Survival of the hippest
By Avisha Chugani
Nov. 6, 2003 9:00 p.m.
Caught in the midst of the file-sharing debate, a little music
store down the lane is surviving while other Westwood record stores
have gone out of business.
Penny Lane, an established indie music store located on Kinross
Avenue, has been around since 1985 and is not planning to leave
anytime soon.
While the store initially stocked vinyl records only, its change
in business strategy is what owner Steve Bixler credits for the
continued viability of the business
“An emphasis on DVD sales has helped us to adapt and stay
in business,” he said.
Westwood Village has been plagued by a high business turnover
rate over the last few years, with music stores being among the top
categories of failure.
Pugz Records and Wherehouse Music both went out of business
early this year, citing a lack of sales and increasing rent costs
as prime pressures behind their decisions to leave.
According to a survey compiled by Edison Media Research, the
combination of downloading and burning compact discs is the prime
cause for a downturn in music sales.
Penny Lane tries to circumvent this problem by offering a sales
incentive that allows customers to return CDs within seven days of
purchase and get 80 percent of their purchase back in store
credit.
In essence, an individual taking advantage of this offer can buy
a CD, burn it and return it for a majority of the money paid for
it.
The key to Penny Lane’s success is the fact that the store
caters to a specific market, said Larry Rosin, president for Edison
Media Research.
“They’re obviously fulfilling a need for
hard-to-find stuff,” he said.
Stef Loy, manager of Penny Lane Westwood for two years, said the
store offers a less corporate feel which appeals to many
consumers.
“Probably the intimacy of being an indie store is
appealing,” she said.
But the music store is still somewhat vulnerable to the declines
in sales revenue experienced by other music businesses.
Bixler said other factors hurt sales for Penny Lane in Westwood.
For instance, the location on Kinross Avenue is inconvenient for
students, and no parking is available for non-student
customers.
Pressures have forced Penny Lane stores in Venice and on the
Third Street Promenade to close in recent years, Loy said.
While a new store is opening in Monrovia, Bixler said
“things are very tight right now” for the chain,
especially since there are still other competitors in the industry
that cater to the indie music audience.
Stores like Amoeba Records and Second Spin offer convenient ways
to buy and sell used CDs and DVDs online, and also have a seemingly
larger collection than an individual Penny Lane store.
Customers at Penny Lane stores can rent a new video, DVD or
video game for two days at $2.99, and for three days at the same
price for old releases.
Special offers include renting a second DVD for 99 cents if the
first is returned before 3 p.m. on its due date.
Such prices offer the store a competitive edge over other
multimedia rental sources like Blockbuster Video, which charges
$4.10 for old release rentals for a five to eight day loan, and
$6.48 for video games for the same time period.
Loy said 60 percent of customers take advantage of rental
service, while the remaining 40 percent frequent stores for
purchasing music.
