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Korvettes: "Top Hits" 45RPM Records

Posted: 13 Dec 2007 15:38
by umtrr-author
The random selection of a song on my iTunes dislodged a memory that I'd like to have confirmed or corrected.

The branch of E.J. Korvettes in Woodbridge, NJ in which we shopped during the late 1960's and 1970's had a record department, in which there was a small behind the counter partitioned shelf holding 45 RPM records for sale.

These were arranged by number, corresponding to a chart of "Top Hits" printed on flyers. You took a flyer, figured out what singles you wanted and then asked the clerk for the number of the single. For example, Number 1 might be "Night Fever-Bee Gees". The "chart" and thus the sorting of the singles changed, probably about every month.

Here is my question: It's my understanding that the "Top Hits" and in fact the entire Korvettes record department was not completely maintained by the store itself, but by a "jobber" (might not have the right term here) who provided the restocks of the records and also determined what would or would not be stocked. The actual work of restocking would have been done by store employees.

Am I remembering this right, or is this yet another faulty memory?

I know that when I worked in a Caldor in 1991, on the site of the Korvettes in Woodbridge in fact, there was a third party of some sort that provided the records to the store. I occassionally helped out in the record department (and stashed away some wanted LPs for later purchase before they got out to the floor).

The "Top Hits" list was often in fairly critical need of a proofreader, by the way. The song that jogged this memory was "Don't Fall In Love With A Dreamer" by Kenny Rogers and Dottie West, which on the "Top Hits" list unceremoniously appeared as "Don't Fall In Love With A Drawer". (Abuse of bedroom furniture?)

Re: Korvettes: "Top Hits" 45RPM Records

Posted: 13 Dec 2007 20:20
by javelin
umtrr-author wrote:The "Top Hits" list was often in fairly critical need of a proofreader, by the way. The song that jogged this memory was "Don't Fall In Love With A Dreamer" by Kenny Rogers and Dottie West, which on the "Top Hits" list unceremoniously appeared as "Don't Fall In Love With A Drawer". (Abuse of bedroom furniture?)
Ummm...that was Kim Carnes. Whatever happened to her?

Posted: 13 Dec 2007 21:22
by umtrr-author
Yes, you're right, wrong duet partner cited on that song.

Don't want to go too far off topic here so I will just mention that she has a website.

Now, how about the Korvettes record department...

Re: Korvettes: "Top Hits" 45RPM Records

Posted: 26 Dec 2007 10:27
by Toby Radloff
I think most discount stores from the 1960's to 1980's used jobbers to service their record and tape departments. I recall that Camelot Music (now FYE) once serviced Clarkins, the former Akron-based discounter. Most of the LP's used letter codes to identify prices, both at Camelot and at Clarkins, at one time...by the late 1970's most hit LP records were in the $5.98/$6.98 range, which, I think, were "code C" or "code D", with "code A" being the $1.98 cut out bin items. The fonts on the price tags at both Camelot and Clarkins were similar as well. K mart, Spartan Atlantic, and a few other discounters also used jobbers, as well as Sears and Woolworth's. Today, I think Wal-Mart, Target, and K mart handle their own distribution of music and movies.

Re: Korvettes: "Top Hits" 45RPM Records

Posted: 04 Jan 2008 12:00
by umtrr-author
Thanks Toby.

I recall both Korvettes and Caldor (where I worked for 9 months in 1981-82) had the letter codes for LPs. This made it easy to both change regular prices (alter the large signs) and have sales.