Zines for Amoeba Petition

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In tandem with my fellow editors of The Big Takeover, Dumb Angel
Gazette, Roctober and Ugly Things, I've launched a petition campaign
asking Amoeba Music to begin carrying zines in their California stores.

Since Amoeba came to Los Angeles, Rhino and Aron's Records have closed
down, leaving us with very few places where independent music zines can be found. Since the management of Amoeba doesn't want to talk with us about carrying zines, we hope we can change their minds by showing them how many music fans would welcome the addition of zines to their
stores.

So please, if you are a music fan and a reader of zines, take a moment
to click below and tell Amoeba that you'd like to be able to find both
in their stores. And spread the word!

http://petitiononline.com/amoeba/petition.html

On behalf of my fellow editors, the artists we review, our printers and folks who like to read in the bathtub, I thank you.

best regards,
Kim
Editrix
Scram

― Kim Cooper (editrix), Sunday, 9 April 2006 16:47 (eighteen years ago) link

will do.

― curmudgeon (DC Steve), Sunday, 9 April 2006 20:51 (eighteen years ago) link

They do carry zines at some of the stores. You pass them on your way to the cash registrer at the SF locale. They're with the rock books that nobody buys. They just drown in a store of that size. What you're really asking for is a dedicated magazine rack, in a prominant part of the store, with a wider selection.

― bleh, Sunday, 9 April 2006 21:46 (eighteen years ago) link

http://www.uvm.edu/recycle/Special_Projects/zine-rack2.jpg

― dan bunnybrain (dan bunnybrain), Monday, 10 April 2006 00:34 (eighteen years ago) link

Wow, is the photo above what passes for a magazine rack at Amoeba SF? It looks more like the waiting room in a free clinic!

Yes, we hope they will introduce a dedicated magazine rack, carrying music magazines both indie and otherwise, especially to the LA store, which doesn't even have, uhm... Utne and Shape.

― Kim Cooper (editrix), Monday, 10 April 2006 01:09 (eighteen years ago) link

That picture isn't real, but the way they have it sort of sucks anyways. They have their books and magazines right in front of their employee door, so that if you do start looking at something, you'll get banged into in about 20 seconds.

― svend (svend), Monday, 10 April 2006 01:12 (eighteen years ago) link

>They're with the rock books that nobody buys

key phrase here.

so you asked to talk to someone at the store about it and just got dissed? who did you talk to?

― something less threatening (heywood), Monday, 10 April 2006 02:53 (eighteen years ago) link

We inquired with Mary Patton by email, who was very nice but said she had nothing to do with the decision not to carry zines, and that she didn't think management would go for it.

We then sent a package of our magazines with a letter to Marc Weinstein and phoned him many times over several weeks, at every Amoeba store, but was never able to reach him; he apparently has no voice mail.

We followed up with a phone message for Karen Pearson, which was not returned. Only then did we post the open letter. If there's anyone else we should be talking to, I would appreciate the info.

thanks,
Kim
amscray@gmail.com

― Kim Cooper (editrix), Monday, 10 April 2006 02:58 (eighteen years ago) link

The main problem you're going to come across is that there's no reason to stock zines in the Berkeley or San Francisco stores. City Lights and Stacey's in SF and Cody's in Berkeley are great for zines, so zines are generally speaking a losing proposition for those stores. The Berkeley store especially doesn't have any room for a zine rack, and my impression as a cashier there was that even if we put a zine front in center (Cometbus, for instance), no one would ever buy it.

Los Angeles is a different proposition. Tons of space, and if you're right, no competitors. Those guys aren't going to stock anything that won't make money. So you might want to try sending a letter to Karen at the LA store and asking about having more zines for that particular store. Otherwise, I think you're barking up the wrong tree.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Monday, 10 April 2006 05:20 (eighteen years ago) link

Just one week after the editors of The Big Takeover, Dumb Angel Gazette, Roctober, Scram and Ugly Things posted an open letter to Amoeba Music seeking to get the store to carry indie zines, and after more than 350 kind folks took the time to sign the attached petition (link below) pledging their support, we were contacted by the management of Amoeba's L.A. store with a gracious email offering to work with us to make a select group of high quality indie music magazines available to their customers. Interested publishers can contact me for more information.

The specifics of the zine section are yet to be determined, and it's not clear which stores beyond LA will be effected, but for now I just wanted to spread the good word. It's great to know that sometimes all it takes to get a timely idea adopted is finding the right way to ask. Thanks again to everyone who took the time to sign the petition or forward it, and stay tuned for Zines at Amoeba!

Kim
Editrix
Scram
http://www.scrammagazine.com
http://www.petitiononline.com/amoeba/petition.html

― Kim Cooper (editrix), Friday, 14 April 2006 00:56 (eighteen years ago) link

what
a
joke

― lf (lfam), Friday, 14 April 2006 00:59 (eighteen years ago) link

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― lf (lfam), Friday, 14 April 2006 00:59 (eighteen years ago) link

i prefer sf amoeba sans zines. petition?

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Friday, 14 April 2006 01:31 (eighteen years ago) link

twelve years pass...

Hollywood Amoeba moving locations, adding pot sales: https://variety.com/2018/biz/news/amoeba-music-set-to-relocate-its-los-angeles-store-plans-to-seek-dispensary-permit-exclusive-1202848131/

― i’m still stanning (morrisp), Saturday, 16 June 2018 17:41 (five years ago) link

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