Local Video
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| Digital sales sound end for Fine Groove |
By: DAVID HENKE, Staff Writer
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Posted: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 9:40 pm
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On a cold and bleak Friday afternoon, Brian KenKnight reclined behind the front counter in the Fine Groove, his independent record store on Division Street.
A few customers, drawn in by a sign posted on the front windows that read “50 percent off, Closing Sale,” trickled in and out of the small shop. For KenKnight, the owner and manager of the Fine Groove, business was better than usual, but still slow.
KenKnight has seen his fair share of ups and downs in the industry, but for the last six years, he has watched his CD and vinyl record sales slump lower and lower, as digital music downloading and online stores like iTunes and Amazon.com took a perpetually larger bite out of his business.
This December, Northfield’s last independent record store will close its doors for good, capping off a 26-year span that began in the age of garage rock, grunge music and eight-track tapes.
“It’s the end of an era, I suppose,” KenKnight said of the closing of his store. “It’s kind of a combination of relief to be be able to move on and sadness.”
KenKnight’s store is by no means the only victim of the online music trend. According to information released by the Recording Industry Association of America, sales of physical CDs have declined from 942.5 million units in 2000 to a low of 511.1 million in 2007. It’s a statistic that has spelled doom for thousands of record stores across the nation, whether they are independent, like Fine Groove, or members of corporate chains, like Sam Goody.
High property taxes in Northfield, the small size of the community, and its proximity to the metro area made matters worse, said KenKnight.
“As a small retailer, you’re at such a financial disadvantage,” KenKnight said. “Anything that I can buy and resell, a consumer can buy at Amazon for even less. There’s no way to financially compete.”
The largest decline in sales came from the college-aged crowd, KenKnight said. In the past, students from St. Olaf and Carleton were the mainstay of his business. Now, he’s lucky if one or two stop in at the store.
Local musician Meredith Fierke used to bike to the Fine Groove to pick up CDs and talk shop with KenKnight and fellow customers in the store. But with the evaporation of independent record shops, Fierke worries that an invaluable part of music culture will be lost.
“It’s totally become this mainstream loss of personality,” Fierke said. “This town has character, and [the Fine Groove] was a part of it.”
— David Henke can be reached at dhenke@northfieldnews.com or 645-1100.
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Oh I am so frustrated about the death of all these small businesses in Northfield. I greatly valued Fine Groove & over the years ordered numerous esoteric CD's. THANK YOU Mr. KenKnight for giving so much to the residents of Northfield. I wish you the best. And I totaly agree with your
statement blaming high commercial property
taxes...they are terrible here in Northfield. Each time a small business closes I wonder how much these high taxes (thus high rental rates) represent in the decision to close. In Northfield, a business owner can be successful & still fail because of the commerical property taxes.
There are a number of factors going on, and only a few of them are hit in the artcle: property and otehr taxes being one, competition from online retailers, like Amazon is another. One other important factor is that so much of what is being produced and marketed lacks consumer appeal, to be polite. Music was so much better in the '50s, '60s and '70s, even the '80s with the birth of punk rock, than what we get today.
I admit that the number of CDs I have purchasd in the past year, whether at a "brick and mortar" retailer or online seller, can probably be counted on one hand. umber of music downloads is still at zero. This is because there is so little new material that appeals to me.
The same problems are also plagueing the book industry.