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Tower Records Closing, SPIN.com Visits
With Tower slated for liquidation, we visited one branch to find out how people feel about the retailer's demise.
By Spin Staff 10.09.06 3:00 AM
Tower Records, once the dominant music retailer in the country, has officially fallen. Following a 29-hour auction Friday (Oct. 6), most of the retailer's assets were sold to liquidation firm Great American Group, which beat Albany-based retailer Trans World Entertainment for ownership, with a bid of $134.3 million. Going-out-of-business sales began Saturday (Oct. 7) for the retailer, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August.
"My heart goes out to each of you who have poured your hearts and souls into this great company," Tower CEO Joseph D'Amico said in a message to employees, according to Reuters. With the demise of Tower, Virgin Megastores will now become the most prominent deep-catalog retailer.
SPIN.com wanted to find out how music fans felt about the news, so we paid a visit to one of the chain's most famous locations -- Broadway and 4th Street in NYC -- to find out. DANIEL MIMS
We asked: How do you feel about the closing of Tower Records? COMMENT
Name: Mike
Age: 37
Occupation: Freelance illustrator
"I’m upset because I come in here whenever I can. I gotta go somewhere else uptown probably -- unless you know other places around here."
Name: Ramsey Jones
Age: 41
Occupation: Clerk/Supervisor at Tower Records (15 years) / Studio musician / Oldest brother of Ol' Dirty Bastard
"It's like a part of your life you've devoted so much time to is being taken from you. It's like the loss of a family member."
Name: Mike Tucker
Age: 40
Occupation: Jazz musician / Controller, Putamayo World Music
"It means we're taking a hit. It's significant for us. We're a small indie record label but we have CDs here."
Name: Julia Van Nutt
Occupation: Saleswoman, Tower Records (5 years) / Creator, Americana Roots Room
"Even total strangers are coming up to us and expressing their sorrow in seeing the store collapse. Just the tone of their voices is quite sad."
Name: Arnold Abromowitz
Age: 52
Occupation: Independent worker
"I can't really afford to get an iPod, so I rely on CDs, and I like to browse through stores the old-fashioned way."
Name: Felix
Age: 28
Occupation: Computer tech support rep
"It's surprising. I can't imagine this area without Tower Records. It was here when I started school. It's sad."
On the Web:
towerrecords.com
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