Cheapo
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Cheapo is a music retail franchise with locations in Minnesota, Colorado, and Texas where customers can purchase new and used compact discs, DVDs, and, at some locations, cassettes and vinyl records. The stores' trademark is a vast selection of new, used, and local music at competitive prices. While the stores generally focus on popular music of numerous types, the locations in St. Paul and Minneapolis also feature jazz and classical music. The Minnesota locations have "the world’s largest selection of Minnesota and North Dakota music." [link] A significant direct competitor is CD Warehouse, although retailers such as Sam Goody and Best Buy, as well as smaller independent music stores like the Electric Fetus, 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.
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 advertisements in the 1990s. Around 2004, ads called the company "the last authentic music store."
Locations
Minnesota
- Minneapolis - the flagship location in Minneapolis' Uptown. 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 rock, punk rock, metal, classic rock, avant garde, etc.) unlike many music stores which file a wide range of genres under "pop".
- St. Paul - in the Snelling-Hamline neighborhood, consists of 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 listening, and international CDs. Together, the three stores' selection is comparable to the Minneapolis location's.
- Fridley - smaller than the St. Paul and Minneapolis stores. Focuses mainly on CDs.
- Moorhead - serves Moorhead and Fargo, North Dakota. Similar to the Fridley location with a selection of mainly CDs.
Colorado
Texas
External links
- [Cheapo discs] - the national Cheapo website
- [Cheapo FAQs]
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