[Slowhand] Best Buy

[Nicholas Aleshin]

Hmmm. Best Buy is one of the largest sellers of electronics, music,  
and DVDs in the US. As such, their web site -- and their ads in the  
Sunday newspaper colored section -- is a bellweather or indicator of  
things to come. I often hear about new releases the first time from  
Best Buy.

The small, independent music stores usually do not have web sites, nor  
the vast database that places such as Best Buy have. That being said,  
I often buy online from CDUniverse.com, Amazon (US, British, and  
German) web sites, SpinCDs.com (another UK vendor), CDJapan.co.jp, and  
seldom from Best Buy. And I still like being surprised by what I can  
find in a good record store, so about once a month, I visit an  
independent vendor. In Maryland and parts of Delaware, there's Record  
& Tape Traders, which is the best independent music store I've seen.  
They also have a web site, and have been very closely associated with  
yodelinpig.com, another web site.

About the only bad thing about Record & Tape Traders is that it always  
smells like a cheap, New Orleans whorehouse. Wow! The incense or  
whatever scent it is makes you smell like the place for up to several  
hours after you walk out. And it's always that extremely overly sweet  
and very pungent smell that overpowers you. The first time I came home  
from the place, I had some explaining to do with my wife, as she said  
I smelled like I'd been with an enterprising woman. But since then,  
she's been to R&TT with me and understands that the place simply  
stinks like overpowering, cheap perfume. I really don't know why they  
do that.

But their selection is great, and they've got the best collection of  
foreign CDs I've ever seen.

				DeltaNick