Dude uploads a bunch of Kmart music

[John Connor]

LOL! http://digg.com/2015/k-mart-music-tapes

From the late '80s to the early '90s Mark Davis worked at Kmart. Part of his job was playing pre-recorded cassettes sent in from the corporate office. Luckily for us, he saved them and uploaded them to the Internet.Within the archive are 56 tapes, with over 60 hours of music, muzak and in-store announcements. Apart from being a fantastic time capsule of the height of American consumerism, they're also great fodder for vaporwave artists.1 Here are just a few highlights.

 

[sdifox]

He will be sued.

 

[gorcorps]

He will be sued.

Takes money to sue somebody, Kmart has none

 

[sdifox]

Takes money to sue somebody, Kmart has none

who ever bought up kmart will :whiste:

 

[MarkXIX]

who ever bought up kmart will :whiste:

Didn't Sears buy Kmart? They don't have money either.

 

[foghorn67]

The height of American consumerism? Lol. Back then, we saved money, and did other things besides stare at our iphones and getting fat.

 

[Phoenix86]

Didn't Sears buy Kmart? They don't have money either.

They wouldn't care about protecting the brand anyways.

 

[nakedfrog]

Yeah, I think that ship has pretty well sailed.

 

[Brian Stirling]

The height of American consumerism? Lol. Back then, we saved money, and did other things besides stare at our iphones and getting fat.

The death of retail began long before the 90's -- figure more like the early 80's as the inflection point.

Also, Americans have been putting on pounds since about the early 70's.


Brian

 

[quackagator]

Didn't Sears buy Kmart? They don't have money either.

Kmart bought Sears.

 

[IronWing]

Let the blue light special

Shine a light on me...

 

[SKORPI0]

https://archive.org/details/attentionkmartshoppers

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

I've seen this story pop up several times in my Facebook feed recently, plus I think a few new aggregators like Reddit and Fark. Now here. Each time, this is me:

 

[BUTCH1]

The death of retail began long before the 90's -- figure more like the early 80's as the inflection point.

Also, Americans have been putting on pounds since about the early 70's.


Brian

I have to completely disagree and here's why, there were no other options. Oh, sorry, there were mail-order catalog's, that's it. No Amazon, no online shopping available whatsoever, did everyone stop buying furniture, underwear, lawn mowers?..no, it was all bought local B+M..

 

[BUTCH1]

I've seen this story pop up several times in my Facebook feed recently, plus I think a few new aggregators like Reddit and Fark. Now here. Each time, this is me:

LOL, good point. With all the entertainment options available nowadays who the hell would want to listen to hours of K-mart muzack and ad's. This would be a more effective torture than water-boarding.

 

[John Connor]

Kmart bought Sears.

This.

 

[Brian Stirling]

I have to completely disagree and here's why, there were no other options. Oh, sorry, there were mail-order catalog's, that's it. No Amazon, no online shopping available whatsoever, did everyone stop buying furniture, underwear, lawn mowers?..no, it was all bought local B+M..

Disagree if you wish, but the heyday of the Mall began to end not in the 90's but the early 80's and that coincided with the rise of Walmart. The mall thing really began in the mid 60's but by the mid 70's the early outsourcing (TV manufacturing etc) began to lower the growth of the middle class and by the early 80's there was enough impact to the middle class that many that had been going to malls began taking there decreasing dollars to Walmart.

The decline of retailing came from two directions: the cheapy places like Walmart, and later the internet.


Brian