'A walking billboard': The history of San Francisco's most recognizable bag | Hacker News Reader

'A walking billboard': The history of San Francisco's most recognizable bag

sfgate.com

26 pointscainxinth23 comments

When I visited San Francisco, I totally went to Amoeba Music. Loved that store. I've now made it my mission to go to local record stores whenever I visit a new city, as well as go to the ones in my city!

Also, I walked around the Golden Gate Park carrying my bag of records... and then someone tried to sell me shrooms.

Slightly off-topic, but I recently discovered What’s In My Bag?

https://www.amoeba.com/whats-in-my-bag/

I was surprised how interesting I found the ones with artists I like - Santi’s in particular felt very personal, but in a heartwarming, not a tabloid way.

https://www.amoeba.com/whats-in-my-bag/detail/1079/

The Bill Hader one is really good.

I suppose the London 1990s equivalent would be the "Buy! Sell! Exchange!" Music and Video Exchange bag? https://www.twee.net/misc/bags/list.html#id91

I just had to reach for my Ameoba bag that I store under my backpack, on top of a bag from Newbury Comics.

I used to make a pilgrimage every time I was in the Bay Area to Ameoba and In-N-Out Burger... Except the last time I went. Traveling with my whole family made it really impractical to make it to the Haight.

I'm shocked 1500 people a day actually buy expensive nostalgia frisbees. The only remaining record stores in Atlanta are losing money scraping together t shirt and merch sales while a bunch of scratched detrius collects dust

if you get it you get it, if you don’t you don’t, it goes for many things and does for records as well

Are you also surprised when you hear about somebody going into a bookstore and buying a book?

Kind of yeah. The book clubs I know have avid readers that gather at a book store to discuss, but actively purchase the books online before hand because cost and availability

I never known a book still in copyright to be cheaper as an eBook than a used, "Like New" or "Very Good" paperback copy from eBay (with free shipping).

So the music analogy would be if you could buy an album still in copyright as MP3s cheaper than a used record from eBay?

That sounds like the opposite, so no?

I read ebooks, but it's not very difficult to determine why people like purpose-crafted goods. Especially when you pay about the same amount for an ebook. Vinyl at least has great arguments why digital copies are straight-up better. Ebooks still have a long way to go to get to that point.

I will however argue that textbooks are straight-up better in the apple books thing. Graphics and footnotes handle like crap in comparison on the kindle. I don't know why as it doesn't appear to be a technical limitation—maybe it's a format thing? Regardless, You'd get like 95% of the benefit with a pdf, though.

Yeah, pretty much.

(percentage of people who read) * (percentage of people who want a paper book) * (percentage of people who don't have a better discovery mechanism than browsing shelves) * (percentage of people who want to spend their valuable free-time in a retail area) * (percentage of people who don't have a library card) * (percentage of people who are willing to pay a premium above Amazon for all of the above) = pretty low, I reckon?

I assume people going to bookshops are looking for a nostalgia kick and willing to pay extra for it. I note in the UK that Daunt Books bags seem to be the same phenomenon as these bags.

Usually, I'm looking for a book, actually. I prefer to buy locally, with cash.

The beginning of the essay at https://randsinrepose.com/archives/the-forums says something about browsing, and why I'd rather do it in person.

Books don't give us cancer like records do.

Unfortunately, the PVC used will off-gas even when they're not being played[1], so this even applies to the 48%[2] of record buyers who never play them.

[1] https://youtu.be/aZ2czFuIYmQ?si=OdAsQONSm8MzY761&t=735

[2] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-36027867

No because the book subscription services are terrible and expensive compared to the music subscription services

$10 per month for all the songs you want to listen to or $10 for a book you can read in a day or two.

I think for some, it's really fun to have a collection of something.. I'm a fan of stores like Amoeba, because they do tend have a really excellent selection of second hand records, and it can be fun to hunt for something. At any given time, I have a handful of records I'm searching for, and.. and it's a real thrill to find it cheaply.

I don't know how they are doing business wise, but Criminal Records in Little Five Points is a great record store in Atlanta. Was quite bustling the last time I was there, fwiw.

That's exactly who I'm talking about. Wax n facts even more depressing

It was a bowling alley across from the Cala Market when I lived there. Unfortunately the market didn't morph into something anywhere near as cool - it's a Whole Foods now :-(

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