COLUMN: The best places to get CDs
College is lean living. It is common to see apartments with cardboard boxes as TV stands, couches with bed sheets as upholstery and carpet unglued at the edges. Most students’ fridges contain little more than condiments, and if they have any appliances, they are straight out of the ’70s. Yet, almost without fail, these same apartments have stereo systems with speakers to spare, and a CD rack chalk-full of the newest releases. I can’t prove this with facts of figures, but I bet college students across the nation waste more money on CDs than anything except beer.
This being the case, it is important to know where to go when you’ve got money to blow. Here is my review of Logan’s CD stores:
No. 5 Wal-Mart: If the devil was given seven days, he might have spent them all creating Wal-Mart. Besides being enormous and impersonal, Wal-Mart is always packed with people. This means weaving your cart through the herd, watching for falling items overhead, only to end up waiting in a long line at the end of it all. Wal-Mart’s CD department is an atrocity. Although their albums are dirt cheap, the selection is limited and all CDs are edited. Since music is an artistic expression, this is the equivalent of putting a swimsuit on Michaelangelo’s David. Grade: 1/2 CD
No. 4 Sam Goody Music: This is your kind of CD store a) if you like undersized, overpriced malls b) only buy albums from big names and c) don’t mind feeding into corporate entities that have little if any concern for the common consumer. Single CDs at Sam Goody are on sale for $16.99, but are typically almost $20. That’s fine if it’s going on Dad’s credit card, but for us working stiffs, that is the equivalent of four meals.Grade: 1 CD
No. 3 BMG Music Club: Some would argue a CD club isn’t local, but they’re wrong. If I order online or by the phone, and I receive the CDs in my mailbox a few weeks later, I’m not even leaving the house. What’s more local than that? BMG has thousands of albums to choose from, including hard-to-find jazz and classical titles. And where in town can you buy 12 CDs for the price of one?Grade: 3 CD
No. 2 Hastings: As the entertainment epicenter of Logan, Hastings isn’t a bad place to purchase music. Their used CDs are normally $6.99, but I have purchased big name albums for as little as $3.99. Don’t bother with the alphabetized used titles since they are usually picked clean of anything decent. Stick to the new arrival shelves, where you can sort through recent trade-ins for hidden gems.Grade: 3 1/2 CD
No. 1 Graywhale: With extensive shelves of organized and relatively inexpensive CDs, Graywhale is the best Logan has to offer. The store looks and feels like a CD shop should, with album art covering every inch of the walls, employees dressed in casual apparel and hip, unknown music blasting through speakers. Graywhale has a listening station to try out used CDs, and will order anything they don’t have. Their employees are an amiable, knowledgeable bunch. I once saw one of them show a middle-age woman his favorite easy-listening CD. If you can do that, you’ve got me sold.Grade: 4 CD