Worst Record Store?

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What is the worst CD/Record store that you have ever been to? Don't forget to put the name and city!!

― Heath Raymond (Heath Raymond), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 02:07 (nineteen years ago)

Camelot or Sam Goody, Stoneridge Mall - Pleasanton, CA.

Store with the worst employee was Rough Trade on Haight in the early 90's.

― svend (svend), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 02:19 (nineteen years ago)

napster

― joey_deacon, Tuesday, 23 May 2006 04:42 (nineteen years ago)

A lot of Sam Goodies around here have closed lately -- is the chain defunct? I hope so.

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 04:57 (nineteen years ago)

sanity. any australian city/regional centre.

― gem (trisk), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 05:00 (nineteen years ago)

I think Sam Goody is gone.

― vartman (novaheat), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 05:28 (nineteen years ago)

Cheapo Cheapo fills me with a creeping sense of depression.

― eyesteel (eyesteel), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 07:23 (nineteen years ago)

I just find Cheapo Cheapo creepy.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 07:32 (nineteen years ago)

I damn like the place.

Well, I did back in the day. Presumably it's full of rub Cds now, as opposed to overscratchy vinyl for cheap prices.

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 07:56 (nineteen years ago)

It's the kind of shop whose layout defies you to enter it.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 07:59 (nineteen years ago)

Is Cheapo Cheapo that dodgy one in Soho? If so, I used to buy stacks of classical stuff from there years ago, also lots of jazz stuff on Affinity (SME, Sun Ra, Cecil...).

― NickB (NickB), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 08:04 (nineteen years ago)

I'm sure I have been in there more recently.

It's just that if I bring it to mind, I just see inaccessible racks which say to me "persevere! It'll be worth it I promise..."

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 08:15 (nineteen years ago)

Black Market Records, Soho ,London mid-1990s. No real love for the music, no respect for the customers and a generally nasty atmosphere. Most disappointing was realising that Ashley Beedle was a smug cretin. Sad.

― wtin, Tuesday, 23 May 2006 08:59 (nineteen years ago)

Usually, when I visit smaller Norwegian towns, the only record store in town tends to suck bigtime. None named, none forgotten. There is a Norwegian chain called Lydverket which is now the second biggest chain in Norway. It has absolutely no shops in Oslo, where it wouldn't had stood a chance against the dominating chains, instead it has specialized in smalltown shops all over the country, specializing in expensive CDs and not a lot of CDs to offer other than the current Top 40 albums.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 09:06 (nineteen years ago)

Black Market was the first one that sprang to mind. struck me as odd to have a record shop where you couldn't flick through the records and couldn't talk to the staff to ask for anything as the music was too loud. are you meant to just point at things?

― koogs (koogs), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 09:43 (nineteen years ago)

See also: any specialist dance/grime/hip hop record shop, really; there for the owner's mates and no one else.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 09:49 (nineteen years ago)

Some dance shops are better than others as far as customer relations go. Rub-a-dub here in Glasgow for example is perfectly fine.

― jimnaseum (jimnaseum), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 09:56 (nineteen years ago)

Cheapo Cheapo is sort of a specialist grime shop too, it's fucking *mawkit

(*clatty)

― Samuel KB Amphong (Dada), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 10:04 (nineteen years ago)

Some shops are better than others.......some shops are better than others.... but some shops websites are better than other shops...websites.

Any Shop that thinks £15 is acceptable to pay for a CD is bad. Tower records were particularly guilty of this in their day.

― Danny boy, Tuesday, 23 May 2006 10:06 (nineteen years ago)

Disc-o-rama, NYC. OK, you could get some pretty good deals if you didn't mind a few puss-stains from the junkies who used to unload their stolen wares there. But... ugh!

― The Minimal Criminal (kate), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 10:14 (nineteen years ago)

Remember when they sold CDs in sealed packs with the box open/displaying interior CD? that was blummin impossible to open without scissors?

What was that all about?

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 10:16 (nineteen years ago)

Tower records, I mean.

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 10:16 (nineteen years ago)

> What was that all about?

wasn't that about packaging that still fit in the 12" racks that most record shops had?

― koogs (koogs), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 11:25 (nineteen years ago)

Tower Records, Glasgow (no closed forever), ridiculously priced CD's - £18.99 for Kimono My House by Sparks in 1997! Also hosted an acoustic bon jovi set one lunchtime.

― JohnFoxxsJuno (JohnFoxxsJuno), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 11:26 (nineteen years ago)

The worst were the mall stores that charged G for a record, when they were only worth D, or E at best.

― dave's good arm (facsimile) (dave225.3), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 11:29 (nineteen years ago)

Cutlers in New Haven, CT. The employees are smug and unhelpful and the prices are ridiculous. Sadly, it is the only game in town. For a city with as many music geeks as New Haven it is tragic that this is the only choice

― kwhitehead (stephen schmidt), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 16:30 (nineteen years ago)

Wuxtry in Athens was always pitiful, considering it's rep / "legacy". Probably not as bad as a mall store, I guess, but they were pretty good at never having what I wanted in stock.

― barefoot manthing (Garrett Martin), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 16:32 (nineteen years ago)

Bill's in Dallas. Motherfuck that guy. he'd just eye you and make up a ludicrous price for something. he even tried to cop a feel.

― imbidimts, Tuesday, 23 May 2006 17:39 (nineteen years ago)

earwax in williamsburg!!!!

rude clerks and shit selection!

― kevin barking (arghargh), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 18:34 (nineteen years ago)

Norman's Sound and Vision, New York NY. Horrible selection, the owner doesn't care about anything envolving music, just trying to trick the customers into buying re-wrapped promo cds as new.

― A. Keefer (Heath Raymond), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 18:43 (nineteen years ago)

I agree. Normans has a shit selection. The only thing they are good for is a laugh and my some new release promos. I understand the sound part, but the vision part is a lie. No DVD selection, and if they do have it it's around $30 no matter what it is. He will just tell you that its "limited" or "out of print"

― BKpro (Heath Raymond), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 18:48 (nineteen years ago)

Black Market was annoying as hell. Although saying that you could walk out the door to a bunch of other decent shops down the road.

Berrick Street in the house

― hector (hector), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 18:50 (nineteen years ago)

Norman's thirded! Embodies the worst stereotypes of a snooty indie store without the selection to back up the attitude. Note more and more faux-funk t-shirts in the window as years pass (a bid for some of that sweet, sweet St. Marks tourist foot traffic).

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 19:05 (nineteen years ago)

faux-funk = paux-punk

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 19:08 (nineteen years ago)

Poopy McPooperton's House of Shitty Records

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 19:09 (nineteen years ago)

I like Earwax! Other Music annoys me way, way more, and never seems to have what I want. (No offense to anyone present.)

Worst one I've been in was probably this one whose name I've forgotten in South Bend, IN--I think it was the main indie record store in the city. Any female I know who's gone in there has come out pissed. Although at certain times the record section of the co-op bookstore in Oberlin, OH gave it a run for its money.

― Eppy (Eppy), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 19:09 (nineteen years ago)

Album Alley in Tupelo, Mississippi, is a fucking disgrace. Somehow it's managed to stay in business for 25+ years despite shelves full of boring shit and a payroll full of ignorant, arrogant dipshits. I go in there every 2-3 years to see if things have changed, but it's always the same old same old.

― The Jazz Guide to Penguins on Compact Disc (Rock Hardy), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 19:23 (nineteen years ago)

Earwax isn't that great but it isn't the "worst"

― JW (ex machina), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 20:27 (nineteen years ago)

mondo kim's, nyc based primarily on the suffocating lack of airconditioning and the weird, dull eastern bloc vibe the place gives off, especially downstairs. i can't quite explain it. maybe it's because everyone who works there seems utterly bored and miserable. at least the people over at other music appear to have a certain lust for life.

special mention to the guy at soundfix who compared this heat to nine inch nails to some poor, unassuming customer.

― earthly kitt (earthly), Wednesday, 24 May 2006 05:34 (nineteen years ago)

I liked Mondo Kims a lot, as that's where I tracked down the Monks' Infinite Zero release (newly issuedish). But, I have seen some stories on here that'd explain why the staff were/are so miserable.. (They were nice/friendly to me as I recall)

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 24 May 2006 07:15 (nineteen years ago)

There used to be a tiny recordshop called Cyclops in Birmingham in the 70s-80s. Run by incredibly intimidating satff (esp. if you were 13 & wearing yr school unifrom).

All the records had a big price sticker on which ruined the sleeve when you tried to remove it & at any given time large numbers of the racks would be covered over with sheets of hardboard (for no apparent reason) making it impossible to browse. I used to think perhaps something sinister was going on there: it gave off that vibe.

― bham (bham), Wednesday, 24 May 2006 07:22 (nineteen years ago)

Metro Music, Anchorage Alaska. The most overpriced place I've ever seen. Expect to see CD's priced literally twice as much as they would be anywhere else.

― Eric Wahl (Eric Wahl), Sunday, 28 May 2006 21:15 (nineteen years ago)

i think the mall chain de jour is fye, which is depressingly bleak re: anything other than mainstream country, hip hop and rock. but, at least there they don't check on the quality of used CDs you sell back, so you can sell them stuff that's scratched to hell and they'll still take it. bwahaha.

― Emily B (Emily B), Sunday, 28 May 2006 21:21 (nineteen years ago)

The only Fye I've been to had a surprisingly good DVD selection, things like Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang and Caligula (Unrated). All the Fyes used to be called Disc Jockey, at least in my area.

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Sunday, 28 May 2006 22:35 (nineteen years ago)

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