Way to go Super Walmart. With all of the hoopla leading up to the new KISS album in well over a decade, throw in an “Only at Walmart” exclusive for this KISS album, then… do NOT HAVE Sonic Boom out on the shelves for sale at 8:00 a.m. EST, on it’s release date of October 6, 2009!! I went to the Super Walmart located in Trexlertown, Pennsylvania, first thing at 8:00 a.m. EST this morning… with my twin daughters who were very excited about getting the new KISS CD with their daddy. The disappointment was even greater for them, for they love KISS and wanted to hear a few new songs before they went to school. To make matters even more somber, Sonic Boom was playing extremely loud in the CD/electronics department at this Super Walmart too… obviously a Super Walmart employee had a copy of it – forget about the customers!! I thought for certain, my daughters as well, that by hearing the new KISS being played, that there would have been the great KISS KORNER awaiting us – no such luck. Why advertise a release date and then not honor it? Why advertise a KISS KORNER and then not have one? Oh, Super Walmart with their trillions of dollars in profits could care in the least.
I returned to this same Super Walmart at 9:00 a.m. EST, would you believe… SONIC BOOM IS STILL NOT OUT FOR SALE!!!! WTF? So, having a very large grocery list in hand, I proceeded to buy $100 worth of groceries and necessities while there. Just before I was to check out my grocery order, I checked one last time for KISS – Sonic Boom. Forget it – not out. Oh, wait a minute, it kinda was… there were several large boxes in two grocery carts, parked at the end of the CD aisles, right next to the over priced HD televisions. On these large and sealed boxes were very large white stickers… with black printing on them… that read: time sensitive material – street dated material. No music rep to be found though. You see, Super Walmart employees are not allowed to put out the new releases… or any CD’s for that matter. That is exactly what a music rep and Super Walmart employee once told me months ago. I was not about to wait around any longer and allow my time sensitive groceries to thaw out in the cart. Nor was I going to hunt down the music rep who was supposed to be doing his/her job… I have been the KISS Gomer Pyle for too long this morning, enough.
Here are some talking points I have, concerning this inexcusable scenario I endured today:
* If Walmart wants to handcuff music fans with their “exclusive” CD’s… (where you can only buy Sonic Boom at Walmart), then get with the program and have the damn new release out for customers to buy – period. Especially on the release date… there are passionate fans out there like myself who have schedules to follow, I can’t sit on my butt in the middle of the Super Walmart CD aisle all day waiting for the KISS KORNER to get going.
* How come the kiosks were loaded and ready, as soon as the doors opened at this Trexlertown, Pennsylvania, Super Walmart for the release dates of AC/DC Black Ice and the re-issues of the Beatles CD’s and not KISS? Hell, the morning of the release date for Black Ice, I was greeted by a huge, very huge, cardboard advertisement of Angus Young and AC/DC right at the front door of this same Super Walmart!! Plus it was 8:00 a.m. in the morning of the Black Ice release date too!! I was psyched out of my Metal mind that morning… grabbing Black Ice that early on it’s release date was cool.
* Who’s fault is this? Who dropped the Metal ball by not having Sonic Boom on the CD shelves on the morning of it’s release date?
* Music Rep – this is the only person who is supposedly allowed to handle and deliver the CD goods. Where was he or she? Why were the boxes of CD’s left in the aisle unopened until 9:30 a.m. EST on it’s day of release?
* Super Walmart Store Manager – yup, you better believe this person is to blame. This is money we are talking about here, money to be spent. No goods available, no money for the registers. With all of the hype about this Sonic Boom exclusiveness to Super Walmart, plus it is KISS, you would think that the store manager would want to get the ball rolling the night before and have everything set up for loyal customers like myself. My advice for the Trexlertown, Pennsylvania, Super Walmart Store Manager – GET TO WORK AND OVERSEE YOUR DAMN STORE.
* Gene Simmons – you better believe he is to blame too. If Gene Simmons is such a shrewd businessman, I wonder what he would think if he knew his Sonic Boom was not even out, in a Super Walmart CD aisle on it’s release date at 9:30 a.m. EST? Who knows when this Super Walmart will get around to putting out Sonic Boom today, on it’s supposed release date. Gene Simmons could probably care less about my ordeal. Gene Simmons obviously signed an “exclusive” contract with Super Walmart, he obviously thought his new album would be available to customers on it’s release date at ALL Walmarts. I would be bewildered if the contract between KISS and Walmart specified that Sonic Boom would be put on the store shelves, on it’s release date, once the music rep gets around to it. A release date to me, means a new CD is available, once a store opens it’s doors to the buying public – period. Gene Simmons agreed to this “exclusiveness”… instead it is a monopoly. Free enterprise yes, fairness to an open and competitive marketplace, uh, are you kidding?
PLUS, WHY WOULD AN EMPLOYEE OF SUPER WALMART HAVE A COPY OF SONIC BOOM TO PLAY – IN THE CD/ELECTRONICS AREA, WHEN THIS SAME SONIC BOOM CD WAS NOT AVAILABLE TO CUSTOMERS? HYPOCRISY AT IT’S MOST EXTREME LEVEL.
I have learned a long time ago… it does not take a NASA Rocket Scientist to figure this out… Super Walmart is greedy, the record industry is DUH? and too many legendary Rock and Heavy Metal Bands become greedy and corporate as they get bigger. I will listen to a blue collar Heavy Metal Band today, a band that hopefully will never catch onto this mean spirited and greedy Super Walmart “exclusiveness”… ANVIL. Gene Simmons knows he has his loyal KISS ARMY behind him, I will still try once again to buy the new KISS Sonic Boom… hopefully it will be on the Super Walmart shelf by 4:00 p.m. EST today, on it’s release date. There is no other outlet to go and buy Sonic Boom… Walmart and Gene Simmons made it that way with their overpaid plastic lawyers. You can count on seeing that greedy “Only AT Walmart” sticker on the Sonic Boom packaging too. Don’t worry Walmart, you won… you have way too many trillions of dollars to give a crap about screwing the customers like myself.
I know there are worse things in life to worry about than this crap, still, it is defeating when you make an extra 15 minute car trip – twice in one day, for a CD of a band you have been following since you were a kid, only to find out no one has bothered to put out such CD. All the while knowing, that this inconvenience I experienced twice in one day, is all due to people not doing their damn job in the first place.
Before I, my wife and daughters began our journey to Bird-In-Hand, I just figured my only connection to Heavy Music was going to be from the ipod I packed. Uh, nope. Right on Old Philadelphia Pike, Route 340, is a row of vintage built shops and barns… everything from a Hardware Store to a Teddy Bear Store is in view. Yes, I mentioned a Teddy Bear Store on Metal Odyssey. One of these shops contains a cluster of antique dealers, where all the dealers are not present… yet their goods are. Walking in, I perused the unusual and typical, the mundane and interesting of all things antique. My wife and daughters set off on their own path, navigating this rather large antique mecca of a barn. After twenty minutes of scouring the old artifacts that surrounded me, I heard my wife in an excited voice tell me to walk over in her direction. There, it was there, that she motioned with her hands… three large rooms filled with Rock, Hard Rock and Heavy Metal albums, CD’s and memorabilia. The Amish Country Rocks. 
To say I was Metal ecstatic would be an understatement. How can this be? How could there be such a bounty of Heavy Music and Rock memorabilia smack dab in the middle of Bird-In- Hand, Pennsylvania? There are some questions in life, that are better left unanswered… this is one of them. Who cares why there are cool dealers within this antique shop, nestled in the middle of Amish Country, selling their Heavy Music memories… all that matters is it exists! Hooray for this Metalhead. The dealers who had used albums and CD’s for sale have great Heavy Music taste. I immediately grabbed hold of the Kiss – Gene Simmons solo CD, it was my wife’s choice pick to boot. I will admit, it was a no brainer picking up this used CD, the entire package is in mint condition. I also picked up, without hesitation, the ZZ Top used CD, “Antenna”. (My wife and I saw ZZ Top on this tour, back in the ’90’s). There were also a few CD’s still originally sealed for sale as well, running at six bucks each. The lone unused CD I bought was Cheap Trick – “Heaven Tonight”, (released in 1978). I never owned this Cheap Trick album, therefore it was about time. Some Kiss trading cards, a couple of Beatles magnets and a used, mint copy of GTR – self titled album, rounded out my finds. 
I could not have been more satisfied, of having found such an assortment of Heavy Music memorabilia to look over. Especially gratifying is the fact, I never expected to uncover the music that means so much to my life on this trip, in the quaint and friendly village of Bird-In-Hand, no less. As I exited this antique shop, with my bag of Hard Rockin’ goodies in hand, I vividly recall having to walk very closely past… an Amish man tending to his horse and buggy. My way of life, is not this Amish gentleman’s way of life. This whole experience walking out of the antique shop felt rather awkward, maybe semi embarrassing. Here I am, all psyched out about my finds, walking towards the family car, with a Kiss – Gene Simmons CD clearly visible through the plastic bag that I am clutching onto, as this polite Amish man tends to his horse. Talk about a tale of two separate worlds crossing paths. 
Metal Odyssey > Heavy Metal Music Blog 
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