The sites offer other advantages besides accessibility and speed. Although commercial Web sites are expensive to run, they're not as costly as traditional record stores, which have to pay rent. Best Buy doesn't charge sales tax. This is rarely true in stores. If customers favor used CDs or record clubs, there are sites for them as well.
Customers can access the site and search selected locations across the country.
Record clubs also offer their services online. It's just not as much fun staring at a screen as it is browsing through the aisles. Now, it's still not as easy to check out a group of CDs online. You have to know what you're looking for, and you're less likely to be surprised by an interesting new band. Also, lovers of obscure music may find independent-label material is scarce on the big Web record stores.