I don’t know about you folks (why don’t I start every post that way?) but I’m pretty excited about Avid Reader and “Records” moving in to the former home of the dearly departed Tower stores on Broadway. (Can I get a RIGHT AWN!! to Bob Shallit zinging the departed Tower chain’s lackluster employees? Gutsy.)
To me, the only thing cooler than a corner anchored by “Records” and Avid Reader would be a “Meet the cast of Battlestar Galactica” kiosk inside an authentic Philly cheesesteak joint, but I digress. Here’s hoping that a couple of independent secondhand stores can succeed where a worldwide retail music chain could not. But seriously, good luck.
The Sac Rag 
i pledge to buy at least 5 albums there that i would have otherwise bootlegged from the ‘net.
in other small biz vs big biz news… anyone see that rite aid is opening across from that little pharmacy on like.. 50ish and J? laame.
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Ron, would you like to let this gentleman know the “currentishness” of this particular piece of news?
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I’m really excited about this new mix coming to Broadway. And reading the comments from the Avid Reader owners, on the sort of location they’re coming into was reassuring – i think they understand how to make that corner work better than ever.
i’m also very glad the FYE store didn’t happen. there was just nothing “right” about that.
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Records is great, but my question is how on earth do they make a living? Who buys vinyl these days, especially 20 year old vinyl? Whenever I go in there, at least on the K Street mall, no one is ever in there.
They used to have occasional good deals on videos; once in a while I find a CD worth buying there. All in all, their CD selection is junky.
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Avid Reader is well under way with their interior renovations and should be opening in the next few weeks. Records just inked their lease agreement – check out their
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In the words of Tower Records itself (Watt and El Camino)
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….their myspace page
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I’m pretty darn excited since these joints are so close to the Sacramento Comedy Spot on Broadway and 17th. I’m jazzed I tell ya’, just jazzed. I’ll cruise the vinyl stacks then head on down the street for some hot comedy action. This town is finally looking up.
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ndlxs: thanks for visiting! I always assumed that part of the business model of places like Records was having extremely low overhead. I gotta think Broadway & 16th is somewhat pricey though? Not sure.
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I think overhead might be a little lower in that location. Last time I drove by, the weeds were starting to take over. Perhaps the property owners are going to cut back on landscaping and then pass the savings along to their tenants.
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I kind of wonder if this might be one of the first noticable steps in moving a lot of the stuff that used to nestle itself downtown and closer into midtown over onto the broadway corridor as the faction that used to do business down there is getting pushed out, or getting out while the getting is good, by the moneypit disneylandification of downtown.
Across the street from where I work in the daytime, a La Bou just closed, and I’m hearing about it from everyone here, and how they’re going to miss it. That’s at 9th & K. But uh…there’s another one at 11th & K that’s been open for a while, and there’s one next to Morton’s on K street mall. Is having to walk an extra two to five minutes to for lunch really that bad? And yeah, La Bou is pretty good, but it’s not like they’re losing a local gem or something. Obviously the K street area isn’t shy on them, and there seem to be plenty of them as you head out of downtown, too.
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That’s a good question about the overhead; it COULD
be higher downtown though. I remember reading about the downtown renovations that the property owners downtown (just a few along the mall) have very high value property, presumably just because they are downtown. Either that or they just THOUGHT they had high value property.
I would think it would take records weeks to move out. I have always heard they had a whole basement full of vinyl.
I checked out their myspace page; I had no idea that was an R Crumb design.
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I always enjoyed seeing the methheads walk in with a stack of used records of questionable origin trying to sell a few and get enough for the next piece of ice. I guess that can follow them down to Broadway.
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One place I DO miss a lot downtown in Esoteric records; they always had a lot of good stuff, including some new CDs that were used. (I was told they were reviewer copies…).
Sure, they are still there on El Camino, but it ain’t the same.
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I loved Esoteric records too. This new spot will hopefully have some of the same feel as when Esoteric and Beers were shoulder to shoulder. Only this new spot will be much bigger and closer to a hamburger.
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And coffee, and pizza, and Ethiopian food. I will miss being able to record shop on my lunchbreak–the closure of Records means that there are *no* record shops in the central business district–but I’m glad for what seems to be a great little cluster emerging near the Tower Theatre. The whole thing is in spite of, rather than because of, city influence: the result of city influence can be seen on the vacant storefronts of K Street… well, that and the influence of Mo “The Immolator” Mohanna.
And yes, Mo is convinced that his roach-infested firetraps (which are also irreplaceable pieces of Sacramento history) are actually high-rise buildings, and he should be able to charge high-rise building rent for them.
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Pizza? Is Infernos still serving Pizza? I thought they turned it into a dance club.
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