The college hipster’s dilemma: You want to support the musical artists you like (and build up street cred) by buying their albums, and you don’t like having to wait for delivery after ordering music online, but most of your money goes to textbooks and crêpes. So, how do you make leftover pocket change satisfy your craving for shiny new CDs? You shop around for the best deals on music.

But that takes time. Luckily, writers for NorthByNorthwestern.com have time, so I did some comparison shopping, looking for which of the three music vendors in walking distance of Northwestern have the best prices and widest selections of CDs.

The stores, their grades, and my comments…

Dr. Wax
1615 Sherman Avenue
Selection: A-
Price: B

Dr. Wax is part of a dying breed: the independent music store. It’s a cool place, with hand-written cards separating the CDs, hip posters lining the walls and employees who know and love music behind the counter playing their favorite albums. For diversity of musical selection, Dr. Wax is the best in Evanston, carrying both mainstream and obscure artists: among the stacks of albums are sections for Native American, a capella and Hawaiian music. The problem is that Dr. Wax is a small place and carries only a few copies of every CD, so they were sold out of things like Led Zeppelin’s Presence (though it looked like they had the rest of the Led Zeppelin catalogue) and the recently-released critically-acclaimed Emily Haines album. Most of the music is priced reasonably between $10 and $17. If you have enough time, you can scour through their used and discount section and find gems priced at less than five dollars. The bottom line: Go to Dr. Wax first when looking for an album – it might be cheaper than anywhere else, and you might find something you’ve always wanted to get but never could never track down.

Borders
1700 Maple Avenue
Selection: B
Price: C

According to my English teacher, Borders is dumbing down American culture along with Barnes & Noble, but I give Borders points for seeming cooler. The CD racks on the second floor of Borders’ Evanston location hold a surprising number of indie rock, electronica and underground rap albums, as well as all the mainstream artists. Most of the new releases were supposedly priced at $18.99, but had stickers saying they were on sale for $14.99 (if that pricing is part of some evil scheme, I can’t figure it out). Christina Aguilera’s new double album was being sold for a whopping $21.99, compared to $19.99 at Dr. Wax and $15.99 at Barnes & Noble. The listening stations at Borders only let you hear music once you scan the barcode on the CD case (so if you can’t find it on the shelves, you can’t listen), but “Title Sleuth” computer terminals helpfully let you see what is in stock. The bottom line: If it’s not totally obscure and Dr. Wax is sold out of copies, try Borders.

Barnes & Noble
1630 Sherman Avenue
Selection: B-
Price: D

With the chain bookstore moving to a larger location across the street, Evanston’s Barnes & Noble now sells music – to the benefit of no one. Like its big-box rival Borders a few blocks away, everything is systematically overpriced, but Barnes & Noble also carries a less eclectic selection of music than Borders. A lot of the CDs are absurdly expensive: I couldn’t help but notice that almost everything in Coldplay’s catalogue, for example, cost more than $18 (as did, even more perplexingly, Nick Lachey’s new album). Most of the new releases were being sold for $16.99. Sure, some of the more costly albums had “Buy 3, get 1 free” stickers, but that smacks of a corporate scheme to make consumers think they’re saving money when they’re not. Barnes & Noble’s one saving grace is its listening stations, which allow you to hear to the entire company’s catalogue – though they don’t tell you whether a particular album is on the shelves of the store you’re in. The bottom line: Barnes & Noble is not only hurting the independent record stores of America – they’re also pillaging our wallets.