Since Beck’s new joint came out this week, I knew that I’d have to cop it. I’m a fan of Beck, despite his affiliation with Scientology. Plus I was kind of looking forward this album. I’d heard good buzz about it and really wanted to hear it for myself.
The problem was that I didn’t really want to visit my usual point of purchase for music; Big B’s. To make a long story short, my last two encounters there were terribly wrong because (a) an employee confused “Thom Yorke” with “Tom Waits” and (b) they failed to order Pete Yorn’s Nightcrawler on time, so it wasn’t even in stock on the day it was released.
It’s also way out of my way, clear across town. So I wasn’t really looking forward to going there for an album that I wasn’t sure was going to even be there.
Fortunately I do have an alternative that’s feasible. Y’see, I’ve got a Wednesday routine (you could say that I’ve got a habit). My usual Wednesday destination is right across the street from a Circuit City. So even though I felt almost felt guilty I knew that venturing into Circuit City was the right choice.
Since I was there I decided to pick up Pharrell’s In My Mind (to see if it was really as bad as everyone says it is) and Lupe Fiasco’s Food & Liquor (because I really want to drive the kid’s sales up.)
Now, normally I do my hip hop purchases at HipHopSite because they’ve usually got a good incentive to buy there. For instance Game Theory came with a mix cd and The Shining included a t-shirt. Ooh, and The Tipping Point actually had ?uestlove in-store and came with a bevy of promotional stuff. So clearly I’d rather spend my money there. And while it’s out of my way, located across the street from the dreaded Big B’s, it’s always worth the while.
But I justified not copping Pharrell and Lupe at HipHopSite because they weren’t really “new” releases any more, thus wouldn’t have freebies thrown in.
Deep in my heart though, I do feel kind of dirty for shopping at a chain. But it feels good to get that off my chest.
