Adios Berkshire Record Outlet

[T.D.]

I used to be a big customer and receive their weekly e-mails. 

Last week I placed my first order in four years. [No longer buy as much classical.]

Today I got the following email. Kind of sad, like the end of an era.

A Note from Berkshire Record Outlet

 

Dear fellow music-lovers,

The time has come to announce our closure within the next sixty days. In the interim, we have a backlog of new and restocked titles that we plan to offer you via our usual updates, in preparation for the subsequent sale of the entire inventory to a consortium of wholesalers.

With one exception, we’re all well past retirement age, and the challenges of running a niche business in the year 2025 are more than this near octogenarian is willing to confront. In short, after fifty-one years, we bid you farewell.

Thank you all for your patronage.

Best wishes,

Joe Eckstein

[HutchFan]

46 minutes ago, T.D. said:

Kind of sad, like the end of an era.

Indeed.

 

 

[JSngry]

So long, friend.

 

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I haven't ordered from them in a long time. I used to get great deals on small label Jazz CDs & SACDs but I bet my last order was close to 15 years ago now.

[mjzee]

I'm sad to see them go, but I found their website maddening.

[JSngry]

The say they'll be selling their inventory to wholesalers.

Where are the likely destinations for megabuttloads of all those micro-sized specialty classical labels?

With the lack of old-school record stores, are their cutout bins left anywhere?

[mikeweil]

I got some interesting items from them, but this was many moons ago. Shipping fees from the US to Europe simply were prohibitive. I wish them well. They deserve their retirement.

[felser]

1 hour ago, Kevin Bresnahan said:

I haven't ordered from them in a long time. I used to get great deals on small label Jazz CDs & SACDs but I bet my last order was close to 15 years ago now.

Same here.

[jazzbo]

I last ordered about five years ago. All the best to the enterprise.

[cliffpeterson]

Used to visit the physical store in Western MA before it closed years ago

[Ken Dryden]

Their website was maddening to search but I found a few gems. I hope they enjoy retirement. Small mail order businesses are closing a lot these days.

[T.D.]

Slight reprieve. In today's e-mail:

Dear fellow music-lovers,

Many thanks for all your emails in response to the retirement mailing we did on July 21st. We feel like the George Bailey character in the final scene of “It’s a Wonderful Life”. Also, thank you all for your patience while we caught up with the unexpected backlog of orders.

We hope to do at least six more e-mail updates prior to closure, thus pushing out our final day until sometime in October. Once a closing date comes into focus, we will post it on the website.