Chris Brown popped off on twitter a few days back about his perceived notion of getting blacked balled by retailers because of his Rihanna affairs. Brown stated, “im tired of this shit. major stores r blackballing my cd. not stockin the shelves and lying to costumers. what the fu** do i gotta do… … yeah i said it and i aint retracting sh** im not biting my tongue about sh** else… the industry can kiss my a**.” But it seems that retailers feel the complete opposite and think they may have over stocked Chris’s album, Check it Out;
A survey and store visits find that Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Trans World, Newbury Comics are all carrying the Brown record and sources say that his album received widespread distribution and promotion by his label, Jive Records, and his distributor, Sony Music Entertainment. Jive shipped over 400,000 units of “Graffiti,” and also had it positioned in prime stores space at all key accounts, according to sources. In fact, sources suggest that Jive may have overshipped his record, as sales are slow.
“Not only am I carrying it, I am over carrying it, because it isn’t selling,” said the head of purchasing at one large chain. “I wish I could return it.” He says the album’s first week sales only reached 40% of expectations.
At 27-unit Newbury Comics, Carl Mello, head of purchasing, echoes that sentiment. “We have it. It’s not selling much.”
He said the chain never even considered boycotting Brown – an accusation leveled by the artist on Twitter. Brown pleaded guilty to charges in connection with his attack of former girlfriend Rihanna in February, just before the Grammy Awards show. “We never considered not bringing it in,” Mello sais. “If we stopped bringing in records from every unsavory character that puts out an album, there would be tumbleweed floating around our stores.”
When ordering the record, Mello says he took into account Brown’s altercation with Rihanna from a sales perspective, only. After saying, “Let’s see what has happened with his sales since the incident,” Mello reports that “Exclusive,” which was issued in November 2007, sold 11 copies chain-wide in October 2008, eight copies in November, five units in January, four in February, two in March, and no copies in April, May and June. “From July until now, we have sold three copies,” Mello added. “When you see an artist is going to release a new album and then you go back and see these kind of sales, alarm bells go off. You don’t feel over confident about bringing in a lot of records.”
Nevertheless, “we brought in the new album because you know you are going to sell some,” Mello said. “We let the consumer vote on it.”
And so far, consumers aren’t flocking to stores to vote on behalf of Brown. Sources project that Brown sold about 100,000 units last week, well below the 150,000-175,000 units he was expected to sell. Mello said that the album is probably about the No. 40 best selling title at the chain.
