CD collector's plea for JB Hi-Fi to open in Orange

It's that love of the physical format which has seen the 52-year-old offer an impassioned plea to JB Hi-Fi.

"They need to come out here because the people of Orange need it," Mr Browne said.

The CD collector pointed to the recent closure of the Sanity store which once operated out of the Orange City Centre as even more reason why JB Hi-Fi should consider opening another store in the Central West.

"Orange is a retail town, that's the majority of employment here besides the mine. There's no real big industry in town any more, it's all retail. There's a need for it," he said.

"People say that Harvey Norman have all of it covered, but they're not selling what we want. JB Hi-Fi sell everything that Harvey Norman do, plus they've got the entertainment stuff."

With stores in Bathurst and Dubbo, Mr Browne finds himself regularly travelling to the former in search of the next addition to his collection.

"I've got more than 3000 CDs and a catalogue of records. Besides Big W who have a handful of stuff, there's not a whole lot of places in town you can go," he said.

"I have to leave town to go and continue collecting. I'm 52 now and I'm still buying CDs every week."

In a Central Western Daily poll undertake in 2017, 12.46 per cent of respondents - or 782 people - said JB Hi-Fi was the store they most wanted to see open in Orange.

It seems not a lot has changed since then, as a post by Mr Browne indicated.

The post simply asked people to vote yes or no as to whether they believed Orange "needed" the electronics store.

Of the near 100 responses, not a single one said it wouldn't be welcomed with open arms.

"There wasn't one negative reaction, nobody said no or commented badly," Mr Browne added.

"We do not currently have anything for entertainment in this town.

"There are definitely enough people in town to support it. You've only got to look around at all the housing developments going around, we're getting bigger, not smaller."

With developments such as the Bloomfield Shopping Centre or old Bunnings site still looking to fill space, Mr Browne wasn't too concerned with where a potential JB Hi-Fi opened, as long as it was in Orange.

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