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aberdeen-music

Are record shops a thing of the past?


Project Van Shite

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Aye. Alot of US labels used to sell CDs for $10 and LPs for $8. Now alot of them have doubled the price of the LP since they're not shifting anywhere near the same amount of CDs as they used to. I suppose in 5 years time we could all be sat here debating "are record labels a thing of the past" with how easy it is to do your own recordings and put out your own records

Southern Lord prices are pretty good for the overall quality of the package, their covers and such tend to be pretty cool, but the postage costs pretty much double the cost of whatever you buy :(

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you don't need to do anything, man. like...we're all gonna die anyway.

but by ordering in a record you want to buy from Southern Lord it eliminates the shipping cost, which you just said you didnt like because it doubled the cost.

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See, I think that would have been a gamble worth taking. A lot of people like the idea of smaller independent coffee shops rather than the big chains and they would have had a unique selling point with the combo of record shop and coffee shop - IF they had also thought about other changes alongside it. That shop has a lot of empty space really. They could have done a reshuffle and turned the downstairs into a coffee shop. Folk who came in for a coffee may well end up browsing on the way in/out. Play some decent music, folk may well enjoy and buy.

I get the impression they have had a bit of a reluctance to invest much money that will not be guaranteed a return. That's fair enough but as others have said you can't just sit and do nothing and expect to appeal to the record buying public to save the business, just isn't going to work out in the modern record industry. They have pretty much sat still for the past 4 years since the whole retail industry started taking a hit and record shops increasingly so.

Sure, the coffee shop idea may not have worked out but it could also have revived their business somewhat. Not taking that chance looks likely to have guaranteed eventual closure.

I think the gamble was big enough that people would have lost their homes if it didn't work out.

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Really? Wow, I guess my thoughts on how much a coffee shop is to start up is out of whack then! Fair doos then...

It would mean a massive refurbishment of the shop, including installing a kitchen and public toilets. Plus, there is the purchase of all the coffee making paraphenalia, which is also hugely expensive.

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I remember being in One Up last year and there this was fucking awesome album playing, I asked Yogi who it was and that was my introduction to The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, now one of my favourite bands and favourite albums. That's the kind of thing that will make it sad when record shops go. That said I didn't buy it in One Up because it was way too expensive, I went home and got it online.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I agree with downsizing. That way they could maybe have enough funds to refurbish wherever they move to, to attract more folk. As has been said before, it's too easy to get music online... If they could focus on rare vinyls/CDs that would be good, but would there be enough customers for something like that? People are more likely to download or get CDs cheaper off Amazon and that's just the way it is. Image plays a large part in their sales and if they're not up-to-date with their online presence and the overall look of their shop it'll hinder them.

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But how long will that last? It's just delaying the inevitable.

Absolutely agree, personally I'd have thought that to make the most of the short-term boom they should be trying to hoard as much profit as possible to be able to move to a smaller, less expensive unit. Or something. Put the money into trying to develop the website, or making it a more sustainable business long-term. Fuck, even try to turn downstairs into a BYOB-style venue. Like Cellar 35 crossed with a DIY gig in a village hall.

xx

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Absolutely agree, personally I'd have thought that to make the most of the short-term boom they should be trying to hoard as much profit as possible to be able to move to a smaller, less expensive unit. Or something. Put the money into trying to develop the website, or making it a more sustainable business long-term. Fuck, even try to turn downstairs into a BYOB-style venue. Like Cellar 35 crossed with a DIY gig in a village hall.

xx

If Drummonds are getting shit for noise levels, I can't even imagine the cost in turning one up's downstairs in to a venue.

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