What a sad world we now live in.......

Yo @uberwaltz, 

If you return to WalMart next week, next month, maybe tomorrow, there might be a 8’ diameter bin filled with discounted CDs. All scientifically unsorted and just waiting for someone like me to begin a futile attempt to systematically sift through looking for a a gem. 

Since I subscribe to Tidal and Qobuz, I always have a list of albums with me that I want to hear but cant stream.  Usually, I’ll order the CD from Amazon.  

But that bin full of CDs must have one or two nuggets in it, right?

Be glad WalMart didn’t have any CDs.  It could have been worse. 

Not being able to buy cd’s @ Wal-Mart is probably the 100th thing about Wal-Mart that makes me sad.

All due respect but buying on line is not the culprit in and of itself as a reason to "miss" anything or be "sad". In many ways, its like lamenting the fact that you don't have to churn your butter any more or reminiscing about the days before refrigeration.

Its just so much better to browse everything available (in the world, not in your local 5 and dime) and make a purchase and get it immediately. No starting a car, no going from place to place to place to try to find what you are after or worse, having to wait days or weeks for the special order to arrive at the store for you to repeat the above process of driving to go pick it up.

I remember walking through walmart with my late father and he said he missed the days of going to the record shop and getting to hear a record prior to making a purchase. Now that would have been great, avoiding the mistake of guessing whether the album was good or not. Those record booths are now back with a vengeance, you can listen to everything prior to buying and get it immediately. I'm sorry pop didn't get to see it come back in a virtual way. The one thing missing in all of these examples though is the loss of the social interaction with others while digging a new record. That never existed at walmart anyway.

Please don't be sad...today is the golden age of audio and music. Never have so many companies been making high quality gear. Never. Never have so many artists been able to record and distribute their music. Never. In both cases, they can take it directly to the consumer with a supply chain velocity that was impossible 20 years ago. Celebrate today, embrace it that someone in rural Montana can get a symphonic release put out an hour ago in Munich. Celebrate that they get a decent rig shipped to their door in a day or 2.

Jesus H!

How did everybody miss the point here?

I am not sad that WalMart in itself had decided to stop selling cd,s but rather just the state of business surrounding in store sales on hard media has declined so badly that they no longer felt the need to stock them.

And to ALL the naysayers on playing cd,s you need to back up and try playing them through a decent transport and DAC and add The Gate to your system and then review your thoughts.

And as a FYI.

If anybody had bothered to check my virtual systems you would see I have just about every media playback covered ( apart from oddballs like DAT, MiniDisc, 8 track etc!)

So yes I stream.... A LOT! I also access music from my NAS.... A LOT!

But there is still something about hard media that is satisfying whether that be vinyl, cassette, R2R or CD/SACD.

Not interested in the slightest in any discussion or argument over which format is best, that is purile and not where I was going at all.

And heck yes, just bought another load of cd,s at $1 and 50 cents from the charity shops next door to WallyWorld.

Good luck people!