no good deed goes unpunished

[rone]

I had a jones for new music, but i want to avoid giving Amazon my business until they stop doing shit like dodging taxes, opposing union organization, and trying to kill warehouse workers.  So, hey, buy local.  The two local music stores are Streetlight Records and Rasputin Music.  I found Streetlight's site suboptimal for finding stuff i wanted, so i went with Rasputin, paying my sales tax like a good citizen and my shipping fee like a good "buy local" pinko liberal (i could have driven there, but ZOMG FOSSIL FUELS and anyway, i figured that there was no way that the store would have in stock some of what i wanted).  The shipment ended up split because one disc was on backorder, yet it arrived ahead of the rest of my order.  And then i got one completely wrong item, which i'll have to return.  So thanks, Rasputin and Streetlight, for sending me back grumbling to Amazon for my next music purchase.

Comments

[eagle]

Since you mention shipping, I assume you're buying physical CDs. Try CD Connection. I've been buying CDs from them since at least 1995. They're based in Sunnyvale, they're very fast, they have a fairly good selection, and I've never had a single problem with them when it comes to accuracy of shipments or completeness of orders.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Heh, i was a CD Connection customer for a few years. For some reason, i seem to recall that you could buy online from them via telnet, before they were on the Web. I abandoned them after Amazon's rise; i guess i'd better get back to them.

[eagle]

You could indeed. My first few purchases from them were via telnet. I keep worrying that they'll go out of business, since an online business that's survived more than 20 years is like finding a lost valley full of dinosaurs, but they seem to still be afloat.

[erikagillian.livejournal.com]

I used to work for the guy who owned Rasputin's (and Blondies, and a t-shirt store, and maybe something else) and I might go with Amazon over that piece of shit. Record stores, at least back then, 1989, god, ok, he could have changed since them but! Record store jobs were probably like bookstore jobs, so many people want to work in them you can fuck them over all kinds of ways. He also had some shady business dealing and was just scummy. He wanted me to come to work day after the Loma Prieta. When they told everyone to stay home. I then went to work at Copymat, where they tried to poison us by painting the unventilated place at night while we worked there during the day with *oil* paint. I got Cal-Osha on them. Then I went back to being a landscaper, my back was better, thank god.