I discovered Zia Record Exchange while driving around town about two and a half years ago. Since then, I've seen many changes in the store.\r
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After my first few trips to the store I was so impressed with their vinyl selection and prices ($1.99 a record), that I decided to buy a turntable. Less than a year later, Zia doubled that price. $3.98 is still a fairly good deal, but disappointing since the whole reason I started buying records was because they were so cheap. I used to go in and get ten records for $20. Now it would cost $40.\r
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Toward the end of February '08 I was really excited about the new Erykah Badu album. Even though Best Buy was charging a few dollars less, I went to Zia because the Zia records website said I would get a bonus poster with purchase of the album. I rushed to the store on my lunch break, only to find that they didn't have the poster. I was told that the Las vegas store is basically the unwanted child of the chain, so they don't always receive promotional items promised on the website.\r
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I was in the store yesterday, and I noticed that the current employees have no idea what they're doing in terms of filing.\r
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Lots of stuff is getting filed under the first letter of the artist's name, whether it's a band name or first name. For example, if I wanted to look for something by Kylie Minogue I'd have to look in both the M area as well as the K area.\r
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Another problem is the employees aren't looking in other genres while stocking, so they end up placing everything in the rock section. Tiga is now in both the Electronic and Rock/R&B sections. Foxy Brown is in both the Rap and Rock/R&B sections.\r
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Even though it's the only record store in Vegas with lots of current music, and plenty of both new and used music, the rising prices and mess that the store has become are chasing me away, and I don't think it will be long before I stop going to Zia altogether.
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