Where does the Stop & Shop near where I live get off calling itself “Super Stop & Shop”? Folks, I’ve been in Super Stop & Shops. I’ve shopped in Super Stop & Shops. Super Stop & Shops are friends of mine, grocerily speaking. And Stop & Shop on the corner of Newbridge and Jerusalem Avenues in Bellmore: You are no Super Stop & Shop. All you are is a regular Stop & Shop that slapped the word “Super” in big light-up letters on the outside of your building while I was away this weekend without actually expanding your store. Now, the Missus and I like you, a lot, and will still shop at you, but please–enough of this charade.
Also, where does the RIAA get off blaming filesharing for the recent 30% decrease in CD sales? And why on earth is the news media being so credulous about this claim? CD sales are falling for several reasons, most of which are the fault of the record companies themselves: Price gouging has led to the obscenely high charge of $18 per the average new-release CD; People are finished buying CDs to upgrade their old vinyl & tape collections (and those of us who aren’t might be a little annoyed at how CD versions of these oldies that actually sound good are only now beginning to appear, priced at a premium, of course); The big, actually good artists that contributed to the early-mid 90s CD-buying boom were largely altrock stars who have been supplanted by legions of indistinguishable pop, bling-bling rap, and nu-metal “stars” who simply don’t inspire the same level of repeat-customer brand loyalty. I’m sure filesharing plays some part in the downward slide of record sales, but a) the genie’s out of the bottle, guys, and b) in my admittedly anecodatl experience, I’ve found people more likely to actually buy CDs now that they can sample the goods for free–in the past, the kind of hilariously high prices the record companies are charging us would have killed new-artist sales dead, but filesharing is the best friend such artists ever had. And let’s not forget that basic business theory suggests that suing some of your customers and implying “you could be next” to all the other ones is not good customer relations. (For that matter, neither is the correct perception that the RIAA has in the past existed almost solely to fuck over the same artists that it’s now purporting to protect.) Fie on the RIAA, I say.