Business managers at the EMU hope a new CD store, scheduled to open at the start of fall term, will help recover some of the $30,000 The Break loses each year.
The EMU will house the CD store where the arcade games are currently placed in The Break, which is located next to The Buzz coffee house in the basement of the EMU, and move the arcade into the back room with the ping pong and air hockey tables.
Although other EMU establishments have lost money in the past, The Break is the only one still in the red.
Instead of building its own CD store from scratch, the EMU has solicited Portland and Eugene area stores to bid to open a “branch store.” A selection committee will choose a bidder Aug. 17, and the store is projected to open by the time students return to campus at the end of September.
EMU Business Manager Susan Racette said no bids have come across her desk yet, but bidders frequently wait until the last minute, and she will start calling stores Thursday.
A nine-member selection committee, comprising staff and members of the EMU Board, Cultural Forum and ASUO, will make the decision. The committee will examine each store’s variety of products — new and used CDs, records, games, videos — and willingness to help bring more entertainment to campus.
Racette added that she hopes whichever store ends up in the EMU will co-sponsor Cultural Forum concerts and use its ties to album promoters to bring acts to the EMU.
The idea of a CD store has been in the works even more since the EMU’s major renovations three years ago, but this is the first time space has existed for a music shop.
Although she hopes the store will plug The Break’s monetary hole, Racette said the idea also stuck this year because a music shop can bring acts to the Amphitheater and Ballroom and more foot traffic into the EMU in general.
“The goal wasn’t to help The Break break even,” she said.
So far, campus music stores don’t seem to be biting at the EMU’s bid offer. Face the Music has not made a definite decision, and House of Records plans to forgo placing a bid.
House of Records owner Gary Haller said a number of factors led him to shy away from expanding onto campus. Haller said the price of rent wasn’t right without more businesses in the EMU basement attracting customers.
He added that a slowing record industry kept him from pursuing the venture, and he likes that at his current location, his store can carry a wide variety of music styles, whereas in the EMU he would stock only titles that appeal to college students.
Racette said video-game enthusiasts should expect the future arcade to be smaller, but be updated with newer games more often.
Branch music store coming to EMU basement
Daily Emerald
August 8, 2001
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