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Show On teocsss fid Ite Waya ftitiftirte a a i k II or Ar i a aa C by hr tail a ndcpendent record stores along the Wasatch Front have seen tough times lately. Many area inde- t pendents, specializing in various musical genres, have ; recently dosed, due to a combina- ? tion of factors, y: i I XX r 4 : ed policy. Salt Lsa'a "Lccccs" Goldsmith's personal approach is :T by appreciated greatly clerk, v Goldsmith on the other hand, knows his stock intimately and 1 regularly discusses various recordings with customers. "If what Bill has picked up with his own ears or heard through word of mouth is not enough, on many albums he'll give you reviews from the great record magazines," Prigmore says. JNfeSLw Clayton Fullmer Raspberry caters to various tastes including orchestral, jazz, blues and world music, but has traditionally specialized in rock. According to owner Casey Wilkins, "We could see the writing on the wall with Smokey's dosing." The latest in the string of do-sur- es is Discriminator Music, an orchestral music and hi--fi electronics shop which announced its set for April 1 of this year. do-su- re Why the closures? Different stores blame different things. The recent emergence of national chain which supply music along with other products as divergent as electronics and furniture, may be a factor." According to Leif Myrberg, a former employee at Smokey's, "Chain mega-store- s, stores pretty much inundated the area... Chain stores can buy all their 'product' at such a low price, because they buy it in quantity, then they sell.it under cost or really cheap. So, you had customers switching from small stores to corporate stores." Wilkins "When concurs. could see that we Smokey's dosed, Blockbuster and Media Play were taking their toll," he says. "So, we decided, rather than get caught in a bind, we'd corral the wagons back into Holladay, where we've always done well. The original store was our store in Holladay." Wilkins adds that there were other factors in the closure of the Foothill Raspberry store. "Where we were in the mall and the rent I was paying just did not make sense anymore," he said. A Special Case With Discriminator, the situation seems a little different, possibly linked to a declining interest in orchestral music. 7 In the past, record companies used the profit from rock and Top-4- 0 hits to produce classical and jazz music. Companies did not immediately know if they were losing money, nor how much. However, carefully monitored sales combined with a shift in values among record r 1 Explaining how this relates to dassical music, Goldsmith said that in the larger chain stores such as Media. Play, "Somebody in Cincinatti orders music for all the stores in the country, and instead of ordering what he minks people in a particular community will like, or even what' one individual will like, he orders what he thinks will sell, Also, Goldsmith allows customers to listen to any CD in the store and offers a refund within a week of purchase, with only a $2 "audition fee." in general." In this sense, Discriminator is tailored to the particular tastes of this community. U However, Goldsmith says this specialization is only part of the reason for declin- ing interest "I'm not just catering to the Salt Lake public, I'm also catering to a more esoteric individual," he says. "I mean, I know each one of my customers and get acquainted with their musical tastes. A lot of people come in and say 'what's new that you think I might like.'" ' "t 'T 111 ;M r, J ' "distinct advantages" both of shopping at a big store and a store like Discriminator. "As long as there is a level playing field, the consumer should be able to decide," he said. What destroys this level playing field, according to Goldsmith, are "CD clubs" like Columbia House and BMG, which offer CDs below wholesale. The same record companies who sell CDs to stores are e also selling them through dubs. Due to this situation, a consumer could listen to a CD at an retailer", said Goldsmith. "It's illegal, it's immoral, and it's putting me out of business.". ' Rick Gale, the music department IF If 8 VJ Kyle Green al hotbed of dassical enthusiasm. witOpinions and perceptions and over ticisms were literally flowing the aisles." we're certainly going to stick it out" Raspberry is also taking measures to ensure its clientele sticks Prigmore notes that this comraderie has declined since Discriminator's business has fallen off. Now customers are often alone in the store. While the loss of comraderie is unfortunate, both Prigmore and Goldsmith agree that the old Discriminator customers already around. "We're finding a lot of our clientele are older folks. A lot of the reasons we can carry indie bands and other things are due to the fact that we take care of our easy listening : have amassed extensive record collections, and those who will suffer most are young people who are still collecting, of which there are fewer and fewer each year. Most of Discriminator's regular customers are over 40 and, as Goldsmith said, "the 30 s year-old- are watching TV, and the people already have what they want" . 60-pl- us Still In the Game As many independents go under, what keeps the remaining record stores in business? Raspberry dosed one of its loca- and classical customers as well. Those people aren't interested in price shopping. They're interested in finding what they're looking for. We're able to take that customer to the section they're looking for and help them find what they want, and they don't find that in the major stores. The big stores don't do that If it's not in their computer, you get someone looking at you like you're brain dead," said Wilkins. A more spedalized music selection is another Raspberry strategy. Wilkins said, "We're certainly not going after the 'hits' market anymore. We carry all that stuff, but we're also going to focus on the lesser known things. We're going to carry all the Broadway shows, we're going to carry all .the soundtracks and not just the major label soundtracks, but the interesting small lablel stuff, the NPR stuff." said Wilkins. Other stores, like Randy's Records and The Record Collector, also adapted to fit spedalized niches mat were filled by neither mega-stornorjrecord dubs. es Chris Moore, the manager at Randy's, said that although Randy's S fliki. a..: . . ...1 i VS" JySt'v in Kr7 I'M half-pric- "This violates the sacred trust between the manufacturer and the LH?!f ' I SI 1 Goldsmith acknowledges the half-pric- II 0 VU1 IRM not Discriminator, like it, then buy the e same CD through a dub. " V s. mega-store- independent record store like f li tions, but it hopes to survive by altering its strategy. Wilkins said, Another thing Customers will "We want to weather the current lose "when Discriminator doses is situation. We want to focus on the comraderie among music lovers customer service and broad-base- d who frequent the store. Prigmore product knowledge." Wilkens also notes "an increasing fondly remembers the early days of Discriminator. "Buying CD's there backlash to mega-storeNot used to be a sort of adventure in. everyone is comfortable with these comraderie among those who warehouse and electronics, furniloved the kind of music that ture and book stores. It's a trend Goldsmith sold," Prigmore said. that obviously takes hold in Utah, "Saturday Afternoons were a virtu- - because we're'coupon town, but In contrast, the mass market approach tends to emphasize big names, top labels and things that will sell a certain number of copies. s While are getting a bad rap for theii part in the decline of independent record stores nationwide, the critidsm might be entirely justified. o comment based upon corporate Discriminator's patrons, many of whom are also important local musicians. James Prigmore, composer and musical director of Pioneer Theatre Company, says that an important difference between buying dassical music at major national chains and buying it at Discriminator is the' knowledge of the clerk. A question about classical music would only draw a blank look from a mega-stor- e QiEOin " record companies." A local Blockbuster Music manager was contacted, but dedined - 3f . O manager at the Redwood Road Media Flay agrees, "I wouldn't really say we're the bad. guys. I'd say we're another player in die game. It's more the record dubs, where people can buy things for less than it costs us to buy them. We're not the reason Discriminator is going out of business, Basically it's the decrease in the number of classical recordings produced! . Young audiences don't seem to have as strong of an interest in orchestral music as they had in the past. As an example at the local level, the Utah Symphony of. was recently forced to discontinThe most recent closures, was Smokey's, a 35 ue its Summer Concert Series. local store specializing in The problem may not be localyear-ol- d folk and rock recordings. ized, though. blues, "Our society and our culture is Smoke closed Jury 24, 1995 to the. lovers. local of music becoming more and more of a mass chagrin many local Another store. Raspberry : culture society," said Bill also closed one of two Goldsmith, the founder and owner Records, of Discriminator. "Everything is branches (its Foothill Place location) during the summer of '95. being created for a mass public" well-publiciz- O a c executives has led to a sharp : f d 1 " I 3 f M ;l if Bill Mi ten II |