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GREENSBORO - BB's is done.

BB's Compact Discs will shut its doors Aug. 31 and end a 19-year tradition of selling new music and becoming a must-stop for musicians and many music fans near Guilford College.

"It's hard to put into words,'' Duncan Dunn , BB's 32- year-old owner, said this afternoon. "It's been a very significant portion of my life. A third of my life. So it's going to be a real shock the first week of September when it's not here anymore.''

Dunn tried. Since July 1, he has pinched every penny, held off bringing in any new releases and sold off inventory - now at half price - to get enough money to move to another location.

But Dunn said today he didn't get enough - about half of what he needed. And Dunn knew he had to move.

His lease was going to expire in 13 days. For the past six months, he was living paycheck to paycheck. And in the past year, BB's business has fallen by 50 percent as Quaker Village Shopping Center, run by a big corporation out of Chicago, has become an array of empty storefronts.

Meanwhile, Dunn said the store had accumulated $100,000 in debt, and Dunn knew he couldn't keep hoping that something, anything, would happen.

So, BB's - the last independent record store in Greensboro that sells new releases - now becomes a local example of what's happened nationwide.

Record stores, even large chains, have closed in record numbers over the past few years. The reasons are many. Here are a few:

Record companies have become conglomerates, big-box retailers sell discounted CDs next to washers and racks of clothes, and digital downloads on the Internet - particularly singles - are becoming more popular with each passing year.

Meanwhile, between 2006-2007, the most recent figures available, CD sales have dropped by nearly 21 percent. So, music spots like BB's have been placed in the cross-hairs of commerce.

Times change. Music listening patterns evolve. So, the record store started in 1989 by Darryl Deitsch and Brad Boyson, two longtime friends from New Jersey, is no more after Labor Day.

Dunn bought BB's from Deitsch two years ago. He had been working there since 1995.

"Greensboro did everything it could, but we were so far behind the eight ball,'' Dunn said. "Judging how bad our location was, mixed with the economy and everythign else, Greensboro has been good.

"But it was such a long road to travel to get where we needed to be,'' he said. "We worked really hard to make it happen, and we tried our best. But it wasn't meant to be right now.''

Dunn said he expects to hold a farewell party - with local bands - on Aug. 30. But right now, he said plans are incomplete.

Contact Jeri Rowe at 373-7374 or jeri.rowe@news-record.com.