Chicago Classical Music

At the moment online appears to be your best bet. I read that the Salomon family (proprietors of Tower) are looking into opening a smaller chain with a classical focus. Here are a few comments on the current alternatives:

Borders: Regular prices are high, but if you join the Rewards program, you'll receive email coupons periodically for 20-30 percent off. Selection is diminished over what it was a few years ago, and although some stores have a physically large selection, the chain's buyers are not astute about classical music. The Evanston store had a good selection in its old location, but the newer store has never matched that. Edens Plaza is somewhat better but still underwhelming.

Barnes and Noble, at least at Old Orchard and Evanston, has a selection too small to be taken seriously, with high pricing as well. You can join a discount program but unlike Borders, you'll have to pay a fee.

Many of the secondhand stores have vanished but a few holdouts are worth visiting. Django's (2nd Hand Tunes) in Evanston has a decent selection, as does their store in Oak Park. Chicago Digital in Oak Park offers a good selection, but their filing system is quirky and the Sunday staff often can't match a CD to a leaflet.

Reckless Records on Broadway used to have a good selection at very favorable prices, but last time I stopped there, the classical section had been reduced to a fraction of its former size.

Bookworks on Clark (S of Addison) doesn't have a huge selection, but they do have some rarities and avant garde stuff and might be worth a stop, depending on your tastes. Friendly staff and an excellent book selection, too.

For me, a thin excuse is as good as any for a road trip, and Madison (Wis) has some excellent stores. On State Street, The Exclusive Co has a good selection, but you might want to call ahead for hours because the downstairs classical and jazz section closes earlier than the pop section on the main floor. Nearby is CD Exchange with a very impressive secondhand selection. Down the hill from the capitol building on Williamson is Mad City Music Exchange, where the secondhand selection isn't huge but often includes interesting titles including recent releases. On the west side of town, Frugal Muse has a good selection of secondhand tunes and is an enormous bookstore besides.

Frugal Muse also has a Chicago-area outpost at Lemont & 75th in Darien. Selection is smaller than in Madison but is still worth a stop.

If you're in or near the Twin Cities, go to Applause. They have several locations, but I've been to the one on Snelling just S of I-94 in St. Paul, and the selection is huge. I dropped close to $100 there last Fall.

Finally, I read that classical CD sales were up 25 percent last year, bucking the industry decline. This makes sense to me because the typical classical listener seems less likely to buy into the iPod and downloads thing. Because classical sales are such a small percentage of the overall market, we're at the mercy of stores that keep reducing their selection. It's hard to argue with their logic, but when the selection declines to a level where it's not worth stopping by, they'll lose customers.