Cheapo
Encyclopedia
Retail
Retail consists of the sale of physical goods or merchandise from a fixed location, such as a department store, boutique or kiosk, or by mail, in small or individual lots for direct consumption by the purchaser. Retailing may include subordinated services, such as delivery. Purchasers may be...
franchise
Franchising
Franchising is the practice of using another firm's successful business model. The word 'franchise' is of anglo-French derivation - from franc- meaning free, and is used both as a noun and as a verb....
with locations in Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
, and Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
where customers can purchase new and used compact disc
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
s, DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
s, and, at some locations, cassettes and vinyl records. Everyday Music is a related music store with a similar format in Oregon and Washington. The stores' trademark is a vast selection of new, used, and local music at competitive prices. While the stores generally focus on popular music
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
of numerous types, the locations in St. Paul and Minneapolis also feature jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and classical music. The Minnesota locations have "the world’s largest selection of Minnesota and North Dakota music." http://www.cheapodiscs.com/faq.htm A significant direct competitor is CD Warehouse, although retailers such as Sam Goody
Sam Goody
Sam Goody was a music and entertainment retailer in the United States and United Kingdom, and was owned and operated by Trans World Entertainment which also runs FYE, Saturday Matinee, and Suncoast Motion Picture Company. It specialized in music, video, and video game sales...
and Best Buy
Best Buy
Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American specialty retailer of consumer electronics in the United States, accounting for 19% of the market. It also operates in Mexico, Canada & China. The company's subsidiaries include Geek Squad, CinemaNow, Magnolia Audio Video, Pacific Sales, and, in Canada operates...
, as well as smaller independent music stores like the Electric Fetus
Electric Fetus
The Electric Fetus is a record store with locations in Minneapolis, Duluth and St. Cloud in Minnesota. It was founded in June 1968 by partners Dan Foley and Ron Korsh. Minnesota Public Radio said of the Electric Fetus that it is "widely regarded as the pre-eminent indie record store in...
, also compete in the market to varying extents. '
Used discs purchased by Cheapo first go into unsorted racks—one for each day of the week—before being sorted and placed into the general collection. Customers looking for the best deals spend much of their time flipping through those seven racks, producing a distinctive "click-click-click" sound as they go along. A typical store is quite spartan, the building merely a warehouse or unfinished retail space with waist-high wooden racks of discs; larger stores are carpeted. There are usually a few listening stations for trying out discs. Stores may also feature an area of "top ten" selections for a regional radio station
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
.
Cheapo keeps prices cheap by keeping overhead low: stores are sparsely decorated, no computer inventory or barcode systems are used, and used music makes up a large percentage of the selection.
The company produced vibrant and humorous television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
advertisements in the 1990s. Around 2004, ads called the company "the last authentic music store."
Minnesota
- Minneapolis - the flagship location in Minneapolis' UptownUptown, MinneapolisUptown is a popular commercial district in southwestern Minneapolis, Minnesota, centered at the Uptown Theater at the intersection of Hennepin Avenue and Lagoon Avenue. It has traditionally spanned the corners of four neighborhoods, Lowry Hill East, ECCO, CARAG and East Isles neighborhoods, within...
. The ground floor sells CDs, DVDs, and classical CDs. The basement features a large selection of vinyl records and cassette tapes. Popular music is sorted into a large number of genres (modern rockModern rockModern rock is a rock format commonly found on commercial radio; the format consists primarily of the alternative rock genre...
, punk rockPunk rockPunk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
, metalHeavy metal musicHeavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
, classic rockClassic rockClassic rock is a radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format features music ranging generally from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, primarily focusing on the hard rock genre that peaked in popularity in the...
, avant garde, etc.) unlike many music stores which file a wide range of genres under "popPopular musicPopular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
". - St. Paul - in the Snelling-Hamline neighborhood is the traditional Cheapo Discs store plus two satellite stores: Cheapo Records, a few doors down, featuring a deep selection of vinyl and cassettes, and Applause, across the street, home to DVDs, and jazz, classical, easy listeningEasy listeningEasy listening is a broad style of popular music and radio format that emerged in the 1950s, evolving out of big band music, and related to MOR music as played on many AM radio stations. It encompasses the exotica, beautiful music, light music, lounge music, ambient music, and space age pop genres...
, and internationalInternational----International mostly means something that involves more than one country. The term international as a word means involvement of, interaction between or encompassing more than one nation, or generally beyond national boundaries...
CDs. Together, the three stores' selection is comparable to the Minneapolis location's. Recently all three stores were combined into one building at 80 Snelling Ave N. - Blaine - A new Cheapo location opened on June 10, 2009. This location replaces the location that was recently closed in Fridley.