After serving a worldwide community for a little over a decade, the first and longest running Christian Hip Hop online store known around the world as The Bus Shop will be making preparations to officially close it doors on March 15, 2012. Ken “Bus” Falls, Jr., founder and owner of The Bus Shop, made an announcement via their official twitter yesterday.
Thanks to everyone who supported The Bus Shop website over the past decade, it has been my pleasure to serve you. March 15th will be the last day of operation for The Bus Shop. Business matters will continue as usual up to the day of closing. The site will continue 2 place items in digital format, CDs placements will not be made. The contact # @ the site will remain active. All calls will be forwarded to my cell phone, please do not be surprised by the greeting of “Hello” when calling.. LOL #KeepItLocked
The Bus Shop may be a business, but at the heart of things was a desire just to support the genre and artists.The Bus Shop was the only store that purchased CD’s from you in advance for placement. There was not even a guarantee that your CD would sell, but Bus didn’t mind doing things this way. He saw it as an opportunity to support the artists. This probably makes Bus one of Christian Hip Hop’s greatest supporters.
With thousands of CD titles – also including Gospel, R&P, Pop/Rock and Reggae – Bus singlehandedly operated The Bus Shop with excellence and with great customer service. The remarkable part is that he did it all while maintaining a full-time job and a successful marriage. Bus made all of the industry contacts and inquiries, purchased every CD in stock, packaged and shipped them around the world, and would many times bless you with a free mixtape, or include postcards from other artists.
The question on the minds of many would be why are they closing? I may not have the answer but I think its just time to move on. I’m sure we will see more sites coming up. Doing the same thing and even taking it to a higher level.
