The Sky's Gone Out

A few newish, but significant changes to the store during our ongoing, never-ending, yod-help-us-when-it-does store renovation. Probably most significant of all, the old Classical room has now been converted into the Used room...

...although people do still seem confused as to what we keep in this room, apparently. Folks are constantly asking what we did with all the used product, even while standing immediately beneath the "Used" sign itself. I'm guessing that since there is no arrow pointing downward directly into the room, nobody quite gets that the room contains used product. I would concede their point if it wasn't such a continuous issue with our core customer base who make it a habit of not comprehending any sign we have in our store, from the giant "Information" sign hanging over the Information table, to the lady who bitched me out Thursday because we didn't have a huge sign that pointed to our unedited rap section, which is the rap section itself -- save for the last 5 rows, which are unedited, and clearly marked as such. I am repeatedly reminded every day at work of the Mike Judge

movie Idiocracy, with the scene of a sign that featured a human stick figure sitting on the toilet over a public restroom door, because apparently in the future this and this are no longer specific enough for the ignorant masses to indicate that this is where you go to use the toilet. Anyway, sorry it's so dark, but my days have consisted of making bazillions of backer cards for each and every artist in the used room. Though luckily I am only in charge of the music side on the right, as the DVD side is on the left. It took me over two weeks to finish the Pop/Rock section seen here, but when it comes to CD organization I am curiously anal about precise placement. Even more so than I am with my own collection at home. Maybe perhaps because I'm not trying to sell my collection at home to anybody. Well, not yet, at least (sigh).

The other significant change, although probably less so in my opinion, is... dun-dun DUUUUN! -- Die Zone... or the "Danger Zone" as we've been prone to calling it these days. It was Stacey's idea for when it opens to have Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone" song playing at all times inside the area, and she will greet customers at the orange gates here saying "Hello! And welcome to The Zone..." to which then Laurie would jump out behind the barriers wearing an aviator jacket and shades, make devil horns with her hands and go "Tha Daaaaaan-gah Zoooooone!" And yes, note the none-too-subtle "f.y.e" sign posted above. We're not quite f.y.e. yet, which confuses people even more and makes them sorta freak out a little, hater of change we American-types seem to be. I think the name change is the final step

in all this, but not quite there yet. Oh, The Zone! It's going to be a place where people can come and burn their own blank CDs from the various computers being installed here, as well as a docking bay for iPods and other MP3 players to upload new tracks. Why I think this is less significant is because if you already have an MP3 player it stands to reason you already have your own computer, so why would you trudge down to your local wrecka stow at nine in the morning and pay a service fee to do what you can already do sitting naked with a cup of coffee at your own desk, like I do? Perhaps the burning station part of it could be a boost in a sense, if anything for the less techno-savvy of us who only want one song but have never heard of the term "iTunes" before, and hey, I'm all for that. But how much of our revenue will that wind up being in time? Even if burning sales increase in our store over the next ten years, I think by that time a vast majority of citizens will have their own home computer and a station like this in a music store is practically obsolete as it's being built. But I dunno, apparently other f.y.e.'s are doing it around the country, so it must be working to some significant degree.

I am curious though, if anyone has seen these in and around their area music stores, and if they've seen people actually in "The Zone" doing... zone-y things, or whatever it all entails. If 44% of our stores sales are still compact disks, then I wonder how much of that will boost itself when a portion of that disks are filling up blank ones. Thoughts I've been chewing on as of late.

Speaking of late, I gotsa go, yo.