First Latino’s, then the Carden Street Café and now Ground Floor Music. Three of my favourite downtown spending spots gone in six months.
It’s tough to be an independent business anywhere these days. Downtown Guelph is no exception. Although he is closing the shop he opened in 2006, Charlie Cares isn’t getting out of the music retail game. The owner of Ground Floor Music is making a radical adjustment to try and survive in a world rapidly moving towards online shopping.
He says that while many people still prefer to have a physical CD, fewer than 50 per cent are bought in stores like his. Most are sold online, with most going  through the Amazon empire.
Retail behemoths like this have huge sales volumes and very low overhead. They are able to use their muscle to get product directly from the record companies themselves. The independent stores, with their smaller volumes, are forced to buy from distributors.
By the time a major label CD gets to a Quebec Street store shelf, it has been through a primary and a secondary distribution company. With a sequence of mark-ups and shipping costs, there’s not much room left for an independent owner to pay the rent and buy some groceries.
The music world can be a pleasant and gentle place when you’re sitting in the audience listening to your favourite performers. It can be cruel and cut- throat when you go behind the stage. It’s people like Charlie Cares who are the most vulnerable when the knives come out. It’s companies like Amazon who can afford the most up -to-date knife sharpeners.
Cares will still be in the special order business. He has worked out an arrangement with The Bookshelf. Customers will be able to place and pick up orders from him there. A lot of his in-store business was going in that direction anyway. I didn’t do a lot of CD browsing and impulse buying. I would go in looking for something specific and if it wasn’t in stock, Cares would order it.
Shelf displays sometimes did bring small pleasures. A month or so ago, a CD by Hugh Laurie caught my eye. The English actor is quite a talented musician, and he put out a disc of jazz and blues standards. After I got it home, I discovered that local guitar genius Kevin Breit was playing in Laurie’s band. It’s tough to have those serendipitous moments when you’re doing your shopping either on Amazon or I-Tunes.
Cares tells me he will keep the shop open until June 30, unless he sells out his stock before then. He’s letting most of it go at 20 per cent off while it lasts. His move into The Bookshelf might be a beneficial arrangement for both of them. The book retail business faces a lot of the same competitive pressures as music. Amazon and Chapters are giant online hard copy retailers, and a lot of customers are buying e-books. The new world of retail may be bringing consumers lower prices. Talk to any independent shop keeper to learn the real cost.
While Cares is shutting Ground Floor, his wife is opening a clothing store on Wilson Street. He will look after his special orders, spend more time with his kids and help out with the new business.
It might be a better fit for the modern world. It is possible to buy clothes online, but most people want to try them on and look in a mirror first. On the bright side, there’s no future in electronic clothes. You could get arrested for walking around in I-shorts and an e-shirt.