Introducing: Decatur CD Delivery!

We've said it before, more than once, but it bears repeating: Times are tough, and especially in the music industry. Record stores are closing left and right, indie labels are having trouble, venues are finding it more difficult to sell out shows, and so on. It's not easy, and we're all adjusting our business model to weather the storm. As such, we're proud to announce Decatur CD Delivery!

Well aware that you can sit at home and order music from eBay, Amazon, iTunes and the like, we want to give you further incentive to vote with your dollar and support local retailers. Although we prefer that you come to the store and chat with us about music, we'll now happily deliver to your home. On Tuesday and Friday evenings, in fact.

Here's how Decatur CD Delivery will work. You call us and let us know what you want, we either a) take your credit card information over the phone (keeping it on file for future purchases) or b) collect cash or check upon delivery. On the Tuesday or Friday following your order, one of our Decatur CD Drivers brings the goodies to your door. Ultimate convenience!

Speaking of drivers, Young Eliot has worked out a deal with his current institution of higher learning, Emory, to get us the cream of the crop. With the help of the Goizueta Business School, we'll be taking on a batch of delivery interns who in turn will earn school credit for their time spent roving the streets of the Atlanta metro area and helping us develop this new retail model. We've already had several interviews and hope to have the Decatur CD Delivery crew set in stone in the next few days. In the meantime, give a warm welcome to our first intern hire, Preston, who is pictured above.

Unlike many places that delivery goods to your house, we will NOT charge exorbitant shipping fees. Eliot and Warren had one of their trademark arguments about what we would charge, if we would allow tipping and so on. It was kind of epic, actually. Luckily, Austin stepped in and mediated, and the DCD Braintrust decided as a trio that we'll charge 50 cents per order. One CD or 100 CDs, you only pay 50 cents extra, and that's just to cover gas.

Of course, we have to put some kind of parameter on this, and here it is: We'll deliver to anyone within a five-mile radius of the store. If you fall just outside that area, don't fret; we'll make it work for you. We just can't, unfortunately, deliver to places like Marietta and Dahlonega. It wouldn't be economically feasible. Not yet, anyway. The way we're looking at this is that the sky's the limit. If Decatur CD Delivery works in its early stages, maybe we'll start making the occasional road trip to the suburbs!

Phew. My how we ramble on, but what can we say? We're excited about taking Decatur CD to the next level. To our knowledge, no record store has ever tried to pull this off. Maybe it'll be a colossal failure, but we're willing to give it a shot, and we hope you'll take advantage of it. Give us a week or two to firm things up, and send us any feedback you might have. Before long, it'll be time to start the deliveries! We can't wait.