Amoeba: Wait, so some of these emergency funds will be used to help facilitate a move to a new location? I know nothing about the background here but also how do they have 400 employees. Am I missing something? They have three stores right? Christ.
Just to clear things up here, as Amoeba Hollywood was my local store for 7 years and it's probably my favorite place on earth:
They have 400 employees because their stores are HUGE. There are ~20 cashier lanes, multiple people at the buy counter, 15-20 staff members throughout the store (and all of them have alternates because no one works every day, so maybe triple or quadrupel those numbers) people on the accounting/business side, people on their social team, people on their video team, the executive board, the maintenance crew, etc. And that's just one of the 3 stores.
Yes, they're a massive organization, but NO they didn't lose any heart. They started tiny and expanded by being pillars of their respective arts communities and they always gave back to artists big and small in a variety of ways. They're, in my opinion, the most important record store in the entire world.
RE: The move - they aren't moving by choice. They were ousted from their historic spot in the middle of Hollywood by some developers who want to turn it into apartments -- and the lease is up in a few months. They found a new spot they are moving to not that far away and not much smaller, which means it's probably quite expensive -- and then COVID hit. This is the WORST timing for them, because all 3 stores are shut down and cannot do business anywhere but online (which has slowed down for a myriad of reasons) and they need to pay current overhead/raise funds in prep for the move.
This could be the perfect storm that could put them out of business if some big-wig musician friends/labels don't step up and help them out. Just because they're bigger than your local mom and pop store doesn't make them any less valuable to the heart of the commmunity and I will be devastated if they don't make it.
www.runoutgroovevinyl.com
