While small indie music shops seem to be doing well, The Warehouse Entertainment departments appear to be floundering.

Sad as Te Warehouse used to be first port of call for cheap music and movies.

Depends on your point of view. This is a good thing isn't it?

Our TW is a very pale shadow of what it was. I call in about once a month as there's the occasional item worth consideration but in the last year only purchased one release.
At one time I used to make a point of stopping at any TW on my trips up and down the island with a fair chance of finding a few gems. Timaru had a reasonable vinyl collection
and Queenstown was worth a look.
If I want to look through a decent selection it's now a five hour return trip to Dunedin.
Cheaper and easier just to buy on line.

I always found shopping for CDs at TW to be a frustrating experience as their filing system left a lot to be desired. An album could be filed under either of the artists first or last names, "the" if it was a band name or the album title. Hopeless. Online I can find it easier...

Or...the records may not even be in the record dept!
Hastings is rubbish..Napier store better.
Nearly all their records are old(safe bands,artists) stuff from the likes of the Stones,Queen etc

TWG goes where the money is... and that place, is not physical media.
Put all the stats out there that you want, they gave it the good 'ole college try, but nothing came of it... so it will mimic the JB Hifi ranging and shrink into nothing over time.

Physical media still around 10% of total sales

www.riaa.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/2020-Year-End-Music-Industry-Revenue-Report.pdf

"Vinyl Record Sales Increased Almost 30% in 2020, RIAA Says

The RIAA has released its annual year-end revenue report, surveying the state of the recorded music industry at the end of 2020. Despite the coronavirus pandemic, trends across the past several years carried on: Streaming is up 13.4%, generating $10.1 billion last year compared to $8.9 billion in 2019, accounting for 83% of the total revenue of the industry. Vinyl sales have continued to rise, too, increasing a whopping 29.2% to $619.6 million, compared to $479.5 million in 2019"

But...if ya aint got the stock...ya cant sell the stock!

Mar 3, 2021 10:36:21 GMT 12 andrewp said:

But...if ya aint got the stock...ya cant sell the stock!

Exactly. Most of what they carry is dross as well. Many of the lps are grey area releases from Europe.
The stock layout in my local is poor with lps jammed into plastic crates. Some at floor level and I'm no longer willing to grovel around on my knees flipping through miss filed records.

Popped back today, this is the last of their silver discs.

Gone are the days of cheap back catalogue titles and one-off oddities.

Looking for a bargain, might be worth checking your local today.
The invercargill branch has everything reduced and some serious savings on lps.
Not sure if it's nationwide.

It appears nationwide.

All the WH down here are clearing out CD, LP, DVD, BD

Empty shelves at the Ingill branch now except for a few lps, mostly EU grey area stuff.
Not sure if it hasn't been a case of ever decreasing circles; physical media not selling so stock less, stock less so sell less and so it goes on.
Most of the potential buyers I used to see locally appeared to be in the older age group but TW never seemed to stock material that would appeal to that base.

Will their book department be next to go.