"Is there really nothing left? Is it really all gone?" said Raider Villalobos, 20, who stopped by the record store on his way to visit Jackson's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Minutes later, a new shipment arrived. Shoppers jammed the aisle, snatching up handfuls of CDs seconds after they were removed from the cardboard box.
Deshawn Richard and his wife, Catherine, emerged from the crowd with four albums -- including "Dangerous" and "Bad" -- and said they were hoping to buy some posters too.
"We have a legend that's gone, and we're always going to want a piece of him," said Deshawn, 25, a security officer from Lancaster. "I went to karaoke last night and did 'Man in the Mirror' and everyone was crying and singing along."
Troy Culpan, a marketing executive, snapped a photo of Jackson's section of CDs with his digital camera before buying a copy of "The Essential Michael Jackson."
"It's a little bit morbid, but I want it," said Culpan, 33. "I never picked it up because I thought he'd always be around."
Keith Caulfield, Billboard's senior chart manager, noted a significant change in the way fans have been able to respond to Jackson's death as opposed to those of artists who preceded him.
"Unlike in those cases, where you still purchased a physical album and had to go to a store and buy something, which may not have been in stock at the store you wanted to go to, today people can get what they want instantly on iTunes or Amazon or whatever. So I think the sales impact will be greater than one would expect."
Caulfield said sales of Jackson's albums through Sunday, the end of the retail reporting cycle, "will have a very significant impact on next week's chart. In a way, he will be king of the charts again next week."
Business also was booming Friday for street vendors who set up shop along Hollywood Boulevard near Jackson's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, hawking T-shirts that read "Long Live the King" and other merchandise.
Steve Temple, a beverage marketer from Inglewood, was selling posters for $10 that featured a collage of Jackson photos through the years.
"It's something to remember him by," he said. "So far I've sold 20 and I've been out here 30 minutes."
Sandy Cup Choy, a church secretary from Los Angeles, was on her way to place pink roses and a white poinsettia by Jackson's star when she stopped to buy a poster.
"This is just beautiful," she said. "I'm going to hang it up in my room. I'll treasure it always."
Gary Arnold, senior entertainment officer at Best Buy Co., said he looked back to the deaths of John Lennon in 1980 and Elvis Presley in 1977 to find a comparable outpouring from fans seeking solace in the music of a pop icon whose life ended so unexpectedly.
"I would think in the natural way that people are going to grieve and celebrate his life, a lot of them will reach out to the music that touched them from Michael, and the good news is there's so much of it," he said. "I don't think the emotions, the wounds, the sadness will heal quickly. But I believe at the core of all this there was an incredible entertainer who moved people, and I think the music and the videos he left behind will help people with that healing process."
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andrea.chang@latimes.com
randy.lewis@latimes.com
