store

The real 'High Fidelity': The little record store that could

UPDATE: I just heard the sad news that Future Legend will be closing its doors later this month. I have personally bought more than 200 CDs over the years from that little shop, but now I'll have to go elsewhere for my weekly fix. If you're in NYC drop by and pick up bargains, starting today, 2/6/08, Future Legend will begin selling all merchandise at 50% off the sticker price.

I want to tell you about my favorite record store, Future Legend. I drop in every week to see what's new, and talk about music … Read more

Dell to close its U.S. stores

Dell is abruptly abandoning its Dell Direct Store effort, saying customers now have other ways to get their hands on the company's products.

The computer maker said Wednesday that it will close all 140 of its U.S. kiosks as part of the company's ongoing shift in how it sells its products. The company launched the kiosk effort in 2002 as a way for customers to see products firsthand before ordering online or by phone.

"In the past six months the company has adopted a retail strategy that enables Dell to connect with customers it has not … Read more

7digital's DRM-free music store goes global

If Amazon's music store going international wasn't enough digital music news for you today, 7digital took the liberty of announcing its international roll-out plans today, and its CEO took time out to talk to us one-on-one.

The DRM-free 7digital download store is often discussed alongside iTunes, eMusic, and Amazon as a major player in the music download world. It was one of the first online stores to host EMI's DRM-free catalog and now offers more than 3 million tracks, the majority of which are sans-DRM.

Today it announced it's set to receive 4.25 million pounds … Read more

Nokia Music Store

Update: a spokesperson from Nokia contacted me and let me know that, despite what the booth staffers told me, Nokia has "not announced plans or a timeline for the U.S. market" regarding a music store. So we'll have to wait and see.

I stopped by the packed Nokia booth at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to get an update on the Nokia Music Store announced over the summer. It's already online in the U.K. (PC only), with a library of nearly 3 million songs.

The Web-based store looks fairly standard. But according … Read more

CompUSA closes shop

Forget Black Friday. For the best deals on gadgets and PCs this holiday season, look no further than your neighborhood CompUSA.

The embattled electronics retail chain was dealt its final blow Friday when it was sold to Specialty Equity, an affiliate of private equity firm Gordon Brothers Group. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but the immediate result is that Specialty Equity will close all 103 CompUSA stores in the United States, according to a press release issued late Friday.

Gordon Brothers will "initiate an orderly wind-down" of each of the stores, the company says. That's … Read more

Diehard Apple fans line up way in advance for N.Y. store opening

It was freezing cold and snow was starting to come down, but at 2:30 p.m. EST there were already several hundred people waiting in line at the new Apple Store on West 14th St. in Manhattan's Meatpacking District, which which opens at 6 p.m. One estimate put the crowd at about 600 people with several hours still to go.

The first person in line, a high schooler, had showed up at 1 a.m. That's not a typo. He told CNET News.com that by 3:30 or 4 a.m., more people started to … Read more

Gotham Geek Guidebook: West 14th Street Apple Store

A friend of mine once told me that one of the most striking characteristics of the Manhattan mini-neighborhood known as the Meatpacking District was the proliferation of "baby giraffes."

Basically, what he meant were the hordes of impossibly skinny young women in mile-high stiletto heels, teetering through the cobblestone streets of the party-heavy neighborhood as though they were juvenile specimens of Giraffa camelopardalis who couldn't quite control their pole-like legs. (In case you couldn't tell, the Meatpacking District's warehouses have largely given way to pricey designer boutiques and the nightclubs that keep Us Weekly's … Read more

Leverage: A bank (sort of) for your gift cards

On Monday, November 26, Leverage will open up its gift card management service. It will be the place for you to register all those plastic cash cards you get from people who want to give you a gift but don't want to give you a gift. The service will track all your cards and the balances you have on them, let you buy and swap cards, send offers your way from the retailers whose cards you're holding, and pay you interest on the unused balance on your cards--which is weird, when you think about it for half a … Read more

At Wired Store launch party, 'Guitar Hero' and gadgets galore (and tequila)

On Thursday night, a slew of well-dressed publishing types flooded into a cavernous space in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood for the opening celebration of 2007's Wired Store. For the past few years, the tech-focused magazine has created a "pop-up store" to feature the gadgets that it wants to highlight this holiday season.

And like any party, there was an open bar. Last year's Wired Store party had featured booze from Budweiser and Yellow Tail. This year, Wired parent company Conde Nast had stepped it up a notch with drink selections courtesy of Patron tequila--including a mojito … Read more