RS Article: Wal-Mart vs. Music

[MarcO]

An interesting and disturbing read. Long live the independent music reatiler!

Wal-Mart Wants $10 CDs

::

[PalacePrincess]

:: this is scary:

$1.60 Artists' royalties

$1.70 Label profit

[Palms]

I say fu©k Wal-Mart anyway and would never buy a CD from them, but here are some things to consider:

$0.80 Packaging/manufacturing

-average cost for a CD with an 8 page booklet is closer to $1.50 Canadian and can run as high as $5.00 for something extravagant i.e. a CD released on the Constellation label, for example (godspeed you black emperor!, Do Make Say Think etc)

$0.82 Publishing royalties

-pretty accurate (in US funds)

$0.80 Retail profit

-that's Walmart's profit

$0.90 Distribution

-distributor's profit

$1.60 Artists' royalties

-for a band signed to a major label deal, indies are usually higher, sometimes as much as a 50/50 split with the label

[Jaimoe]

Wal-mart is

[SevenSeasJim]

Walmart opens in January 2005 in Parry Sound.

Bastards.

[Jaimoe]

Walmart opens in January 2005 in Parry Sound.

Bastards.

You can kiss your town good-bye.

[SevenSeasJim]

Walmart opens in January 2005 in Parry Sound.

Bastards.

You can kiss your town good-bye.

That's the general thought here as well. Town council seems to make all their decisions based on what the tourists want not the local people.

[Jaimoe]

There's towns in the States that have a " No Wal-mart " policy.

It's funny because tourists probably go to Parry Sound for the town atmosphere with it's unique boutiques, shops and stores. They will slowly disappear: See wastelands like Brantford, Brampton, Cambridge, Belleville and cities in crisis like Cobourg, Whitby, Markham, Trenton and London.

[Jaimoe]

Of course Wal-mart is only the catalyst. Power-centres usually follow Wal-mart, further sucking the life and soul out of a town.

[AdamH]

Guelph has remained Wal-Mart free but it's a neverending struggle in court. If you want to see what a town looks like when it loses look at what happened to Cambridge.

[Jaimoe]

Guelph has remained Wal-Mart free but it's a neverending struggle in court. If you want to see what a town looks like when it loses look at what happened to Cambridge.

Hespler Road in Cambridge is a disgusting display of everything that's bad in economic/urban-sprawl development. The town of Gault is only now rebounding from the stripmall, box-store onslaught that plagues Cambridge, but stores of " significance " still do not exist in the downtown core.

Long Live Guelph!!

[Mr. Musicface]

I was actually glad to see they are opening a proper mall in Vaughan. People crap on mall culture, but at least there is some culture there compared to the boxes. I'm a suburban kid and I grew up in the malls - where the hell do kids hang out now? Plus I always think people scurrying in and out of their cars in February in the big box complexes is, among other things, un-Canadian. It's a cold country, give us some shelter ya corporate bastards! Gimme a nice food court and some fake trees, yeh baby!

Peace,

- Mr. M.

[Jaimoe]

C'mon Jay. Vaughn embodies everything that is wrong with the GTA: Urban-sprwl mentality that's car-driven with little to no sense of a pedestrian-friendly community.

Imagine if Vaughn had all those stores that are in the new mall built outside as a pedestrian-friendly downtown core - by an " actual " urban planner. Vaughn has absolutely no downtown and never will - same with Mississauga and Etobicoke ( and Port Credit is not part of Mississauga as far as I'm concerned ). Steeles & Keele may be the worst intersection in Toronto-sprawl and the movement to build the new soccer/Argos stadium at York University sickens my very soul.

[paisley]

I'd like to see a mall with a policy that gives first crack and rent incentives to local, small to medium sized businesses... thing I hate about malls is pretty much every one that you go to is the same stores as other malls, and the same restaurants

be nice to have a unique indoor shopping and eating experience based around thoughtful, quality goods and cuisine in a comfortable environment where money ends up put back into the community instead of sent off to corporate headquarters somewhere far away... something with soft yellow lighting and gardens

sad it feels like such an unrealistic idea

[AdamH]

Paisley - The problem with that initative is that mall-goers aren't looking for local stores. Our tastes, fashions and desires are so homogenized that the most frequented venues of the mall are the multinationals. The Gap, American Eagle, Old Navy...They're the most common but also the most popular with a demographic (say 11-30 maybe?) that has incredible buying power.

[paisley]

just thinking from a small city downtown strip perspective, just covered from UV's and winter... places like Rockin' Tees, and local record stores, maybe a Value Village type place sponsored by the city and employed with kids who have trouble in the normal school system, shade grown coffee shops, antiques, farmer's market, organic restaurant

agreed with your point, but even if it failed I'd sure like to see someone try it... perhaps a project to work on over the winter.. first step would be to find an architect who could make the building not look like an enormous tampon

[Jaimoe]

Hey Paisley,

What about Hamilton? That downtown core looks like a ghost-town because to some extent, malls and box-stores.

[Mr. Musicface]

Oh hey, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Vaughan is a model for anything but sprawl, I'm just saying I'd rather see a trend back towards "traditional" enclosed malls rather than boxes.

I agree you're unlikely to get back to real city-centre planning, which is sad. But I'm looking at this from my own experience - Scarborough, where I grew never really had a downtown of its own anyway, but the malls did reflect the culture of the neighbourhoods - Morningside was different from Cedarbrae was different Agincourt etc. They did and to some extent still do reflect the ethnic make-up of the neighbourhoods and had some personality.

I also agree with paisley and ahess that they are tending towards greater homogeneity, but at least small retail has a chance in the malls. For instance Sherway Gardens has a great litle art gallery that deals in local originals and prints where my wife and I have found some great stuff over the years. East York Town Centre which is close to my place does have a big-ass Zellers but it also has some unique bulk and Halah food shops and clothing retailers that appeal to the local population. (And a bowling alley!)

At least in a covered mall, small retail and local colour stand some sort of chance.

- M.

[paisley]

Hey Paisley,

What about Hamilton? That downtown core looks like a ghost-town because to some extent, malls and box-stores.

Hamilton is the perfect example of box stores and malls destroying the downtown core... my motivation for this thought process, how to maybe turn that around... my grandmother gave me a box with 30 years of Hamilton Magazines I've been reading through and in 1984 there are all these articles about "The Booming Downtown Core!" beaming with pride... backwards, developer loving politicians who learned city planning from textbooks written in the 50's have done their best to suck the soul out of the city... they think in numbers and love sprawl, think Mississagua and Oakville are what all cities should be... heartbreaking really

on a positive note, off core areas like Locke Street west of downtown, Concession Street on the mountain and Westdale near McMaster University still thrive with popular small businesses... King William and James Street have also turned around fairly well though parking's a bitch

if we could get the city to stop sucking the big money cock and be original, considerate and resolute it'd be a great thing for everyone here economically and quality of lifewise... unfortunately tough to implement in a world that might vote George W. back into power

[Jaimoe]

Jay, anything can be done, but it takes vision and creativity. Urban developers and cowardly city councilors ( see Markham ) have to be creatively challenged. It's easy to build a power-centre with cookie-cutter chain stores ( see Barrie ), but urban planners and town/city officals must be challenged - so must architects. Towns should be a place that is unique to the people that live there, one that you can be proud of, that is full of life instead of decay.

[Jaimoe]

Hey Paisley, it's also very important that businesses with unique products can be attracted to locate in the core. Businesses with large numbers of employees must be encouraged to locate in a city core too, so downtown shops will remain functional and profitable.

Kingston has box-stores, but the downtown still thrives because tourists that come there like the small independant shops and boutiques, plus the active bar scene and history doesn't hurt either.

I'm passionate about cities ( and the country living ) and I hate seeing them destroyed by urban-sprawl, and all the trappings that comes with it.

[AdamH]

I'm no urban planner, but generally my favorite cities in terms of interest, layout, ease of travel by foot and sustainability (ecologically, economicaly and otherwise) have been those that are zoned as mixed commercial/residential and even light industrial. Mumbai was a great example, and granted it's got milions of people in it but there were retail storefronts with apartments above and a stoneworker's warehouse just up the street. No chaos, just a perfect symbiotic relationship that had people from various walks of life descending on a city block to work, live and spend money. We are not doing that here, not even close. What we've done here and are doing on a greater scale is isolating communities far away from where people work. You now have families living in Milton, driving to work in Toronto and stopping in Mississauga for groceries on the way home. Vaughan was recently given the prestigious award of requiring the greatest amount of resources to sustain their standard of living. Drive along Highway 7 and notice the enormous residential neighbourhoods with nothing but a gas station and convenience store within walking distance? This is a major concern for some of us but it gives Wal-Mart and Home Depot plenty of clout when they pitch a giant multi-unit complex to city planners.

What irks me most is that a retail establishment such as Starbucks or Chapters has managed to fleece entire countries into thinking that their private space can function as a public, unbiased community space where people gather with their friends. Read No Logo if you want to become as incensed at this notion as I am.

[Mr. Musicface]

Oh yeh I agree anything is possible. Hell, the first thing that should be dealt IMHO with isn't retail but it's mixing affordable housing into all our neighbourhoods. A friend of mine had a fantastic idea a few years back that I've occasionally heard echoed since, that some percentage of all these condo and subdivision developments should be allocated as geared-to-income housing. One of the biggest problems with places like Scarborough and why it has the rep it does is that there are gigantic developments where all the low-cost housing is lumped together in places like Orton Park and Malvern. If we could spread those populations out and "de-slummify" neighbourhoods that would be as great a value as anything, I think that's your highest priority when it comes to urban planning - particularly in Toronto where they keep saying there will be a million new people in the next 5-7 years.

- M.

[Jaimoe]

What irks me most is that a retail establishment such as Starbucks or Chapters has managed to fleece entire countries into thinking that their private space can function as a public, unbiased community space where people gather with their friends. Read No Logo if you want to become as incensed at this notion as I am.

On an aside, Chapters is a terrible bookstore. Local authors and small press are virtually ignored. Try and find harder to find titles by famous and well-respected writers. It's almost impossible. Indigo is no better. They always encourage on-line shopping which sickens me. I want to feel the book that I'm interested in buying, not read about it on a website.

[Mr. Musicface]

Actually Jaimoe it's funny you mention Indigo 'cus the first one I ever encountered was in your old hometown, Kingston, back in '98 when I was doing some grad work at Queen's. At the time I remember thinking it was a very cool concept and I sat in there for hours studying and drinking coffee. There was a coziness to the place even thought it was big, and it seemed to fit naturally into the downtown. (As an aside, Kingston still has one of my favourite downtowns of any city in the world.) Since the Indigo/Chapters merger thou, all of them seem to be a lot colder.

- M.