But as I said, every section's buyer seemed an ace and it enabled you to do one-stop shopping because they carried everything, even classical.
That is the mandate of the Amoeba buyers. "Treat your section like your own personal specialty store."
But everything that Amoeba has is something the Rhino I remember had. Except for the square footage.
The square footage is key, though. That's what guarantees volume and flow and consequently lots of turnover in the used stock. There's always something new. At Restless Records I knew every bin by heart. I rarely had to dip outside the new arrival bins. No way you can do that at Amoeba.
Yeah, it seems that might be it. But wasn't the new Rhino store much bigger? I think I only visited there once. I've been visiting my parents (and thus, LA) less frequently. And now that I've lived away for so long, I no longer have an Angeleno's mind about distances by car. So the drive from South Pasadena to Westwood seems like a big noxious pain in the ass.
Cass,
I loved your story. It reminded me of a report I just saw on high/higher end wines being offered in boxes. Seriously. Check this out:
[link]
That Rhino isn't even the size of one floor of the Hollywood Amoeba.
In New York magazine, they had an article about how one chain of drugstores, Duane Reade, does so much better in NYC than CVS or Rite Aid. Basically, what it all boiled down to was that Duane Reade was so much better at negotiating rents than the other chains.
I didn't know that. I knew that Amoeba had been a big hit in LA. I was really freaked when I first saw a credit card commercial that was set in Hollywood Amoeba. I was like "Hey! Amoeba's my neighborhood store!" It was weird when I first found out it had expanded beyond the Bay Area. I guess it's a measure of how far the store's influence radius is that instead of building more and more stores in the Bay Area, they felt one in Berkeley and one in The Haight was sufficient and that it was time to conquer other cities.
Cass, I'm so sorry to hear about your grandmother. Thanks for telling us about her; she sounds like an amazing woman.
I didn't know LA had an Amoeba! Excellent. Can anyone give me recommendations for other good record stores to check out while I'm there?
Is Amoeba the store that took over the Rasputin's spot on Telegraph near Cal? Assimilated?
