Buffalo Rising Online

A coffee shop/bookstore should locate in the M and T across Delaware that is going to close.

It already has a drive thru.

Probably a stupid Idea but NWR and coffee seem to go together Just brain storming...

The lighting and drop-ceiling is a downer. I expected a little more creativity inside. I guess you can't ask too much of a strip mall.

Yes, it is a downer. Yes, it looks remarkably like a dreary strip mall record store. But how many of you who dislike it as much as I do caused its decline by illegally sharing or downloading music for free off the Net? What did you think would happen when you decided that no one in the music world deserved compensation for their efforts?

I do not buy lots of CDs but never once have I swiped an MP3 fom the net.

I download my music off the internets "legally", as do most people.

I Have not stepped foot in a record store in more than a year. For years record stores required the buyer to purchase music without ever hearing what they were buying. That is like buying canned vegetables without any labels on the cans. You maybe knew what one or two songs sounded like. The rest of the album was a crap shoot. Now I can hear buy only the quality songs from an artist and I compensate them for it well.

I wish them luck - they deserve it. Any indie record store (yes, I'm old enough to say record store) that can still stay in business deserves best wishes. Having said that, it's unlikely that I'll ever go there again. As a suburbanite, I would go to New World because it was part of the whole Elmwood "experience." It was enjoyable. Truthfully, there is nothing there that I can't buy online - but the experience made it worth it. There is no way I would go out of my way to visit them in that Plaza. I hope, for their sake, that I'm in the minority.

I'm still scratching my head as to how a record store (no matter where it is) stays open. I wish these guys the best of luck but I don't know how they can compete with Amazon or better yet "illegal" file sharing programs. I'm 23 and I've never purchased a single cd, record or tape in my life and I know I never will.

It clearly sounds like they are aware of this problem and are looking for new revenue streams. Best of luck to New World Records, but I wish they would have stayed on elmwood. The new location feels rather isolated and probably doesn't invite too much foot traffic.

Porter - Hertel is great - no doubt about that. And, crossing a buy street does not exactly scare me. However, are you telling me that the plaza on the corner of Delware and Hertel has anywhere near the same ambience has the old location? So, now I can walk a few blocks away and buy a bong at Terrapin Station? Sorry, doesn't do it for me. For what it's woth, had they located just a few blocks east on Hertel, I'd probably go there. But, I'm not travelling from the suburbs, to go shopping at a strip mall in the City.

We need to stop the neighborhood rivalries. We need to bring the community closer together instead of farther apart. We can't afford to build in one neighborhood to spite another. DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT WE ARE IN A CRISIS! DO YOU REALIZE THAT WE ARE LOSING PEOPLE TO THE SUBURBS AND OTHER STATES FASTER THAN THEY ARE MOVING INTO THE CITY? DO YOU REALIZE THAT NEW WORLD RECORD IS ON LIFE SUPPORT LIKE SO MANY OTHER STORES IN BUFFALO? AND ALL YOU WANT TO DO IS TELL HERTEL HOW GREAT ELMWOOD IS. IT IS LIKE THE LAST TWO PEOPLE ON THE TITANIC TALKING ABOUT WHO IS THE BETTER SWIMMER, IT JUST DOESN'T MATTER RIGHT NOW BECAUSE YOU ARE BOTH GOING DOWN UNLESS YOU FIND A WAY TO KEEP THE SHIP AFLOAT OR FIND A WAY TO GET YOU BOTH ON A LIFE RAFT.

It’s sad for me to hear that there are people, unfortunately too many, who despite being in to music have never purchased a CD or record and don’t plan to do so in the future. Opting for MP3’s is the easy way out. It has totally cheapened in more ways than one the music buying experience. It’s like patronizing fast food establishments. It’s all about convenience and to a certain degree price…and nothing else. Like reading the Cliff Notes for Hamlet but not actually reading the play. People are missing the way music is meant to be heard, through a record or CD. There is no reward of being able to browse through music in a great setting (like the former Home of the Hits) and physically hold the music in your hands….no impulse buying due to cool artwork on the cover…no experience of discovering some of the best songs you’ll ever love are buried deep within an album…and no experience that sometimes you feel you’ve been burned when the record you buy ends up really sucking….there just isn’t anything at all. The IPOD for all its glory has kind of helped in ruining the idea of listening to whole albums. I really hope New World flourishes in its new locale.

Some of you guys are so old-fashioned. MP3s are like fast food? Music was meant to be experienced on a record? Popular music (read: music that still sells CDs) is so bad today because only stupid people are still buying CDs. Yes, it's about convenience, but it's more than that, it's just a better model for distributing music. The flip side is that REAL indie bands don't have to get produced by major record companies and selected by music stores before they can be heard by fans--they can communicate directly through MP3s. MP3s are cheaper to distribute because a) they don't have to press CDs and b) they don't have to line the pockets of record industry executives.

I'm not happy about this, of course. I'm just saying that the health of New World Record shouldn't have anything to do with the health of Buffalo. Ditto Home of the Hits, ditto Mondo Video, which is closing its doors less than a year after moving to the Heights.

congrats to new world on making the successful move. although I would rather of seen you stay on elmwood, you gotta do what you gotta do. continued success!

You may be able to characterize the old location as a "strip mall", I guess.....

At least it went up to the street with its store fronts and around the corner. Although it had parking it was off to the side and people still had priority in the layout. It was part of a street thread and the resulting life all around it. The sounds and smells of Spot next door were always a fav of mine. I felt I was part of something.

Th enew location I can get the same sterile feel I get pulling up to any plaza in my car, to walk in grab something and walk out park to my car and leave. Hence I only do it for necesities.

I do wish them well and maybe unfortunately this move had to be done. But it takes away everything that was weaved into it that would have continued to draw me in.

Its a shame that music stores like this are not able to offer digital purchases where they get a cut of them. Going to the old place able to talk about music over coffee then maybe go see if it was available next door to go check it out and maybe even purchase it on a thumb drive or even your player that you have on you. Much better than staring at a CD cover and wondering if it was going to be like dropping money at the casino.

Very full length albums are full concepts. Those that are I buy full. But most are about singles with filler to flush out a CD. This kind of takes it back to the 50's, 45rpm days etc where singles ruled without forcing you to buy worthless crap with it. I'd much more enjoy buying 10 songs I have the potential to love than 2 with 8 others that just tag along.

there is some good stuff on Hertel....but the concept of "the Hertel Experience" is kind of funny....but not ha ha funny.

WHile i think its great that a local small record shop is still around. I really dont undestand this move. WIll it help business that much? The elmwood store was so cool and had so much character, and fit in well. This seems boring and not so NWR. I guess money talks tho if their lease was too high on elmwood what can you do. But with elmwood now being one one the nations top 10 places to live. Do you think NWR regrets their decision?

Porter, that's very close. Yes, now you're right about where the super coolness and "experience-abilty" is, but in that stretch there's also pockets of super anti-coolness and it would be a non-experience to have anything to do with those. For example, a certain restaurant has parking and a curb cut and potentially a small strip of uncool grass in front of it. And planned for that street is a new condo building with architectural features that totally suck for various reasons noted recently.

Hey Jerkface, what was that symbol I'm supposed to type at the end of my comments?

No problem. Especially if it went to an "Urban" section of Hertel and helped the critical mass and walkability of what has been going on over there. I'm very happy to see Hertel growing and hope it can become as popular as Elmwood. This does not mean they need to be the same. But, locating at a plaza at the car-centric area of Elmwood and Hertel does nothing to accomplish that. It pretty much adds nothing to the Hertel experience, and unfortunately, no long adds anything to its old neighborhood either.

Damp - if you feel the need to blame anyone it should be those who bitched about the proposed little lawn as a serious issue, not me for mocking their complaint a couple times. IMO it was a classic recent example of elitist ridiculousness and well deserving of pushback. About rivalries, I agree with you they can be healthy in some cases, but the EV vs Hertel, and city vs Amherst or other burbs, is usually expressed with way too much closed-minded attitude. Porter nailed the point very well it in that comment above.