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The Finest's swan song
(Greeley Tribune (CO) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Nov. 16--When Jim Risser got his driver's license, the first thing he did was drive to a record store.
It wasn't The Finest. That came later, when he became a regular customer -- so regular, in fact, that the store's manager almost didn't want to hire him as a clerk when he was 19 and an accounting major at the University of Northern Colorado.
Three years later, The Finest wanted him to manage the Greeley store, and Risser and his father discussed it over lunch. Risser would have to drop out as a senior, but he sold the idea to his father on the opportunity. Jobs were scarce, Risser told him. But inside, Risser knew the real reason he wanted the job.
"I was so lucky," said Risser, 47, of Greeley. "I got to make a career out of my hobby."
Risser loved music, and he still loves music, and he hopes now as the store's owner, as he sings The Finest's swan song, that it's still about the music. He doesn't want the store's demise to be about him, even if he spent 32 years of his life with the store, either as a customer, clerk, manager, general manager and finally owner in 2003.
There's still tons of great music out there, he said, and it needs to be discovered.
Exactly how customers are discovering that music is what sealed the Greeley store's doom (Risser will keep his Fort Collins store open until at least August). Most people don't buy CDs any more, and that's hurt stores like Risser's across the country. Since 2003, 3,100 music retailers across the country have closed, and of those, 1,400 were independent record stores, according to the Almighty Institute of Music Retail, a marketing research company in Studio City, Calif. Even the big boys are hurting: The megachain Tower Records closed a few years ago.
Video may have killed the radio star, but digital music downloads, as well as record companies that (almost arrogantly) continued to charge $18.95 for a CD, killed most of the independent record stores, Risser said.
"The big-box stores were a factor, but if people were still buying CDs, we'd be fine," Risser said. "The acquisition of music is not an experience anymore. It's a transfer of data. It's ceasing to exist in a physical format. I'm not even that bitter about it, actually. It is what it is."
Risser saw it coming for years, but rather than give up and get out, he did everything he could to save the store he loved. He sold vinyl records. He expanded his line to goofy, quirky gifts such as freaky rubber monsters and incense, which prompted his 4-year-old daughter to tell him, "You 'tink." He opened a store in Windsor. He downsized his stores. He carried only a few new releases a week, which was painful to his music soul. He cut his staff and balanced his books with his wife every night. He even invited the devil on his doorstep in a sense, installing a kiosk that allowed his customers to download music legally and make their own mixes.
It all worked for a while, but the delayed death blow came in a hurry after the economy tanked, something that, ironically, helped put the second-biggest electronics big-box store, Circuit City, into bankruptcy protection.
Still, he feels sorry for others, not himself. He has to cut three guys with a combined 75 years of experience, including staff in the Fort Collins store, because Risser plans to run it himself to save money. His customers will have to discover new music on their own now -- it's doubtful the staff at Best Buy could help someone with a song that sounded like the Moody Blues that had a flute in it to play at her nephew's funeral because it was his favorite album, Risser said.
He will miss that the most, he said, turning longtime customers, some of whom bring in their kids to shop with them, on to new music or helping them rediscover long-lost favorites.
Then again, that won't disappear forever. First of all, his store is, he said, going out with a bang. He hired a company to liquidate his merchandise, and for five weeks, starting Thursday (after a brief closing), everything must go. Prices will be reduced, and customers can earn points for making purchases. He'll even give away prizes such as a flat-screen TV. You know, just in time for the holidays.
He'll keep the place open until the end of December, and he'll leave with no debt and just some lingering feelings of disappointment. Then, at the first of the year, he'll drop his two young daughters off at school every day and head to Fort Collins, where he'll run the Finest store until August. It will be kind of nice, he said, almost a return to his roots. Then, in August, when his lease expires, he'll decide what to do, depending on how sales go.
His career, his life, really, was about the music, and that won't change much. He'll still have an album collection that could fill a satellite music channel, and he'll still jam late at night if he's alone and in the mood to rock.
The end of December will not be the day the music died. It's just the day his beloved store stopped selling it.
The Finest, 2529 11th Ave., Greeley, will close Monday to prepare for its liquidation sale. It will re-open for the next five weeks starting Thursday and run from 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon-5 p.m. Sunday. The Finest is still taking special orders until it closes. Customers will obtain points for purchases in the store and will have the chance to win prizes, including a flat-screen TV.
The Finest's store in Fort Collins will remain open.
To see more of the Greeley Tribune, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.greeleytribune.com.
Copyright (c) 2008, Greeley Tribune, Colo.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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