The saddest sight I've seen in a long time was last weekend when I passed through The Emporium shopping center and saw CD Warehouse. I had heard the chain was closing in Thailand, but I wasn't prepared for what I saw - a store that is virtually empty shelves. Any stock of value has either been shipped out or scavenged clean in the chain's close-out sale at its one remaining location.

There was no music of value left - just a bunch of used CDs by rappers and pop artists I'd never heard of. If the price is right - like free or 5 baht, I might consider buying some of the CDs to make use of the jewelbox cases to replace some of the worn-out and broken ones in my collection.

What CD Warehouse did have left of interest to me was an eclectic selection of Australian import DVDs. I have been browsing through this collection for the past several years, but never bought much because the prices were far too high, even if the films were classics like North by Northwest and Night of the Living Dead. Even at half price, they are still kind of pricey, but I took the plunge anyway and picked up a few. So far, I've been enjoying White Lighting with Burt Reynolds as a moonshine-delivery driver out for revenge; The Taking of Pelham 123, a gritty subway hostage drama with Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw; and Eastern Condors, a high-octane Vietnam War martia-arts action fest that is Sammo Hung's answer to The Dirty Dozen, The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Deer Hunter and First Blood all rolled up into one.

Back to CD Warehouse, and music. I still can't believe CD Warehouse is closing. I have shopped at the Emporium branch since it was Tower Records. It won't be the same going to The Emporium without them there. I wonder if there's much of a reason to visit The Emporium at all, now?

Times change. The digital downloads have changed the business. Tower Records is long since closed, and now CD Warehouse is bowing out of Thailand, too.

Having an iPod, a digitized music collection is a necessity for me, and MP3's are the primary format I use to listen to music. I do subscribe to a digital download service, eMusic, and I enjoy getting a fresh infusion of interesting music each month from that. I don't like illegal downloads - you never know what you're getting, and I don't feel like it's worth of the risk of exposing my computers to a file-sharing network and the slim chance of possible legal hassles. I have purchased some MP3's from iTunes, but I'm not really enamored with the quality. Also, until recently, iTunes files weren't MP3's at all - they were some other format that was crippled with a digital rights management (DRM) scheme that was proprietary to Apple's systems only. They have since made moves to dump DRM, but I still don't like buying from Apple. I'll use the software and the hardware, and subscribe to free Podcasts, but shopping at the iTunes stores just leaves me cold.

My preference is still the CD - I have more control over the format I want to rip my MP3 files with, I have something in my hand that I can look at and feel, I have a CD booklet that I can read, and I have a permanent, durable back-up should my digital files ever become lost or corrupted.

So, with CD Warehouse out of the picture, what is left? Well, there's Do Re Mi in Siam Square. The woman who runs that store, located along the back corner Siam Square heading towards Bonanza Mall and MBK, keeps a cool selection of classic rock, country, heavy metal, soul, jazz and pop stuff. I like to duck in there whenever I get the chance, just to browse. And there's Gram at Siam Paragon, which offers a comparable selection to what CD Warehouse used to have.

I worry about the cool, independent used record shop I used to hang out in back in my hometown, and wonder how much longer a small store like that can hold up, if big businesses like Tower, CD Warehouse and Virgin are going out of business or cutting back on their brick-and-mortar locations?

CD Warehouse closes for good on Tuesday, February 26. I hate to see them go.