Another sign that the recession has been going on a lot longer than a month: Two local record stores are going bye-bye. In fact, Open Mind Music -- which moved to Market Street a couple years back in the hopes of staving off extinction -- is already gone, having shuttered its doors last month. (The store will apparently sell its remaining underground hip-hop, freaky techno, and oddball rock at the Other Shop on Divisadero and online.) Now comes the news that the 24th Street location of Streetlight Records is going kaput after the holidays.
When I first moved to SF in the early '90s, 24th Street was music-lover heaven, with Streetlight's shop buffeted by Aquarius Records. This was before Amoeba moved into the Rock 'n' Bowl on Haight Street, before Tower went bankrupt, before Aquarius headed over to Valencia Street. Streetlight reminded me of the East Coast, with its creaky wood floors, long bins of discs, and loquacious counterpeople. It was a homey store, filled with good bargains and intriguing obscurities -- decent enough to last 32 long years.
But we live in an era where it's harder and harder for the small businessman to survive. In a recent statement, Streetlight General Manager Jeffrey Moss attributed the shuttering to the advent of downloading and the rise of SF real estate values. "Sales nationwide and locally have been hit hard by downloads. The big box stores have grabbed the new release market by offering big titles below cost as a way of attracting customers. That has made a music store a bit more of a specialty shop and less of a neighborhood fixture. It's hard for a small neighborhood store to sustain itself on music sales. The other factor is rising rents. Noe Valley has become particularly expensive and we can't afford the rent."
It seems like everywhere you go you hear about some landlord jacking up the rent. (See 12 Galaxies, etc.) Just who is going to move into these venues anyway? Are we going to become a city of high-end shoe stores and Yuppie bars and condo crapholes?
The news isn't completely awful. The Streetlight store on Market Street -- along with the ones in San Jose and Santa Cruz -- will stay open, at least for now. Make sure you patronize them while you still can.
But we live in an era where it's harder and harder for the small businessman to survive. In a recent statement, Streetlight General Manager Jeffrey Moss attributed the shuttering to the advent of downloading and the rise of SF real estate values. "Sales nationwide and locally have been hit hard by downloads. The big box stores have grabbed the new release market by offering big titles below cost as a way of attracting customers. That has made a music store a bit more of a specialty shop and less of a neighborhood fixture. It's hard for a small neighborhood store to sustain itself on music sales. The other factor is rising rents. Noe Valley has become particularly expensive and we can't afford the rent."
It seems like everywhere you go you hear about some landlord jacking up the rent. (See 12 Galaxies, etc.) Just who is going to move into these venues anyway? Are we going to become a city of high-end shoe stores and Yuppie bars and condo crapholes?
The news isn't completely awful. The Streetlight store on Market Street -- along with the ones in San Jose and Santa Cruz -- will stay open, at least for now. Make sure you patronize them while you still can.
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