Sugarland, Wal-Mart Are Not the Bad Guys
Boo hoo, Decatur CD. You're seriously mad because Sugarland had an opportunity to get an exclusive deal at Wal-Mart? That's life. And capitalism. But you had to go and rant that Sugarland is "shutting the door on independent record stores" and "shutting the door on your hometown." And you say that real brick-and-mortar stores care more about music than any big box ever will. Really? You know that for a fact? What data do you have to support that? Wal-Mart is not the bad guy. Nor is Sugarland. I think what you're really mad at is progress and growth, both on the retail and music level. Small-town record shops had their heyday, but sometimes bands outgrow their local music scene and that's OK. You say your customers want to buy local. Well, guess what. Lucky for them, there's a Wal-Mart right in Decatur, Ga., at 3580 Memorial Drive.
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Alison W says:
I understand the anger towards Wal-mart. Everyone in my family (parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents) grew up in a really small town in west virginia, and a Wal-mart came there and now all the independent shops are gone. It’s sad. My mom usually scolds me the seldom times I shop there.
missy says:
What a bunch of crap!!!!!! So what if they have an exclusive deal with Wal-mart. Stop and think for a minute that country music used to be about your hometown, your love of those who give you your first boost up as a performer and those who you may return to when the fire of your fame is extinquished. Something tells me that feelings may be hurt because people have went out of their way to support a local act only to feel as though they never meant anything to them once the fame was acquired. If the locals choose to no longer support Sugarland by purchasing at their local Wal-mart, please do not take it upon yourself to come on here and chastise them for that choice. For it is all about the all mighty dollar in the end isn’t it sweetie.
Redmaz says:
Hard to believe, but some people actually support corporate greed. However…it IS one of the seven deadly sins. Sugarland and walmart are awful. They deserve each other. Now load up the kids, get in your minivan, turn on your pop radio station, and go hang out there for a while.
Cathy says:
I’m going to go off on a tangent here. OK, I admit that I love some of the so-called chick flicks. One that I usually stop to watch when I come across it on cable is “You’ve Got Mail.” This story reminds me of that movie. Meg Ryan’s character runs a small independent children’s bookstore that her now-deceased mother started. Book authors come to the store for signings, children come to hear story hour, etc. Then Tom Hank’s company opens up a Barnes & Noble/Borders-style discount bookstore nearby. After that, authors stop making appearances, her indy bookstore sales dry up, and Meg is forced to close her business. I thought it was sad. But if Alison ever saw that movie, I guess she thought Meg’s character was whiny and Tom’s company represented real “progress.” Funny how we look at situations differently, huh?
Leeann says:
Wow! It’s only natural that the local store would be upset, especially one that’s been supporting their hometown boy. To get this upset about their open letter is a bit unreasonable, since they’re a little store and Sugarland and Wal-Mart are huge.
D says:
I myself think Jennifer and Kristian have more control over who their music goes to than they seem. It seems to me wherever they can get the most money is where they will go. In my opinion I dont think they are near as good as when they were a threesome but we are all entitled to our own opinions. I know i get sick of her Screeching and Yelling all the time. They will never be as good as King George, they are more under the influence of the almighty $ than he will ever be
observer says:
I personally think that Sugarland has been in it for the $ from day one. Take for instance the Pepsi Points Promo last year with Amazon.com. They were one of the few country artists who did not work with that promotion. I refuse to buy their cd & with those downloads I would have. I am sorry but you have arists like Jamey Johnson for instance who are not only giving discounts to download full albums but also allowing free downloads of new singles. That is a true artist in my book!
Sis says:
To Alison W, my family has grown up in West Virginia too. I’m 15 and I live in West Virginia.
chloe says:
When you honestly think about it, mostly the poor, redneck, trailer park people listen to country music and shop at Walmart anyway. What’s the big deal? I personally do not shop at Walmart.
Leeann says:
Do you listen to country music though?
I will say that I wouldn’t go as far as blaming Sugarland for the Wal-mart exclusive deal. I’m more inclined to think it was a label decision. They may be very successful, but I’m not deluded enough to think that the label still doesn’t have most of the marketing control. They’re not to the Garth Brooks level just yet.
Ham says:
I’m a thinking there is a major fish bait thing going on with the whole premise of this blog. You either want to rise up to the bait and bash Decatur cd or go after Walmart. Couldn’t there have been a more informational aspect to the story like explaining why an act like Sugarland feels like they have to go the Walmart route to get their music out? If this is the only way they can make money, I want to know it. If it’s a label decision, tell me that. Give me some news, not a bunch of paparazzi style BS. I can go to TMZ if I want to read trash.
Ham says:
oh yeah - forgot - Count My Teeth is not a news station. Sorry for the big mix up.
Lori Jean says:
I don’t care who’s selling it, Their dvd is awesome! what amazing talent!
Dennis says:
Alison,you have got to be kidding me. When exclusive contracts exist bewtween Mega-Giant stores like Wal-Mart and Super-Groups like Sugarland, you tell me how the little independeant record store can exist in that climate. Get real, Wal-Mart and stores like them do everything in their power(and now with the help of Sugarland) to push the small guy out of business. I sure hope someday someone in your family is run out of business by the corporate giant (and then let me see what you have to say). America’s roots started in the small town with the little man and his local business. And a big Boo Hoo to you, Alison, for not appreciating and really not understanding the litte man in America.
peppersprout says:
See, this is one explanation as to why small town USA is gettin’ scarcer every day, Ms. Bonaguro … it’s not progress or capitalism - it’s called greed, darlin’! …
Andie says:
Hm…goodness. What a hateful blog. I understand your point, not that I agree, but wow.
Jane says:
Pure greed when we need to be supporting small business…
Derrik says:
I definetly understand all of the hate towards wal-mart for putting a lot of small town business’ out of business, but you have to understand in the ccurrent state of tyhe economy people can’t afford to shop at a store that sells the same things as Wal-MArt for more. If Wal-Mart is selling stuff the chepaest then people are gonna shop their. The actually problem is not Wal-MArt it is actually this country. The problem is that we as a country don’t make anything here. Look at everything we oen where is it made?? China! Thats our problem we need to create jobs in the U.S. and start manufacturing some products again. As for Sugarland only being about the money that is the stupidest thing i have ever heard. If they were only in it for the money then they wouldn’t be writing most of their songs they would get other people to write it for them. Live on the Inside is awesome!!!
merlefan49 says:
Wouldn’t it been nice for them to have given the contract to the indie record stores instead.
Sara says:
1. Sugarland is not greedy- They work for every penny that they recieve. If you haven’t noticed, they do write there own music. They treat there fans amazingly, and it is quite clear that they enjoy what they do.
2. I’m from a small town - very small - that is, but i’m not going to pay more for the exact same item just because it’s local. However, I do not like Wal-mart whatsoever, so I try and stear clear of it unless there’s something there that I really want/need…like Live On The Inside! =D
hotelmotel says:
I agree with Alison on this.
1) I suspect that iTunes is harming local music stores as much, or more than, Walmart is. iTunes is probably hurting Walmart as well. In fact, if we really care about the “local community” perhaps we should support Walmart (which at least employs community members) against iTunes (which, generally speaking, doesn’t).
2) The Sugarland “Wal Mart Exclusive” may be taking away more sales from Target than from Independent shops because it is quite possible that the box store and the independent shops are appealing to a different kind of customer who is very unlikely to set foot in the other type of business, to being with.
3). About “greed.” All these stores are trying to make a profit, so its a bit much for me when a “local business” accuses Walmart of greed. In fact, some small business owners are extremely greedy people. And in any case, if a store is offering customers a good deal because the store is greedy, I have no problem with that. If greed encourages merchants to cut prices or offer better products so that customers will enter their stores, then I support greed.
4). About Sugarland. I wish Sugarland a long career, but Sugarland surely knows that many pop country acts have a 5-10 year shelf life at best. That in mind, I can hardly begrudge them an opportunity to take advantage of their popularity, while they still have popularity.
PeanutButter says:
It’s not Walmarts fault that Sugarland doesn’t want to sell their Cds there anymore. But it also isn’t Sugarland’s fault because look at what the world is coming to these days everyone is losing their jobs and Sugarland wants to stay popular like they are right now.
marsice says:
What is this blog….from the Drudge report? Some comments are typical of radical political discusions. H*ll, everything is going digital very rapidly anyway…the current distribution scenario will probably be a moot point in the very near future.
merlefan49 says:
What hurts this country is the large number of foreign made goods that are sold here. Miley Cyrus now as a clothing line sold exclusively at Wal-Mart and like the vast majority of clothing is made overseas. I wish the stars who lend their names to clothing lines would consider using companies in America that are owned and operated here.
Another area is tech support on electronics and customer support in general. Most outsource their calls to India.
I would love to have the option of buying goods made in the USA but the large corporations are more interested in lining their pockets.
Dan says:
Yeah why be upset walmart is only takeing away buiness from families and shutting down they buiness and proably takeing their homes away to build stores.
Hey allison how much is walmart paying you to write this???
Leeann says:
Personally, it doesn’t bother me very much that the Sugarland CD was sold exclusively through Wal-Mart. That’s their choice. But it does bother me that Allison went so harshly after the independent shop for expressing frustration and disappointment as a result. The store had a right to do it and a natural inclination to feel that way and maligning a small independent store on a big country music site just seems like bullying to me.
Autumn says:
The fact is that I cannot find the music I want to buy at Wal-Mart, in the half aisle that they have allocated to country music. If I want to get the new Charlie Robison cd, I have to go to an independent music store, iTunes or an internet retailer. For that reason, I look at those sources first when I am buying music, since there’s really no point in shopping for music at Wal-Mart. The exclusive deals that Wal-Mart is making with artists will ultimately hurt their business, because they are limiting their selection.
hotelmotel says:
Leeann - I’m glad that Alison went “harshly after the independent shop for expressing frustration.” Journalists and bloggers should go harshly after stories and after nonsense.
I personally think Alison was too kind, if anything. The Decatur CD rant is extremely poorly reasoned. The idea that Sugarland is “shutting the door on your hometown” because of its deal with Walmart is beyond absurd. It deserves to be exposed as nonsense.
Alison did an excellent job on this blog.
Cathy says:
I don’t fault Sugarland for making the deal. I just think this blog is too harsh and mean-spirited.
merlefan49 says:
If/when all the independent stores of all kinds are forced out of businesse. The giants can/will go up in their prices.
hotelmotel says:
merlefan49 - I’m not sure that “the giants can will/go up in their prices” if/when the independent stores “are forced out of business.”
1) To the extent that CDs are used as loss leaders (as the Decatur CD blog claims), there is little reason to expect the giants to raise prices merely because the independents are gone. In fact, we would expect prices to stay low if CDs are truly being used as loss leaders regardless of the existence of independent shops so long as the loss leader price convinces a significant number of customers who would not have otherwise entered either the independent record store or the box store to enter the Box store.
2) To the extent that CDs are not loss leaders, I suspect the existence of Target, Best Buy, iTunes, and Kmart does more to encourage Walmart to keep its prices on CDs low than does the existence of independent record shops.
3) I think, in the future, the possibility of iTunes gaining a monopoly is a far greater threat to the consumer in search of low music prices than is anything Walmart or Target might do.
merlefan49 says:
I’m not talking about the cd sales in my post but about prices in general of all goods.
I live in a town where we use to have indepdantly owned grocery store. They could not compete with Wal-mart.
hotelmotel says:
Even if you are talking about prices in general, I would disagree.
Giant stores don’t just compete against independent “little guy” merchants, they also compete against each other. And a market in which big box stores are competing against each other is going to see lower prices than will a market that has no box stores but lots of “little guys” competing with each other because the box stores have efficiencies the independents cannot take advantage of.
I would not expect the giant stores to raise their prices significantly so long as they have to compete against each other even if “the little guys” are effectively shut out of business in a certain area. The giant stores will compete vigorously for the former patrons of the little guy stores.
Now, in an area that is so small that it can support only one or two supermarkets or box stores or only a handful of merchants, I would expect to see higher prices regardless of whether local businessmen or big chains are dominant. There will be a high chance of monopoly prices.
MiaT says:
I speak for myself on this one…I Hate Walmart. and I also hate being told where to buy my music. Sugarland is not the only one to do this. Keith Urban & Tim McGraw also made deals with them. Don’t get me wrong but I go to that store on the release day and they NEVER and I mean NEVER have it out. I am always told “Oh we have to unpack the rest of these 100 boxes…..or we have not rec’d it yet or my favorite…we ONLY got 5!
I have had to drive around & waste more gas trying to find these cd’s sometimes its crazy.. If these artists only knew how there product was really being handled. No wonder sales are down.
I MISS record stores!!!!
Dennis says:
I wonder if Alison is actually reading all of the repsonses to this blog. Listen, I live in a small town and I have watched the little man disappear and the big stores take over. Every time the little man’s store goes out of business, that’s one more person on the unemployent line (if he’s lucky enough to receive unemployment benefits).
SO TO ALL READERS OF THIS BLOG, TAKE SOME TIME THIS COMING WEEK AND VISIT YOUR LOCAL INDEPENDENT RECORD STORE AND PICK UP SOMETHING THAT JUST MIGHT BE A LITTLE OUT OF THE MAINSTREAM. ODDS ARE GREAT THAT YOU JUST MIGHT FIND SOME WONDERFUL LITTLE TREASURES OUT THERE.
Decatur Guy says:
Cathy - it’s interesting that you brought up the Meg Ryan movie - did you know that Kristian Bush used to play music locally in Decatur, Georgia with Andrew Hyra (they were known as “Billy Pilgrim” at the time) and, Andrew Hyra and Meg Ryan are real-life brother and sister! I also think that Sugarland suffered after breaking ties with another Decatur local, Kristen Hall, who was the real heart and soul of the group when they started out. I still like their music but I don’t like them as much as I used to.
Jordan Stacey says:
Dear Alison B.,
I would just like to have a reply from you about this discussion. I have to say I strongly disagree with your point of view on this and would like to know your reasoning for having it. I’m not saying your wrong and I’m not saying I’m right, I’d just like to hear your reasoning.
Andrea says:
Decatur Guy, I don’t think Sugarland suffered after breaking with Kristen.
They’ve had their biggest success after the break up and in my opinion the best albums so far after the break up.
Maybe they’ve had the same success with Kristen. But it seems that Jennifer and Kristian grown together and write together really great. Kristen leaving the band was maybe the best thing that could’ve happen to them.
Leeann says:
Allison says: “And you say that real brick-and-mortar stores care more about music than any big box ever will. Really? You know that for a fact? What data do you have to support that?”
The data that I have is that stores like Wal-Mart use CDs as loss leaders, which means they simply carry music to get people in the door to buy other things (as Chris N. pointed out at The9513). Therefore, it’s not about the music for them, as it obviously is for independent MUSIC stores. We can’t post links here, which makes it difficult to give references.
And the first words of your post (”Boo hoo”)? Are we in high school? I thought you were a full grown adult. There was a better, more mature journalist way to go about your disagreement with the Decatur Store, but you chose to be dismissive, broad and catty instead, which is my ultimate problem with this post. Otherwise, I’m happy to simply disagree on a position that differs from mine.
Ben Milam says:
i pity you alison. it seems that you don’t understand that some people are committed to bringing culture and art to small communities. and these people in many cases do it for next to nothing. getting art and culture is no problem in chicago i am sure. but in the smaller towns around the nation, it’s difficult to find music that has not been pimped by corporate america. i feel sorry for you if you have never had the chance to check out some of the smaller record stores or just local stores in general in small town america. but i guess wal mart just works for you. thanks for letting us know where you stand.
Todd says:
WOW! Alison, your music collection must be incredibly generic. I agree with Redmaz. They deserve each other.