I don't know why I even bother...

I wanted to pick up a couple cds tonight. I've heard both arctic monkeys and band of horses on the radio lately, liked what I've heard and have read tons of praise for both bands as well, so I thought I'd check them out. better late than never, right?

there's a record store about three blocks from our apartment called sonic boom. over the past five years, I've probably dropped $500 there. hell, my first trip into the store cost me about two hundred, but that was my first volley towards replenishing a divorce depleted music library. I don't think we've bought anything there in at least a year. and it's not for lack of trying. they just suck ass.

see, there's this other record store called easy street that's about ten minutes from here. we drive home from it every day from work. it's a semi-regular tuesday tradition for the two of us to stop in there, pick up some new releases and a slice of pie at pagliacci across the street. easy street is amazing. it has everything. it's generally cheaper than sonic boom (usually by $1-$4 per cd), they have 10x the used selection, and they offer a frequent buyer card (buy fifteen, get one free). we've redeemed at least four free cds in the past couple years... hell, they even have free parking, which is a premium on queen anne. my biggest beef with them is they don't count dvds on their frequent buyer stamp cards, but that's fairly minor.

but most importantly, they actually stock the music their target demographic is shopping for. sure, they have a small amount of pop40 crap at ridiculous prices (does anyone actually pay $18 for britney spears?), but most of their indie stuff is under $14, and it's ALWAYS in stock. there has literally been ONE time I've gone in there and been turned away (tv on the radio - return to cookie mountian). but when I asked, they were very apologetic and gave me a $2 off voucher for my next trip in, when they had it in stock.

I have NEVER received that courtesy from sonic boom. and I don't really care. 95% of my business goes to easy street anyway, so I figure I just try to throw sonic boom a bone every now and then. we stopped in there for the juno soundtrack after seeing the movie, but were turned away because it hadn't been released yet, fair enough. but we've tried at least a half dozen times and always been turned away. they didn't have band of horses tonight, despite it being #2 on their best sellers for last week. in fact, about 60% of their "top sellers" rack was empty. maybe they didn't get their shipment because of the holiday... but it's REALLY shitty business practice to allow yourself to run out of your best selling product, especially around the holidays. right now, their target demographic is looking to spend ill-gotten xmas monies on hipster music, and they can't find it. that kind of shit will drive customers away like you wouldn't believe. they did have arctic monkeys, but it was $17. I bet it's $14 at easy street. I nearly picked up a lily allen cd for $12, but decided against it.

I'm going to punish sonic boom for their poor business practices. and if they go out of business, I won't feel bad. I'm not going to even bother trying to give them my money anymore. they obviously don't want it very badly.