Well, it's the end of an era.
I just received the most disgusting, annoying, and nauseating news - Aron's Records, which I have been going to for close to forty years (first in its original Melrose Ave. location, and then in its current location on Highland) is closing its doors. Amoeba has finally done them in. This is so sickening on so many levels - Amoeba simply ripped off the business model of Aron's. They took a look at the success of that store, and opened their version in San Francisco. It did so well (why wouldn't it - Aron's was hugely successful), and then they decided to come to LA. WHERE did they open a store? One half mile from Aron's. It was the kiss of death, because Amoeba spent hundreds of thousands of dollars getting the word out. And the people came. Idiot teenagers came, and they paid list price for things they could get three or four dollars cheaper ANYWHERE, and considerably cheaper than that at Aron's, which always had the best discount. Amoeba, within weeks, had put a huge dent in Aron's business - why, is another story. Why did all those people who'd been shopping at Aron's for years, suddenly jump ship to another store where they'd be paying MORE money? I'm not talking about the "regulars" like me - I'm talking about these young, disgusting pimple-faced little twits who wouldn't know loyalty if it kicked them in the ass. Apparently it was worth paying more money to be in the flavor of the week hip place. Of course, Amoeba will find this out in three or four years, when someone else comes along and does to them what they did to Aron's.
I've watched with some sadness as Aron's, a store that was usually filled to the brim with shoppers, had their customer base dwindle down to nothing. They were the best store for soundtracks and shows (my pal Brad Bennett was/is their buyer - and no one knows their stuff like Brad), a mecca, and now, as of January (or sooner) they will be gone.
And, unlike Footlight in NY (another mecca, recently closed), there will be no life for Aron's on the Internet. It's just another nail in the coffin of the way we live today and I am truly depressed by this news.
It's the end of an era.