The Never-Ending Retail Evolution: Which Path Are You On?
By Bill Matthies -- TWICE, 9/24/2001
We've been going through some major remodeling at home, just one more in a long line of really stupid things I have done in my life.
We're at the point where my wife decided to rent some off-site storage space in which to put a lot of very important stuff that had been cluttering up the house and the garage.
To over-generalize, just about everything that has gone into storage seems like junk to me with the exception of my stuff, of course, and at the head of that list is slightly more than 300 vintage 45 rpm records, many dating back to the 1950s.
While looking through them just before closing and sealing the storage box — most likely for the rest of my life — I was struck by the memories that the titles of these little discs brought back. I thought about the evolution of the music I have bought over the years, and its formats. First those 45s, then moving on to 33 rpm LPs, followed by four-track tapes, then eight-track tapes and back to LPs, which I selectively recorded onto cassette tapes, all prior to buying CDs.
What a difference 40 years can make. All that change in software, and just think about the hardware differences. With the exception of a few record players made for cars, until advent of four- and eight-track tapes, all of that music was basically playable only at home.
But can you guess what has changed even more than the music formats, the hardware or even the music itself? It's you, the dealers who sell the music and the hardware to play it on, and that fact is critical when considering what may happen to you next.
Looking back on my musical evolution, I recall that the very first 45 I bought ("Cathy's Clown" by the Everly Brothers) cost me $1.02 including tax. It was purchased at a store called The Music Box, a small mom-and-pop music and used reel-to-reel tape recorder store located in an outdoor mall (they were all outdoor back then) in Southern California. I bought a lot of 45s there, but soon progressed to Zody's, a precursor to today's national discounters, as well as Wallach's Music City, a local chain selling musical instruments, sheet music and records.
From there I moved to the record chains such as Tower and Music+, with occasional record/CD club purchases, and then finally, although not exclusively, to Best Buy and Borders. Now that's evolution! Who would have thought that my average of one 45 rpm/LP/CD per week would begin with a small mom-and-pop and then evolve to mega stores such as Borders or Best Buy that sell so much else that doesn't relate to music?
True, my tastes have changed over the years. But more than that, some retailers understood better than others that what began as a simple commodity purchase could evolve into an experience that wasn't limited to something as mundane as a dollar's worth of music. It could involve the purchase of books or magazines as in the case of Borders, or PDAs or digital cameras at Best Buy, or simply, and of greatest importance to me, become a form of Sunday afternoon entertainment beginning with no intent to buy anything. But buy I do, which is exactly why they have formatted their stores the way they have.
The underlying lesson in all of this is that it is a never-ending process not only to reach new generations (my 18-year-old son does not buy his music at either Borders or Best Buy), but within generations as well (I no longer buy mine at Tower).
The 45 is gone, as is The Music Box, Zody's, Wallach's and a lot of other retailers whose names I no longer recall. But I'm still here, buying a lot of music and now video, as well as the equipment to play it all on, and I intend to continue doing so for some time to come.
I am not unique in this regard. There are millions of others who are like me and millions unlike me that form the future market for audio/video software and hardware. Think today about how to sell to us tomorrow. Understand whom we are and what it is that we do and do not want, and build your future stores with that in mind.
At the risk of sounding cliché, yesterday is gone and today is not far behind it. Just as your consumers are changing, so must and will you. The only question is how.
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