One Music Shopper’s Opinion

The financial problems brewing at Blockbuster music retail stores came as no surprise to this CD buyer (“Nearly a Blockbuster,” Nov. 3). From the first day I visited a shiny new Blockbuster music store, I knew they were in trouble. Their CD prices were substantially higher than those of other places, and their gimmick to let a customer open any new CD in the store and listen to it is an incredible freebie to classical CD listeners, who usually have to listen to a new recording of a familiar symphony just once to satisfy their curiosity.

The typical working person will go to enormous lengths to reduce his cost of buying new CDs, whether it might be selling his old CDs for credit or driving miles across town to take advantage of a sale. Apparently Sumner Redstone and the other millionaires who run Blockbuster aren’t aware of this simple fact of life.

MATTHEW OKADA

Pasadena