More bad business news today, as we begin the New Year with news of closings. First off, an era ends as CD World goes the way of the 45 single: Over the weekend, owner Mike Schoder packed up the CD World locations, on Greenville Avenue and Belt Line Road, and shuttered them for good. Sixteen years after he opened the first location, selling new and used music, much of its local, it's fallen victim to the same ol' sad story: The Internets are murdering the Moms and Pops.
"It was really good through 2004, and then it becomes a hobby, and then you have to realize ... they only constant is change, and you gotta accept it," says Schoder. "You don't use a typewriter any more, right? The stores had become like a lovable, old three-legged dog -- it was still lovable, but old. It was a good run, a lot of fun, and for maybe 50 years, for a lot of people record stores were their little fix. They'd come in and go, 'Hey, what's new?' And there were people at [CD World] to tell them: Bill Stafford taught me so much about that music; so did Jeff 'Record' Webb and so many of the folks who worked there," which, over the years, included the likes of Chris Holt and Salim Nourallah.
Schoder opened the first CD World at Greenville and Mockingbird in 1992; before that, he'd been selling CD out of his car on Park Lane. Back then, Dallas had only a handful of used-music stores, most of them up and down Greenville Avenue -- among them, Pagan Rhythms and Big Bucks Burnett's 14 Records. CD World opened its Addison location two years later. And, year after year, the place proved itself the best in town -- from inventory to staff, a highlight from High Fidelity.
But in recent years, the stores could have been renamed DVD World, as CDs accounted for less and less of the inventory. And Schoder began devoting most of his time to his other business venture: the Granada Theater.
"If you wanna be involved in music, and if it's not part of a live arena, it's gonna be tough," Schoder says. "If you're not touring, part of that side of the business, it's gonna be tough."
So he's now in the live-music business, full time. And CD World's dead.
Also gone: the Meridian Room on Parry Avenue, a victim of Dallas Area Rapid Transit construction and, for the next few weeks, State Fair of Texas business that clogs up the neighborhood and chases away the regulars.
Says a Friend of Unfair Park who sent us his obit for the former State Bar last night: "Walked into the Meridian Room for dinner tonight, and they were closing up shop. All employees looking for new jobs. Libertine Bar to stay open. Expo Park is officially dead until DART opens. It's sad. It's like a little piece of my Dallas existence has been ripped from me and fried at the State Fair." --Robert Wilonsky