I was in downtown Birmingham the other day to visit a client and noticed a huge, empty corner retail space where Tower had opened in 2002. Were they really already gone? Apparently they closed in April with little fanfare. Not a huge surprise given their parent company’s ongoing financial spiral, but still a little disappointing.
Longtime readers of this page, by which [this time] I mean people who knew me before I had a weblog [yes, an intentionally confusing statement], know that I used to spend hours in Tower Records and that a significant portion of my weekly income went to stacks and stacks of CDs. At least one of my as-yet-unconceived future childrens better like 90s music and s/he better be into the retro Compact Disc movement, or else it was all for naught.
The cherry on top: Virgin Megastore was kicked out of Columbus, OH because their landlord just had to have a Crate and Barrel in the mall. This leaves visiting my brother-in-law as the only viable reason to go to Columbus.
Oh, and remember Detroit’s own Harmony House, the serious music buff’s alternative to mall record stores? Per this article, its sole remaining store is now owned by… FYE..
Through it all, Schoolkids Records skates along in a below-ground space in Ann Arbor.
