Shoptalk has heard that CD Plus (1592 Barrington Street, 422-1559) is closing on March 30, 2010. Staff at the downtown location of the Winnipeg-based music and DVD retailer refused to comment, but CD Plus vice president of sales Dale Bially promised to provide more information next week, though he wouldn’t confirm or deny the closing. If CD Plus does close, it’ll be another retail hole on Barrington, as well as further evidence of the impact online sales are having on the complexion of the music and DVD business. CD Plus is also an online retailer.
This article appears in Jan 21-27, 2010.
God damnit! Closing or moving?
signs in the windows now all say “Store closing”…how disappointing as this is one of my favorite places to pick up cds.
Does Barrington even have stores anymore? I’ll have to investigate…
Wrong further F. Booth. They’ll buy it; just from iTunes, onto their iPods/iPhone (soon to be iPad, probably). If they cant get it from iTunes, they’ll then torrent it.
Another reason to support downtown business. Music should not be disposable but enjoyed and collected. Folks seem to forget the joy of hearing recordings to their fullest quality of sound on a proper system and format. Again we give up quality for convenience. Don’t forget to support Taz on Market Street.
That’s debatable, Backstreet. With increases in technology and space, a 192 kbps AAC file has better sound quality than the 256 kbps Linear PCM that’s on a CD. That’s part of the reason why people are going digital, along with the fact that they can put an entire collection of albums on an external hard drive. The only thing that was going to save music on the physical media was Super Audio CDs and/or DVD audio, and they didn’t.
Most of the big box stores that used to carry CDs have either eliminated or reduced their stock significantly. There will always be a niche market for records and CDs, sadly though, mass market places like CD Plus or Random Play have a limited lifespan.
Their “lease ran out” my buddy sais, its supposed to be a move but havent been able to find a new location. Thats a shame. It really is. The guys that run that place are good guys and its a fckn sin that its going. All bare inside and all…. sin..
the current employees and the recently unemployed of CD Plus cannot express how grateful we are to the loyal customers that walked through the doors of every CD Plus store across Canada. we know some of you have faced some difficulties redeeming your gift cards or having your returns and exchanges processed with the recent closing of numerous stores. the phone number you have been given is the main CD Plus location in Canada located in Winnipeg. when you call you’ll likely be speaking to an employee of that store and are not being connected to our head office. we will do all we can to answer your questions but we hope you can be patient with us as we assist you during this busy and stressful time. thank you again. 🙂
CD Plus just closed their last Winnipeg outlet about an hour ago. From over 200 outlets in Canada they’re now down to under 30, more closings expected. About a year ago the city of Wpg. said you can’t pay cash to people anymore for CDs (had to take photos, mail out cheques, etc) This was the start of the death knell for Wpg. music shops as more people continue to steal music off the web. Only shops that will surive are those with lots of collectible vinyl LPs, 45s and music memorabilia, instruments, etc. Towards the end CDplus was only paying $1 for used CDs or about $1.50 in trade. The other music places in Winnipeg, Into the Music, Music Trader, Beatniks, Sound X, etc. pay anywhere from 75cents a disc (Music Trader) to approx. $3 cash or $5 trade (Beatniks)…. but Beatniks and Into the Music deal more in old records than CDs. The guy at Beatniks told me he pays more for CDs but only punk, blues, metal, psychedelic, etc. no sugar pop, classical, etc. They also buy tons of vinyl. Got some nifty Doors, AC/DC and John Lee Hooker vinyl today.