Just returned from a trip to Bellingham, Washington and a brief retreat to my parent’s oceanside cabin on Chuckanut Bay. One of the many draws of my hometown is its proximity to Vancouver, British Columbia and a day jaunt to the city did not disappoint. It helped that we struck lucky with the weather (upper 70s & sunny) and that my girlfriend wasn’t averse to hoofing it hither and yon to save on cab fare.
As with any trip to an urban locale, a cd safari, however brief, is ALWAYS on the itinerary. I managed to hit a respectable handful of brick & mortars, once again owing to my girlfriend’s Job-like patience and the promise of equal time at the seemingly limitless supply of clothing boutiques. A rude awakening to the inflated prices on Canadian compact discs stymied said safari from the start. HMV was the most egregious culprit with single discs tagged as high as $33(!) a pop. A $9.99 sale on certain Blue Notes was more within the bounds of reason, but did little to allay my dismay at the exorbitancy on display. Used shops were guilty of the gouging too with titles commonly priced at $10.99 and up. Resigned to the situation, I came back across the border empty handed and reserved my disc-spending budget for the meager selection of stores in Bellingham and the better pickings in Seattle.
So, I’m wondering is how long has this madness been going on? Are Canadian music consumers asked to swallow this sort of grievous profiteering across the country? What are the rationales behind such pricing and how are they sold to the public? How are the brick & mortar branches of companies like HMV staying afloat considering that much of the music they stock is available at drastically reduced prices through other retailers online? Here in the States, stores like Sam Goody and Musicland practice similar big-ticket tactics, but they’re not catering in specialty jazz for the most part (ie. Mosaic Selects for $109 apiece, another revelation at the HMV I visited) and they’ve taken it on the chin repeatedly to the tune of regular layoffs and shop closings. I’m curious if, and how, this situation has affected Canadian Bags readers. There’s an intangible thrill that comes with perusing record store racks, but when you’re priced out of a purchase before your fingers touch the bin it’s hard to justify the pastime as a profitable pursuit.
Posted by derek on August 27, 2006 4:47 PMYou are taking into account the difference between US dollars and Canadian dollars, right?
Posted by: pdf at August 27, 2006 5:30 PM1 U.S. Dollar = $1.11 Canadian (exchange rate for 8/27/06)
So that $33 cd can be had for a mere $29.78 U.S.
Upshot: the once-mighty U.S. currency continues to shrivel like pitted prune.
Posted by: derek at August 27, 2006 6:56 PMVancouver used to have the cheapest CDs in North America, but 2 of the 4 major chains closed and another (A&B Sound) was sold. Also mourned is jazz and folk speciality store Black Swan Records.
HMV is a ripoff; no one shops there unless they are looking for Britney CDs. I suspect the $33 CD you were looking at was an import. HMV's prices are at least 25% more than elsewhere in the city. CDs are much cheaper at A&B: Blue Note RVGs go for C$13 and Conns range between $18-$23.
The best music stores are Zulu (pricy, but nice selection) and Magic Flute.
Posted by: B. Clugston at August 28, 2006 1:43 PMYeah, I avoid HMV at all costs: hideous place. Sam's downtown is a door away from it & the prices are usually markedly cheaper. Up here in North York I frequent the Sonic Temple (recent sale of Blue Notes for 4 for $44--combine that with not having to pay for parking or subway fare & it's cheaper than downtown). & ordering things through Verge Distribution (when I have pocket money, which is rare these days).
Posted by: N.D. at August 28, 2006 3:39 PMThe HMV in question was until a year ago a Virgin Megastore. Virgin's prices were steep, but when HMV moved in, the price of most non-crap CDs jumped up a couple of bucks.
We used to have a Sam's, but that closed when Sam went bankrupt five years ago.
Posted by: B. Clugston at August 28, 2006 3:52 PMThanks for the responses/info. The HMV did have the glitzy flavor of a Virgin Mega: same basic layout with lots of steel & glass. I think the $33 disc was an Oscar Peterson Verve compliation, can’t recall which one, so an import only in the sense that it’s from the U.S. :)
B.C., curious about your opinion of Skora’s (sp.?) Classical Records in Gastown? I chanced upon it just as the clerk was closing shop for the day & it looked mighty inviting inside.
Posted by: derek at August 28, 2006 5:01 PMThe best thing in Vancouver is an oyster burger with bacon from "Fatso's". It has burger sized smoked and breaded oysters from fanny bay on it. Who cares about music at that point?
Th only cd I found was a strange cd from the trombonist Christian Muthspiel with Sainkho, Klaus Koch, Stanko, Tarsov and some other east European players.
Derek - I'm sad to hear you didn't find any bargains in the music stores here in the Great White North. [Just came back from a week long stint business stint in Vancouver and I wish I knew where about some of the stores mentioned here.]
I've never particularly had any difficulties locating great bargains here in Toronto [or thereabouts]. Over the last four years, I've been frequenting a certain smaller chain store where they regularly put up "rare finds" for a mere 99 cents [that's about 94 cents US]. What did I find there, you ask? Everything from out of print ECMs, to rare Japanese titles, to domestic stuff from people such as Julian Cope, Bob Mould, Prince Far I, crap-load of soundtracks and let's not forget dozens of world music titles. One of my favourite titles if something called "Rendez-vous 2 - A collection of Open Minded Jazz" [released by Street Jazz Records from France]. Featuring rare titles from Cortex, Placebo, Nate Morgan, Fabiano Orchestra, Spirits Rejoice and Sun Ra [!!], this was a real steal at 99 cents [considering when I peeled off the sale price sticker, I nearly fainted at the original price of $34.99!].
Otherwise, we also have a fine selection of used CD shops and flea markets, where I found David Murray's DIW titles for a mere $5 or Nick Drake titles for around $8, Sun Ra finds for $10 or better yet, Prince Far I titles for $2.
Rule of the game is ask and look around. Plenty of good, cheap music to be had.
Posted by: Tom Sekowski at August 28, 2006 6:32 PMNate - do you recall CD Bar? [once on Queen, then moved to Yonge]...or Record Peddler?
One of my greatest finds at the time CD Bar was shutting its doors for good was a CD titled "Tunguska-Guska", a radio opera [dedicated to that infamous meteor that landed in Siberia] by Namchylak, Grace Yoon and another German vocalist whose name I can't recall now, along with Sunny Murray....all for a mere $8!
You’re right, Tom, I should’ve posted something prior to the trip for pointers. My haul from Seattle was relatively modest, just the titles below for a hair under $50 all told.
Bud Shank – The Pacific Jazz Studio Sessions (1956-61) (Mosaic) [some great early Gary Peacock on here & a cool obscure surf soundtrack among the albums included]
Stan Getz - At the Shrine (Verve)
James Moody - At the Jazz Workshop (Chess)
Red Rodney - Fiery (Savoy) [two killer hardbop quintets w/ Ira Sullivan in the frontline]
Kenny Davern - In Concert, Albuquerque, 2004 (Arbors) [nice quartet date w/ Greg Cohen spicing things up on bass]
Ray Anderson - It Just So Happens (Enja)
Vancouver has a rockin' Chinatown, some great eating. Also some OK Indian food. Certainly better than Seattle, which has NO decent Indian food at ALL.
I have never found good deals on CDs anywhere in Canada.
But I have witnessed a corn shucking contest in Chilliwack that made me forget all about such things.
Posted by: Reuben Radding at August 28, 2006 11:30 PMYeah, no Indian but you can´t mess with Seattle when it comes to Vietnamese. What about Minneapolis? I imagine they could compare. Asian food in Germany has sucked so far.
I remember Toronto having a great section right off their Chinatown with lots of small little shops selling all sorts of junk and trinkets. I think I got some used CDs there and some rare Atari cartridges.
How´s that James Moody, Derek?
Posted by: Ted at August 29, 2006 4:06 AMTed - do you recall if this Chinatown store had any working Atari consoles? I almost picked one up a number of years ago at a local Salvation Army, but one of the consoles was missing.
Agree that Vancouver’s Chinatown ranks highly. We hit a tasty Congee BBQ house on Pender, but were buzz-killed a bit by the used hypos visible in the restroom trash receptacle.
Minneapolis beats Seattle AND Vancouver in terms of Vietnamese cuisine, Thai & Somali too, IMO. But the busking scene seems better in Seattle. Highlight was a female button accordion/musical saw duo down from Bellingham doing original freak folk numbers outside the fish stand on Pike. Drew a decent crowd that was generous with the spare change.
T, the Moody’s okay: it’s from ’61 & while he’s kept the septet format from earlier Prestige sides, there’s more polish & little trace of the R&B influence that makes those so fun. I’m keeping an eye out for the other Chess comp. Return from Overbrook that’s supposedly a bit rougher ‘round the edges, but it looks like a hen’s teeth find these days. Took lotsa pics on the trip & will be uploading them shortly & sending them your way. We hit Mt. Baker on an ideal day weather-wise & the shots of it & Shuksan peaks are postcard-perfect.
Posted by: derek at August 29, 2006 5:38 AMTo me, if you're going to go to Seattle and eat, you really owe it to yourself to eat sushi.
Here in NYC the best sushi in town, as brilliant as it is, still can't beat the quality of the fish out there.
I wish I knew the name of the vietnamese place I ate at in Toronto a couple years ago. I swear to freaking Christ they put some sort of opiate in the food. It wasn't MSG--I know that buzz. It really felt like morphine.
Tasted good too.
Posted by: Reuben Radding at August 29, 2006 7:09 AMHey, somewhere in my parents' house in Halifax is an Atari with lots of cartridges....... I doubt I could ever find it again though.
The CD Bar sounds vaguely familiar, & I remember the Record Peddler. There was a spot on Yonge near the defunct Writers & Co I liked, Backbeat. My usual place nowadays for vinyl & used CDs is the place on Baldwin off McCaul whose name escapes me at the moment.
Posted by: N.D. at August 29, 2006 8:44 AMRe: Derek's query about Sikora. It's a good store. It has the best classical music selection in town. Small jazz selection leaning more on the traditional end of the spectrum. A&B downtown and Zulu and Magic Flute on W. 4th are the other recommended spots. The used shops downtown are useless unless you are looking for top 40--they are just places where drug addicts sell the CDs they just stole out of your car.
And yes, Vancouver does have a lot of great Asian food. Richmond is also worth a visit if you like Chinese food. Great variety ranging from Taiwanese to northern to Hong Kong, etc. Overall, Vancouver has some of the best restaurants and the worst pubs in North America. Take the ferry to Victoria if you want a pub.
Posted by: B. Clugston at August 29, 2006 11:52 AMI did see Atari units and stuff there was cheap as opposed to a shop in Seattle I was going to at the time when I was buying games. I think the place was even cheaper than Value Village that still had 3.99 on Combat. Best bet is eBay. I sold my load on there and some shop got away with a steal WITH my Colecovision and games, too.
D, can´t wait for the pics. Was thinking of Moody today here at the local shop but opted for Young Jug instead.
Posted by: Ted at August 29, 2006 12:01 PMNate - how much do you want for the Atari set?
Would a six-pack of Zywiec or maybe a case of home-made brew be enough as payment?
You do know you can download an emulator and games off the net for free, if you want. If this is going to degenerate into an Atari discussion, I have to say that it is better on the TY. Also, I´d say get the older and more classic Atari games. The simpler the better. Intellivision is alright but the type of games are done better by newer systems. For classic arcade games--the NES is good if you don´t want to get MAME--shich is the greatest thing ever. When I was a kid, I loved Colecovision, nowadays it´s worthless as you can get better versions of all the games pretty easily.
Posted by: Ted at August 30, 2006 12:41 AMThere’s at least one Atari console & several dozen cartridges buried in a box in my parents' garage in Tucson. I can’t imagine they’re too hard to come buy these days, online or in the brick & mortar thrift shops. I still like to get my groove on to a Combat emulator every once & awhile, esp. the biplane & jet fighter variations. Not so keen on the tanks. Laser Blast is the bomb too, used to play that one for hours. Once you hit the right rhythm, you’re unstoppable, & it’s pretty much like riding a bike.
Posted by: derek at August 31, 2006 6:07 AMI live in Montreal and the situation here sounds a lot like Vancouver... an HMV "Megastore" (complete with Megaprices) and a bunch of smaller stores that struggle to get by (Cheap Thrills, l'Oblique, CD Esoterik until it closed). The latter are indeed cheaper than HMV but as a rule prices are higher here than simply adding the foreign exchange component.
While I spend a lot of $ at Cheap Thrills, I have often gone to the internet when buying higher-ticket items (multi-CD boxes).
The only place to find very good prices on jazz/improv in Canada seems to be Verge (a Canadian mail-order house based in Ontario). Think Downtown Music Gallery prices plus prevailing exchange rate, and an excellent selection.
Posted by: Mark C. at September 3, 2006 11:36 PMGreat little store for music in Toronto is Penguin. I have found some good used bargains there but the new prices are also competitive. Besides, it's got the nicest vibe.
As for food, nowhere has Toronto beat, unless you're talking Singapore or a beach in Thailand.
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