Locals mostly shrug at Tower closure

COSTA MESA — For years, Emily Rollins shopped at Tower Records here.

As the staff liquidated its stock with the franchise closing down, she felt wistful, calling it “an end of an era.”

And yet, the Costa Mesa resident represents just what went wrong for the 46-year-old company. She admits she hasn’t bought a CD in a long while, preferring instead to download music for her iPod.

The popularity of MP3 players, satellite radio and file-sharing software such as LimeWire has been well-chronicled. But, given the chance for everything-must-go-now sales, area residents, many of them devotees of the new technology, flocked to the Tower store on Superior Avenue this week.

The parking lot was packed with cars Wednesday as bargain hunters shuffled in and out carrying their CDs and DVDs in the familiar yellow and red plastic bags. Everything in the store is at least 20% off.

“I started shopping here about a year ago. I’m sad it’s closing because it’s so close to the house,” said Costa Mesa resident Derick Serbano, who liked browsing and purchasing from Tower’s hip-hop section. “The selection was pretty good, but the prices were high.”

Los Angeles-based Great American Group kicked off the liquidation sales last Saturday, after shelling out $134.5 million for Tower, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August. The company’s president Andy Gumaer said the company plans to close all of its 89 stores. Another company purchased the website, and it’s unknown what will happen to Tower in cyberspace.

“For consumers, the bad news is Tower will be no more, unfortunately,” Gumaer said. “But consumers will reap the benefit of great discounts they’ve never experienced before.”

Liquidation will take six to eight weeks.

Tower representatives did not return phone calls for comment.

But it’s no secret what led to the store’s demise. Shoppers at the Superior Avenue Tower said the attraction of new technology was a factor, but many also cited prices they felt were too high.

“They’re overpriced,” said Newport Beach resident Hillary Petroski, who works at House of Flys, a neighboring sunglasses and clothing retailer. “When you can buy songs from iTunes for 99 cents or a whole album for $10 and download them right to your computer, why would you go to Tower?”

Newport Beach resident Walter Granath, who bought a Moody Blues album at the store Wednesday, said although he patronized the store a couple of times, he’s not going to lose sleep over the its closure.

“The music’s too loud, and it looks like they jacked up the prices in the middle of the night,” he said.

Employees in the Costa Mesa store were unable to comment because of corporate policies, but former Tower employee John Hiber said, despite some company-wide practices, the Costa Mesa store was a fun place to work.

“Just getting to see different stuff come out, getting to browse through music, getting paid to be around music, and talking about film and music was cool,” Hiber said. “You learn more about music and films than the average person who likes music and film would.”

The Costa Mesa store boasts 60,000 CDs and over 14,000 DVD titles as well as an extensive collection of alternative and music magazines.

The friendly work environment also made going to work less of a chore, Hiber said.