How stairs can cost (or save) you $300

While working on the Barriers post I was reminded of the first time I went to New York City.

It was a few years ago and we lived in a small-ish southwestern city. We didn't have much access to music outside the selections of a big-box retailer.

Snobbishly or not, we feel we have a wider range of music preferences than the peak of the bell curve. So whenever we are in a large city we like to visit the big music stores. Each of these visits usually costs us about $300. We feel like the proverbial kid in a candy store. So much music, so many choices... and when we're done, a year's supply of great, fresh music.

So, on our first trip to New York City, we stayed just off Times Square. We went exploring to see what we could see.

Then we spied our store, a big label music store in the heart of Times Square. Surely we will find excellent music here. We crossed Broadway and went through the front door only to find that to reach the music we must either go up a flight of stairs or down a flight of stairs.

Someone tells us the world music is downstairs and there might be an elevator around the corner in a different building.

Are you kidding me? I can't just go in an buy music? Isn't this New York City; the town where you can get anything you want, whenever you want?

We decided that we didn't need the music and credit the inaccessibility of a major record store with saving us $300.