Woolworth's Stereo Spectacular '71

Here's a "spectacular" TV ad from 1971 for Woolworth's variety stores, featuring record albums and 8-track tapes. (It occurs to me that none of those three things--Woolworth's, record albums, or 8-track tapes--are around anymore.) Albums are on sale for $1.57 or 87¢, while 8-tracks come in at a wallet-busting $2.99. Some of the artists featured in this ad are head scratchers: Jack Jones? Petula Clark? Herb Alpert? Not exactly spectacular by the standards we now have for popular music of the late-1960s and early-1970s.

While the ad's groovy graphics are fun to look at, more interesting is the implication the ad makes for how popular music was marketed and sold in 1971. Obviously, this was before digital music downloads on iTunes or elsewhere, but it was also before Best Buy existed and before discount store chains like Target and Wal-Mart became the music-selling behemoths they are today. Woolworth's was a venerable variety store chain that had locations everywhere in the US, but with most of them in downtown or inner city locations. Records and tapes were only one of many product lines featured in the stores, so it's interesting too that they were given special (spectacular even!) treatment in a commercial such as this.