Remember the CD longbox?

HiFi rack from that time, not mine

Today as I was scanning tourist pamphlets to reduce my collection of paper, it came back to me that I used to make postcards. Well, not from scratch, I'm terrible at art. I used to cut up CD longboxes and use the panels as postcards because they were so pretty and it was a waste to throw out that cardboard. Some of my postcard recipients were bemused.

I've always thought that the format was created for two reasons, to reuse the LP bins, and to make the CDs harder to shoplift. But eventually just displaying jewel cases became the norm, and electronic tags and such were used to reduce shoplifting.

Of course the LP and CD shop has declined in market share now that everything's gone online. Some people still like to have physical artefacts and the vinyl revival is due to that, though it seems a large fraction of buyers never actually play their LPs.

Here's an US-centric long article on the rise and fall of the longbox. I remember one of defunct retailers mentioned in it, Tower Records.