The End of an Era: Columbia House's Demise and What It Says About Us Columbia House, that relic of a bygone era, is shutting down after decades of peddling CDs and DVDs to consumers.
Founded in 1955 as a mail order music club, it promised the moon to those hard to reach consumers who couldn't get their hands on the latest vinyl releases.
The company's siren song was enticing: sign up for a set of LPs at pennies on the dollar, and then be bombarded with promises of "value" and "entertainment" that seemed more like a Faustian bargain than a genuine deal.