competing with online overstock sellers. They will probably lower their prices 10% every week or two until everything's sold. There will be no restocking.

The best time to shop may be 3-4 weeks from now, when actual bargains will finally be available. The risk is that the longer you wait, the more likely the chance is that the items you'd want to buy will be sold out. In a few months the stores will be shuttered and empty, and it's a loss for all music lovers, but that's the way the business went. Score another one for WalMart and its ilk. At least us urbanites can still go to Virgin Megastores...I hear (owner) Richard Branson has deep pockets.

Thanks for explaining how liquadation works. You could just have quoted the wikipedia entry for liquidation or any other definition while you were at it. I understand how liquidation works and I realize that someone else is in charge of Tower's merchandise now. However, my point was that Tower was a ripoff and still is a ripoff. And as you referenced in your post, Tower cannot compete with Target/WalMart on volume pricing or Amazon on niche items so that's why they're done for. I also doubt Branson will keep Virgin Megastores regardless of his deep pockets if they start losing money anyway. You don't get deep pockets by throwing money away.

What a shame. Back in the mid to late 80's, I bought most of my CDs at Tower, and before that, LPs. The place was just cool to go into, with the stacks of records everywhere, and all of the unique stuff, and the back catalog of singles. Plu sthey had their own free version of Rolling Stone magazine, Pulse.

U2 filming the video on the roof of the Sunset Strip location, the adult classical musical section in the back, and just the selection. They had more than anyone. It is like In and Out Burger going out of business.

shame. tower was one of the few (if only) good music stores that you could pick up CD's that weren't on TRL's top 10 list.
They had a great range of music.. shame (especally since I've got one near me).

jimrome said: What a shame. Back in the mid to late 80's, I bought most of my CDs at Tower, and before that, LPs. The place was just cool to go into, with the stacks of records everywhere, and all of the unique stuff, and the back catalog of singles. Plu sthey had their own free version of Rolling Stone magazine, Pulse.

U2 filming the video on the roof of the Sunset Strip location, the adult classical musical section in the back, and just the selection. They had more than anyone. It is like In and Out Burger going out of business.I used to live with easy access to many good record stores including Virgin, Strawberries, Tower and independents. The Towers near me each had a separate room for classical music but I don't remember any adult material in there. It probably would have gotten many more kids interested in the classical repertoire!

At least where I was, Virgin usually had more of the stuff I was interested in, better prices and better special order services.

peetah said:I shall consider you bothered then as in Philadelphia Spaceboy shuttered its doors over a month ago.Yeah, that's bothersome. Now I understand why R5 stopped listing Spaceboy as a place to pick up show tickets.

I went to the Tower in NE Philadelphia today. All CDs and Music DVDs (music videos and such) were 20% off. The best values seemed to be in the Music DVDs section. Movie DVDs were mostly 20%, too, but list price -20% + 7% tax isn't really a deal compared to shopping on line.

i remember when the tower first opened in my area, many years ago. couldn't believe they could stay open the way the employees were ripping them off. i had a freind who was the store manager, his bandmate and roommate was the head of security. they would sell me anything in the store for $5. i must have got 10k out of that store. and i was just one customer. i think they came up like 300k in shortages in one quarter. must have been the high prices keeping them afloat.

It's really too bad that Tower and other smaller music stores have had to close their doors. What makes no sense to me is how the record companies can keep on justifying retailers charging upwards of 17.99 a CD.

Speaking of U2 mentioned in an earlier post here is proof to my point, from the best buy website U2 Rattle and Hum DVD 7.99, CD 13.99. hmm, seems like a no brainer to me lower the price to where people would want to buy it.

They charged me 20 cents upstairs, however, they charged me 15 cents downstairs. LOL They are also good for pocket books or other small items which one would wrap.

And the best part...

I found my copy of Superboy which I had stashed!!!! Turns out that and He-man were just buried a bit farther than I placed them. The store really is empty of any known titles of anything (dvd or cd.) If one is looking for fixtures, those have moved very slowly and there is plenty.


cuafe said: There are some nice DVD gift wraps at the Lincoln Center store for 20 cents apiece. At the top of the escalator, right near the register. The wider one probably is good for CDs also.

DVDs are now 80% off (what's left, not much).

Tomorrow's the last day.