“Quaker Village is a ghost town,” said Duncan Dunn, owner of BB’s Compact Discs, as he sorted through the remaining CD’s on the counter. Over the past five years, BB’s sales have declined about five to ten percent each year, and 30-40 percent over the last six to eight months. Rewind 19 years when Darryl Deitsch and Brad Boyson opened BB’s in Quaker Village to a more promising situation: without the availability of music online, local record stores had a chance to make a profit.
“For better or worse technology rules; downloads, etc. created the demise of the CD and eight tracks are obsolete,” said Bill Grant, Dunn’s long-time friend. “This was a special place. It’s the end of an era – a special era.”
That statement rings true and close to the heart of several BB’s customers and employees. Colt Weaver, a customer and recent employee, saw it coming.
“It didn’t come as a surprise, music sales have been on the decline for years, now it just hits close to home,” Weaver said. “If people would stop buying or stealing internet downloads and support their local businesses as a whole we could see a revitalization of stores such as BBs or Gate City Noise, which used to be on Tate street and is now a Mexican cafe called Jibaros.”
Dunn worked at BB’s for the past 13 years before he bought it from Deitsch two years ago.
“I was able to convince the bank to give me a loan and even though I knew going into this that it wouldn’t be a profitable career, I had to try to keep BB’s alive.” Dunn said.
Along with the advent of MP3’s, the loss of business and a customer base in Quaker Village contributed to BB’s closing.
Things around BB’s started to change just months into Dunn’s ownership of the business. About 15 months ago, Jones Lang LaSalle bought Quaker Village from Colonial Properties.
This transfer could have benefited BB’s if Jones Lang LaSalle had done renovations to make Quaker Village more aesthetically pleasing.
Fresh Market left Quaker Village during the summer of 2007. The departure of this anchor tenant that attracted shoppers to the area affected BB’s sales negatively.
Dunn is a Guilford alumnus and avid music enthusiast. When it comes to local music, he is a fan of bands like Jonas Sees in Color.
“I might be a little biased because I think they’re really nice kids that play catchy music and are fun to listen to. It helps that I’ve known their manager Danny Fonorow for a while.” Dunn said.
Jonas Sees in Color was one of the many local bands that was able to sell their CD’s at BB’s. BB’s was that store where you could find the most random and rare collections of CD’s and if they didn’t have it in stock, they’d order it for you.
“It’s sad because it’s the only place near campus to get good music,” said sophomore Jesse Crews as he got ready to purchase a few CD’s.
If the lease for BB’s had been up 8 months to a year ago, relocation might have been possible. The departure of BB’s leaves Quaker Village with 9 empty units and about 42 percent of the complex empty.