I think it's a reference to how some businesses go out of business when the the theory that people will pay money for a product fails to hold true. Tower Record

I think it's a reference to how some businesses go out of business when the the theory that people will pay money for a product fails to hold true. Tower Records being one such example. That said, the tenses and general grammar of the whole sentence don't really hold up to the usual Joel standards and sits very strangely.