FYE Is Overpriced

  On Saturday night I went to the Wyoming Valley Mall in Wilkes-Barre to look around. As usual I check FYE to see if they have anything interesting. While walking around FYE, I noticed that they are way overpriced on the CDs, DVDs and Blu Rays that they sell. For instance I looked at the Thor soundtrack, they wanted $19.99 for it. I know I can get a better deal for it on Amazon.com. Later that night I checked Amazon.com for their price for the Thor soundtrack and they wanted $11.19 for it. That is a difference in price at a savings of $8.80 if you buy it from Amazon.com. I can see clearly why FYE is closing stores left and right. I collect score soundtracks and FYE wants $18-20 for one average. If you look at the record label's website where you can sometimes buy directly from them, you can see that they want like maybe $12-15 for a soundtrack average. Now I don't understand why FYE has insane markup on their CDs and DVDs. They have the same buying power as retailers such as Best Buy, Walmart, and Amazon.com. Is it ethical to sell a CD that costs $11.19, a markup of $8.80? The answer is no. If places like these want to stay in business in this economy, they better lower their goddamn prices on their CDs and DVDs.
  Another thing that annoys me about FYE is their DVD prices. For instance I like terrible SyFy original movies, so I look at these also when I look at soundtracks. Take the movie Mongolian Death Worm for instance. FYE wanted $27 for Mongolian Death Worm, whereas Amazon.com wants $15.51 for the DVD. FYE markups a DVD $11.49 that should cost around $15.51 or less. I find that FYE's corporate management are to blame for these prices. I can't tell you how many times I've walked out of FYE disgusted because of their prices. In January 2011 the FYE that was located in the Laurel Mall in Hazleton closed. What a damn shame. No it wasn't. I can get better deals at Gallery of Sound which is a local chain of record stores in Northeastern PA. For instance when Lady Gaga's new album Born This Way came out, I bought the deluxe edition at Gallery of Sound for $15.88 on May 23rd 2011. A few weeks later I went to the Whitehall Mall in Allentown and saw the same CD at FYE for $19.99. I laughed because I got it cheaper. Also FYE doesn't give a hoot about the condition that the CDs or DVDs are in when they get traded in either. I bought the Batman score at FYE used and it was slightly scratched. I was able to fix it with a banana. Gallery of Sound on the other hand checks the CDs when you are trading them in to see if they are scratched, if they are, they won't take them. I like that they care what is being traded in unlike FYE who most of the time doesn't check at all.

Why I Still Buy CDs

A Lady Gaga CD

  When was the last time you bought a CD. Seriously think about it. The answer for many of us is probably never if you got an iPod. Well I can tell you this, I still buy CDs all the time. I am buying the deluxe edition of Born This Way on Monday.
   Many people don't buy CDs anymore because they have an iPod or some type of MP3 player. The reason why I still buy CDs is partially the fact that I don't have an iPod. Why don't I have one? I don't have one due to the fact that I DESPISE Apple products. I think that they are overrated and are another thing to get broken inside of my pocket.
   The second reason I still buy CDs is the fact that I prefer a physical copy over a digital one. Why you ask? Well a physical copy of an album is always there, It can't be deleted or destroyed if something happens to your iPod or MP3 player.
    My third reason I still buy CDs is because I want to support the record store, which is a dying trend. The FYE in the Laurel Mall closed down in January 2011. I tend to support the local independent record stores over the big box ones. I rarely get to go out of town to shop at another FYE which is 28 miles from my house and with the price of gas it would be a waste if I didn't come back with a CD.
     Finally I still buy CDs because I am old school. I don't care about iPods or iPhones or Zunes or iTunes. All I care about is having a physical copy of an album. By the way did you know that Rhianna's new album Loud has a parental advisory label and that you can't buy the physical copy of Loud with the parental advisory label? You can only get the uncensored version digitally. I believe that this is giving people who buy CDs the middle finger.