1. Why do they often sell the exact same CD at two or more different prices? Always worth a good trawl through the racks, is my advice!
2. Why do they never have the thing you want to buy?
3. Why do they employ people that don't seem interested in music?
4. How do they decide at what volume they should play the in-shop stereo? It tends to get louder, the more specialist the shop.

1. bad stock control
2. Cuz there's TOO MUCH MUSIC!
3. Because they're cheap.
4. To drown out the stupid questions from the customers.

So no mysteries at all then.
Thanks for clearing that up.

:lol:
ummm...well, that just from my perspective. Others may have a different opinion.
I was in FOPP the other day :sick: Its on my way home and I canna resist a record shop, even tho I feel dirty in there.
I could see no cds to buy (they've just got rid of their lone vinyl rack) but i espied the new Wire so I thought ''may as well pick it up here"
So I took it to the counter and stood there like a fool (nobody behind counter although shop full of people)...I stood there and waited, looking around. I noticed some young trendy folk tittering. Lumpy old man, can't get served in the hipsters shop. grrrrr. So I just chucked the mag on the counter and stormed out. I later obtained the Wire from a corner newsagents.
Funnily enough - one of the 'seismic' gigs they mention ... The Birthday Party at Xtremes in 81...I was at!!!

Blimey. And was it truly seismic?

Yes! It was absolutely amazing.

I find the young things working at Musiczone very attentive, helpful and friendly.
Ach..., Music shops are just not what they used to be.

Usually cold too,as if there's a demonic presence checking the latest releases.

Music Zone? The chain that bought MVC?

Sorry to break it to you, but they've gone into liquidation.

Them too?

I guess the helpful bit didn't cajole enough people to buy.

Nobody wants to buy CD's and DVD's anymore. :o

Just download and accept the free CD's and DVD's with our newspapers and magazines... :rolleyes:

I feel this should spur yet more debate at the future of music and the industry and retail side.

I have a headache and need to pop out for a walk this lunchtime - too much time at the pc - work, then more work on this pay review thing...

I digress. Stephen how about some good questions to stoke further debate about the future of music, maybe leading to a poll?

Evidently not.

There were all sorts of things wrong with Music Zone, though. The over-bearing in-house advertising/'radio station'. The poor choices of whom and what to stock. The constant, irritating mis-filing of CDs; eventually I lost patience and re-filed a load of them myself one day. And then the cheesy questions they asked you at the counter. "Would you like to buy any discount DVDs today? Would you like to buy some sweets?" What am I, a fucking 10-year-old?

In London's Virgin Megastore on Oxford Street the people at the till have now been instructed ask "Did you manage to find everything that you wanted?" every time you make a purchase. I'm always tempted to give them a list of 200–300 albums that I'm after but which they don't stock. But instead I say, weakly, 'Yes thanks' in order to get out of there ASAP.

A revolting development to be sure.

I get a sinking feeling in these giant sheds full of commercial crud. I actually feel a bit ashamed as I glumly survey the shelves of HMV and FOPP. Its a disheartening experience.
At least in the little shop i work in you can cheer yourself up with the not-bad Fall section, all the Seeds albums and the perky, ever-happy-to-please staff who will cater to your every whim. As long as you don't ask any stupid questions about Van Halen or Bossa Nova.

Ooh, so many questions are running through my head... so many...

I'm coming down especially to ask whether Bradx's record shop has a copy of 'Around The Sun' by R.E.M. When he says they don't have an R.E.M. section I'm just going to start cackling manically.

I keep a small axe under the counter for times like that.

I'm going to ask him if I can put a notice up in his shop window advertising my bible group, Hove Youth For Jesus.

Weds 8pm. See you there, fellow crusaders!

Same thing happens with Newcastle's Virgin (the shop, not the one remaining chaste resident.) At first I thought, hmm... what does this callow young fellow want from me- why should he care? When it happened again I just felt irritated. I hate this cynical false bonhomie adopted/imposed by some chains; PC World used to have some poor sap standing in the doorway "greeting" you. Makes you want to kill.

One "mysterious thing" for me, is how much do they pay for the cds? I expect bulk buying will affect the price but there is often huge disparities in the price of a given album between rival chains and between local independents.
How much would a shop pay for a back catalogue album it sells for around £6 and a chart album going for about £10? Often remastered editions of old albums appear for about £12.99 and then drop right back to as little as £4.99 within a year- do the shops pay more for the initial release- or this simply when and how they are able to make some good profits?

praise be, mate :) :beer:

One mysterious thing I find about record shops is that records/CDs often sound great when heard instore, then you buy it and take it home and it doesn't sound as good. Is a record like guiness, doesn't travel well?

I used to like Fopp but since they opened their megastore on London's Tottenham Court Road, they seem to be making a point of driving me away with earsplitting volume and continual rearrangement of racks - mehhh. Not a place to linger, which I would have thought would be a key aim of record shop managers.

Wandered through the local HMV yesterday (in Hull it's either HMV or Virgin), found the Bunnymen's 'Porcupine' for a fiver, which chuffed me no end...

Went to the checkout, got the 'Did you find everything you wanted?' line. Wotta revoltin' development! Never had that before. Besides, in the Hull dialect it sounds as though the asker isn't remotely interested anyway. Round here, if someone in a fast food joint (or whatever) says 'Have a nice day' it comes out sounding like 'Fuck off and die, not that I care whether you do or not'

Death to corporate bullshit!

Chains and supermarkets have more buying power than small indies - so they r able to offer 'better' prices. But, the actual choice may not be so good as a specialist shop of course. So its not really 'better' (to me anyway).
The days when shops had a 100+% mark up have long gone. ie in the old days (the 70s say) shops may well have paid say, £2 for an album and racked it out for £3.99. Something like that. Maybe more if they thought they could...ie £4.49.
Now, margins are much smaller and competition is pretty cutthroat. I suppose in Asda or somewhere they might pay £6 for a chart cd and put it out for £8.49. I'm guessing a bit.
In our shop margins have become wafer thin. Some cds are £2.25 wholesale and we sell em for £3. Mad.
At the top end, cds are about £9 wholesale and we sell em for about £13. I think its hardly worth the bother but there we are.

Imagine- the 50s and 60s...LPs are about £2 full price. There is no other way of hearing the music (apart from radio) - as not many people have tape recorders and cassettes are still a way off. The record companies and record shops are selling MILLIONS of LPs at £2 each. Millions. In most towns there is only 1 record shop. What a racket. But then - people can't afford to buy many albums a year as they are so expensive. £2 in 1963 say equates to about £50 now, roughly.

And then the 80s - when record companies discovered they could sell back people their record collections. Cds were about £15 at first weren't they? £12 at least anyway. The record companies must be looking back and shaking their heads.

Fast forward to now. Lots of places to buy music from. FOPP, Virgin, HMV, supermarkets, newsagents, charity shops, boot fairs, Woolworths, independent shops, internet. All these people chasing smaller amounts of money. Records selling much less than in the old days...and yet - more places to buy music.
Then there's lots of free music too. Illegal downloads etc. So - the whole thing is slowly dying basically.

Yes - when an album is fresh it costs more to buy initially, then the price drops as demand goes down.

There was that lovely moment when the press revealed it was far cheaper to make CDs than vinyl albums and you could hear the entire record industry simultaneously going :whistle:

The staff in my local Virgin (Newbridge) do the same. It's irritating.

For sales they're quite good but what really annoys me is when you go in looking for a new release and they don't have it in stock. If it's sold out, fair enough but usually they haven't bothered to get it in. Funnily enough if the new release is the RHCP, Britney, Westlife or someone like that they'll have loads of copies.

'But I can order it for you'

'No thanks. I'll just go online when I get home'.

Another sale lost.
Another nail in the coffin.

I'm going to ask him if they have a toilet I could use.

I feel sorry for the poor bastards who have to say it. I really hope I never end up working in one of those places.

:lol: :lol:

This is the 2nd record shop I've worked in with no toilet. The first one was 1995.
It WAS a record shop I suppose .... in that it had records in it and they were for sale. The back was open to the elements. I worked there in then winter of 95. It was bloody cold. The boss used to say ''if u want to go to the bog, close the shop, there's a public toilet at the top of the hill''. Hmmmm.
I preferred to close the shop and go to the pub just a little way down the hill. But that was a recipe for disaster really.
I got to be an expert at pissing into coke cans. At the end of the week there'd be a line of full coke cans lining the entrance. Lovely.
I do have a story about no.2s but I expect yr eating yr tea.

This present shop doesn't believe in toilets either. Its quite avant garde in that respect. My kidneys after a few hours in that place, ooh mama. Its fuckn ridiculous and probably aginst the law but I like the people who own it so I won't be suing them.

I find it a good life code that i.e. not suing those you like. it can lead to complications, i would imagine.

Did you use a Paul Weller box-set or something?

I can't bring myself to tell the story. I'm too ashamed.
Unusual for me, as I normally have no scruples at all.
Mmm, what can it mean?

I think I've told all my best record shop stories now

1. the time the rat came in the shop and some blokes shot it with an air rifle
2. the time I nearly killed a hippy with the grills
3. the time the junky shat himself
4. the time I bought a Beatles album for about £2 and it turned out to be the rarest ever Beatles sleeve and was worth £600
5. the time I only took £2 ALL DAY!
6. The time the customer asked for the ''record with the blue sleeve''.
7. the time P Buck came in
8. the time I met Lee Perry
9. the time Lenny Henry came in
10. the time Steve Davis came in
11. the time I did a no.2 in a Paul Weller boxset

I've only heard 7.
Would be keen to find out about 1, 5, 6 and 8 if they are true. Or even if they're not.

Was Steve Davis asking for a Magma record? He's famous for liking them, isn't he?

Steve Davis went round the whole shop but only purchased one 12" from the £1 box on the floor near the door. It was a soul record. he collects Northern soul and modern soul but apparently never actually plays them He just keeps them in boxes :blink:

he also like Magma. he put them on once.

ALL my stories are true!!

1. A rat came in the shop - through the front door -off the street!! - and hid in a corner. It was an 'orrible scabby thing. I tried to interest the council in getting rid of it but they declined. I phoned up some company from the yellow pages and 2 herberts arrived with an air rifle in a bin liner. We closed the shop and they shot it. It crossed the floor of the shop in approx 0.5 seconds. Then they shot it in the head. Blood went all over the window. They said it was a big bugger.

Do you know how many rats can breed from 1 pair of rats in a year?
1600!!

5. It was a very cold day. In fact it was snowing. I should've stayed in bed. I sold one £2 tape all day. Zzzz. The boss used to like to get his moneys worth so he would set me silly jobs to do all day even if there were no customers. Moving particles of dust around, that sort of thing.

6. A customer kept badgering me about some record he was after. He only knew it was in a blue sleeve. He kept saying ''you must know it''.

8. Lee Perry stopped outside our shop as we had a poster for his gig in the door. I went up to him and asked for his autograph. I recognised him immediately of course as he was wearing a black suit covered with bits of mirror and broken cds all over. Plus a top hat with the same accessorising.
I got a pen and gave it to him with a bit of paper and he pocketed my pen! I thought ''here we go''.
But then he got a big marker pen out of his bag and wrote on my paper ''Enjoy Life, Lee Perry''.
COOL!! Then he went off. I shouted after him ''you're a genius!".
About 10 minutes later he went past again and stopped and waved at me!

I mentioned this to a pal of mine who collects reggae autographs and he said that Lee Perry NEVER signs autographs. I said ''well, he did me''.
''then he signed the wrong name'' said my pal ''like Leo Perry or some such''.
''Nope'' sez I ''he signed it Lee Perry''
My pal was well jealous.

I know why he signed it - cuz we had a poster for him up in our window and thats how it works.

I've still got the signature of course and its a prized possession.

Top-class stories. Can we have 2 and 4 as well?

2. We had very heavy metal grills to go over the windows and I leant one up early in the morning. It was about 8 feet tall and it was wobbling against the wall. Then it crashed down. It missed the side of this blokes head by about an eigth of an inch. For a hippy looking bloke he certainly had a foul mouth! What language :ohdear:

4. Aha! This bloke came in with a big box of 60s wrecked records. They were great records...if they had been in good nick but they were pretty bad. He said that the boss had offered him £50 for them. I looked at them and thought ''blimey''. I tried ringing mr bossman and the bloke stood his ground. I looked at them again. Rolling Stones....ok.....Downliners Sect...not too bad condition (I ended up with this great 1964 album eventually), Beatles... hmmmm...ok, benefit of the doubt time. I gave the bloke £50.
Mr bossman gave me what-for when he saw them. He was crying. I got a right telling off. its true - you don't listen to them. ''Don't LISTEN to them'' were his very words.
Then about 4 months later he said ''you know those albums I told u off for buying? - well, that Beatles one is worth £600''.

It was true. Its the rarest Beatles lp sleeve. It only came out in Denmark for about 3 weeks before being withdrawn. The album was on Parlophone and was called the Beatles Hottest Hits, the cover was the Beatles dressed as eskimos. The cover was withdrawn and replaced with a better photo from what we gathered. A dealer bought it for £450, even tho it was in poor condition and the cover looked like a mouse had eaten the corner of the sleeve. Same as my Downliners lp, thats been nibbled too. Probably the same mouse with a taste for 60s beat music.

Possibly revenge for his rat cousin having been brutally murdered in your shop.

:lol:
aye, no doubt.



According to this they pressed 3000. It doesn't say it was withdrawn - its just rare and apparently of very high quality pressing. They wanted £895 for it - but its £795 as special offer. Hmmmm.

i was working in a record shop years back with martin bramagh. i was downstairs on the bog when he says through the door to me : "do you want a broom ?". quietly back i say : "no thanks". he says : "well I'm going to have one." i say back : "okay...good for you."(in lieu of having anything remotely pertinent to say about such madness).
only in the evening at home alone i figure he must have been asking "do you want a brew ?"

proved impossible for me to bring the subject up again in the future to clarify the matter.

:lol: Have any other forum members misheard ex-members of the Fall?