Toronto non-mall retail (Odds & Ends)

[GenerationW]

The Silver Snail: Comics icon sold, to move
(via Toronto.Com)

Before the first Silver Snail store opened, Ron sold new and used comics out of Bakka Sci-Fi Books, which was on the north side of Queen across from the current Snail location. I remember walking in there completely by accident as a kid in the summer of 1976, and I was in total awe. I think I bought newest Daredevil issue that day.

 

[Towered]

I would care. I love physical media.

It's going to become a pretty expensive hobby in the near future I'm afraid.

 

[freshcutgrass]

It's going to become a pretty expensive hobby in the near future I'm afraid.

Digital (or I should say "virtual") media is here to stay for sure. But physical media is also here to stay as well.

I don't know how "expensive" it's going to get. I guess it depends on whether you're producing it "new", or collecting existing physical mead "second hand" (or vintage).

For the cost of an itunes download, you can buy a vinyl album. That vinyl album has pride of ownership value. It sounds better than the itunes version. And you can resell it...possibly for a hefty profit.

Printed books have value..."electronic" books have none. Same goes for the technology that support them. Computers are essentially worthless once they are relatively obsolete (or broken and not worth fixing). Meanwhile, vintage typewriters can sell for hundreds.

Physical media has lasting tangible value...virtual media has none.

 

[GraphicMatt]

Well, there IS a market for old computers now, much like old typewriters. But your point is well taken.

Digital media is much much cheaper than physical media and, as physical media becomes more of a thing for collectors only, it will get more expensive.

The upside is that, with smaller runs and higher prices, I think physical media will get a lot nicer. e.g, fewer cheap mass-market paperbacks and instead nicely-bound books printed on high quality paper.

 

[freshcutgrass]

Well, there IS a market for old computers now, much like old typewriters

.

Really? Yea, I can see a certain novelty/fad in vintage computers, but in the end, they are still just obsolete/inferior versions of what we have now. Whereas in the case of manual typewriters, you have an actual tactile experience...and build quality...and style. A lot of writers still use manual typewriters because they think it produces a superior thought process. And in the end, convenience takes a back seat. In the case of analogue audio, you not only have those things...but superior performance as well.

Digital media is much much cheaper than physical media and, as physical media becomes more of a thing for collectors only, it will get more expensive.

Well, I have faith that we will return to style and substance at some point. How long can we keep up this cheap, throwaway, convenience-based culture? If it requires no effort...if you are not engaged....how do you possibly expect anything of substance to result?

 

[khris]

Much much cheaper?
I can buy a CD for $10-12 for typical new mainstream releases. It's the same on iTunes. Digital versions should cost half of the CD cost, but they do not.

 

[taal]

That expensive coffee / cafe at the bottom of the minto buildings near Yonge and Eglinton that went under a year a go or so has been leased; Looks like a dessert place 'temptations'.

 

[khris]

It is official. Rabba is going in at Simcoe and Nelson at the bottom of Boutique Condos phase 2. They have put up signs in the windows.

 

[taal]

It is official. Rabba is going in at Simcoe and Nelson at the bottom of Boutique Condos phase 2. They have put up signs in the windows.

That's great !

 

[androiduk]

The Yonge St. sign circus around YD Square just got a new addition on top of the old Levis store at Yonge & Edward.

 

[grey]

It is official. Rabba is going in at Simcoe and Nelson at the bottom of Boutique Condos phase 2. They have put up signs in the windows.

Hmm. I think something a little more prestigious than Rabba could have been supported in this location (along the lines of Fresh & Wild, or mini-Longos), but there's a huge grocery void in the area, so it's something. Shangri-La residents won't have to travel too far to purchase highly questionable prepared foods.

 

[Towered]

.

Well, I have faith that we will return to style and substance at some point. How long can we keep up this cheap, throwaway, convenience-based culture? If it requires no effort...if you are not engaged....how do you possibly expect anything of substance to result?

Oh my god. No, we are not going to go back to manual typewriters or cd's en masse. These things will continue to exist for a small niche market, the same way vinyl still does, but they will never return in any sort of mass produced form, no matter how much some of us may consider them superior to their current incarnations. Digital music, despite its faults, simply blows away physical media in terms of convenience and volume. A large, awkwardly sized cd holds 75 minutes worth of music, whereas a device the size of a stick of gum can hold thousands of hours worth. The sound quality might be somewhat inferior, and there's no artwork (which arguably has nothing to do with the music anyway), but that kind of convenience and sheer variety at the touch of a button is unbeatable. Technology only moves forward. To believe otherwise is purely delusional.

 

[taal]

Hmm. I think something a little more prestigious than Rabba could have been supported in this location (along the lines of Fresh & Wild, or mini-Longos), but there's a huge grocery void in the area, so it's something. Shangri-La residents won't have to travel too far to purchase highly questionable prepared foods.

Yea good point. But Rabba's is fine in my opinion. I do think a large store is badly needed but I'm not sure where it can go.

 

[Basshats]

Much much cheaper?
I can buy a CD for $10-12 for typical new mainstream releases. It's the same on iTunes. Digital versions should cost half of the CD cost, but they do not.

Why? The cost of producing and shipping CD's makes up only a small portion of the cost. Most of it goes to the artists, the production costs, the promotional costs, and the record company's bottom line.

 

[freshcutgrass]

Oh my god. No, we are not going to go back to manual typewriters

Well...we never left really. Plenty of actual writers use typewriters. Speed and convenience have no use in writing. Faster is not better. Convenience makes you lazy. Both are killers for creative writers. A computer is a fine editing device...just not a very good creative device. This is why virtually everyone under the age of 30 can't spell or use grammar. Listening to teens or twenty-somethings try to have a conversation is painful.

A large, awkwardly sized cd holds 75 minutes worth of music, whereas a device the size of a stick of gum can hold thousands of hours worth. The sound quality might be somewhat inferior, and there's no artwork (which arguably has nothing to do with the music anyway), but that kind of convenience and sheer variety at the touch of a button is unbeatable.

But my argument is that the "convenience" has little value if you are actually listening to music. All those people wandering around with earbuds aren't really listening to music. Portability has no advantage when you are actually listening to music.

Ipods are to music, what texting is to communication...it's a race to the bottom. There was a time when you joked about "elevator music"...now EVERYTHING is reduced to elevator music.

Album art has nothing to do with the music? Not any more it doesn't....nobody listens to an "album" anymore. Album art was part of a "concept", as was usually the entire contents of the album. Which would explain why the music industry has gone down the tubes and the music is garbage.

Album art...the rituals involved in listening to music...recording quality...playback quality...listening to music rather than using as a method of relieving boredom (because you have ADD) is now relegated to being some kind of "fringe" niche market. How sad.

McLuhan's idea that "the medium is the message" just becomes more obvious as time goes on. And not in a good way.