Boycotting Certain Record Shops -- do you do it and, if so, why?

Platinum Records - they're a bunch of fucking morons with major attitude problems. a bit better these days than it was in the past but i've got my revenge. i regularly stroll in, listen to a stack of records then put them back in the crate and write down the titles i want to buy. restock this you fucks!

Zions Gate - i've heard horror stories of the owners refusing to pay his employees their whole salary. he insists on staff taking a third of their pay in trade. a trade that is no more then a 15%discount on the retail price. so if he buys an album for 6 and sells it for 16, you would pay 12. you have to take a chunk of your wages in trade that he weights heavily on his side. he regularly sells used records as "new" on ebay and has no problem with cheating customers.

I occasionally go to Bleeker Bobs, never had a run in with the man himself, but my friend Cowboy Mark works there and now the disco/electro used section is pretty well stocked.

I DO boycott Rockit Scientist though, because after shopping there regularly for many years, and spending many dollars there, I just got fed up with the attitude.

If you're going to boycott a store, at least grow one pair, and be open about it. Unless this were Kim's, I doubt any store has a mafia. Jesus.

XPOST - Bleeker Bob's already sucked when I last lived in NYC, and that was in '98!

Is the anonymity just so you don't burn a bridge? I mean, if that's your experience, what do you have to lose?

Owner is a complete ass and sally.

I have stories to back it up and has been documented on other boards.

I take my business elsewhere.

maybe it's silly to be so angry at that but i really am.

(Honestly, I can't believe they're even still in business - especilly given that their doppelganger-in-overpriced-nastiness, Midnight, had to close its Chelsea location some years back.)

http://reasoner.experiencethis.org/archives/325

reason for a $2 difference?

I managed to pillage a bit of the Second Coming basement before they closed, but the best stuff had already been pillaged.

And yeah Bleeker Bob's blew back then too!

In Chicago, Vintage Vinyl in Evanston is ridiculous. I hate that place. More personal museum than record store.

In Los Angeles, I've stopped going to Rhino Records. Not for any personal beef (their prices are a little too much) but because I live near Amoeba and Aron's. Before Amoeba I'd make the trek to the west side to do some scrounging, but not these days.

I'm not a fan of Atomic Records in Burbank, because I saw a couple of the guys who run the place digging through Record Surplus once with a list, probably to buy one of their $1.85 records and sell it for $20.

Any and all record stores on Melrose are useless.

I once went to a record store on Brand Ave. in Glendale and found an old Muddy Waters live LP for a decent price, but the guy was a dick so I never went back. It's not there anymore, they're doing some renovation along that stretch and tore the place down.

I've picked up $5.99 domestic stuff at Zion's... recently, too. *shrug*. Seems to match the other stores, more or less, depending on what I'm looking for.

I'm sorry you had to work for someone who's business practices you didn't like.

Strikingly accurate.

It hasn't been the same since the move. Last time I stopped in there it's half taken over by some kind of vintage pinball machine and neon sign store.

"boycott" is being used as a verb not a noun here!

Bleeker Bobs: I went in once, Bob was involved in a long telephone conversation so I never spoke to him. I knew his reputation from Kris Needs' book "Needs Must" autog (recommended a little). Usually in 2nd hand record shops, I get a vibe : "Go to this section" sort of thing. I got none here. I checked out the Beatles section and bought the car sticker "We've seen the prices at Bleeker Bobs" (metaphorically).

FUCKAZ. ALL PEOP.;E WHO WORK IN RECORD SHOPZ ARE FUCKAZ.

This isn't unique to record shops, but they do seem to attract more than their fair share of rude assistants.

Me : I bought this (Bark PSychosis) yesterday and there's a huge scratch on side 2. I've got the receipt.
Sister Ray employee 1 : We haven't got any more - might get some in next week. You can order it if you like.
Me : Oh look, can I just get something else instead if you haven't got it in stock.
Sister Ray employee 2, barging into conversation : We don't change things if you don't like them.
Me : I wanted to change it for another copy, but you haven't got any!
SRE 2 : Well you can order it.
Me : To be honest I'd rather pick it up somewhere else so I can get one today. But there's some other stuff I want, so could I have the credit towards those?
SRE 2 : No. We'll order it and you'll have to wait, mate.

Etc etc. I finally got my money back after about 30 mins. I left the shop, spent about £50 in Selectadisc and then came back to Sister Ray.

Me (to SRE 2) : Hi again. See this stuff in the bag. I would have bought it all in here if you hadn't been so unreasonable.

Anyway, it's a long time ago, and I've forgiven them! SRE 2 still works there though.

This place is now called "Virgin Megastore Times Square"

I've decided to boycott my local, and last remaining, independent record shop Avalanche Records. Basically the guy tried to rip me off and treated me like a fool. Read more about the saga here.

http://www.edinburghrecordclub.co.uk/blog

It’s been a long time since I set foot in Avalanche – 1988? (and that goes for Edinburgh as a whole) – and I have to fight off the kneejerk vinyl-what-do-you-expect heh-heh but let’s face it; if you’re running a business that is struggling because of what ebay etc. can get away with, then if you get a cache of “rare” records (though they don’t sound that rare to me) coming into your shop, you would want to maximise your potential profits; hey, if you can’t afford the price, someone else can, and regretfully at least nine times out of ten it will be bought by some middle-aged white ponytail/nothing on top (except a baseball cap) saddo who’ll put it straight on ebay. Tough breaks, but then Avalanche isn’t a charity and has to do what it can; presumably they would have Real Estate and M83 on CD, but otherwise you’re talking about a daily shrinking minority market (despite the rise reported in Music Week which is mostly on account of chart albums) – did you specifically ask to put in an order for these on vinyl? – and there’s no point in any business getting in stock it can’t sell. The overheads and cost of returning the stock outweigh any potential profit it could make.

In response to the original question, I have boycotted the Oxfam Music & Audio shop in Ealing since I was loudly ordered out by the camp dwarf who runs the place for having the nerve to look at a CD booklet. I must admit I was thrilled to hear that the fat old poof’s treasured stock was trashed in the summer riots; why the hell should I forgive or feel sorry for such people? If he’d left me alone I would have bought the copy of Muswelll Hillbillies, and in addition it would still exist.

£75 for a Red House Painters record makes me want to scream IT'S ONLY MUSIC FOR FUCK'S SAKE!

Hmm, which Boos record was it?

The Foos one has gone for £75 recently on ebay, The Orb's debut around £35.

Original Vinyl is going for big prices thesedays...

I used to go to the Oxfam Ealing shop a lot when I worked close, it was always good for the "Rare" section.

Now, it looks like a 'boutique' with around 100 albums spread around the racks, each rack display has around three albums. (Or, it did when I visited late last year)

ime places that price most of their vinyl according to the highest price on Discogs tend to have the silver lining of way cheap stuff here and there, on account of the owners being totally clueless about what ppl are actually paying for shit

re the blog post linked to above - ime the record collector price guide is WAY too expensive on lots of common or garden mung

was in avalanche in edinburgh a cpl of months ago, they had some mildly interesting non-uk dvds which again they were asking ludicrous prices for, and the whole atmos of the shop was kinda weird and unwelcoming. wld not shop there again, myself, but then i'm not an edinburgh resident.

I never understood the fuss about the stock in Oxfam Music & Audio; it was usually very average, more often than not record company/PR surpluses.

Any sympathy for the Oxfam bookshop just along the road also evaporated a while back; Lena and I were browsing in there and this guy came in with a big box of books. The assistant said that they didn’t have any room at the back to keep it (which was a lie; we were right next to the stockroom which had ample space), and then he said it was Gift Aid and a button got switched on in the assistant’s mind and she decided that after all they COULD stock them.

My boycott does not extend to the third Ealing Oxfam shop, on the Broadway, which always stocks good music and books.

Oh, that's the one I was meaning.

what's Gift Aid?

Something used to get rich bastards to give to charity for a change

Basically, they can reclaim tax off the final selling price of your donated items.

They must have some sort of quota to reach, they are always asking when I take stuff to them.

Also, they have to send you a letter telling you how much the stuff you gave them sold for.

Which is all well and good when you get a letter saying "all that junk earned us £66".

But think, what would you do if it came back saying "We earned £1,400" from a small amount of stuff you gave. Because they have to offer you the option of taking the money back, mminus selling costs.

I get kind of pissed off that simply because I donated a couple of books and a shirt to Age UK, I now have an extra card taking up space in my wallet (don't want to get rid of it because god knows what would happen if I wanted to donate anything else without it. The till would probably explode). I also get sent letters and loads of other junk about age concern that I frankly DO NOT GIVE A SHIT ABOUT - I just wanted more space on my bookshelf, thanks.

Marcello - That’s fair enough. I can see where your coming from. What really pissed me off, and hopefully what I communicated in the blog piece, is that 1) Online values and real world values are two different things, when you combine the two you end up creating a false economy I think and 2) This kind of practice goes against what I understand to be the principles of independent record shops, or what I understand to be the principles. I explained to the owner that just that weekend I’d picked up originally pressings of Roy Harper’s ‘Stormcock’ and Talk Talk’s ‘Spirit of Eden’ from another local shop, both pretty much mint condition, for a total of £21. I know it’s easy to say “Oh well, tough luck. Vinyl is expensive” but I genuinely felt that in this instance Avalanche were being greedy, opportunistic and totally naive to the point that their long standing customers like myself might say “Y’know what, forget it”. I’m aware of how much these LP’s can go for on eBay and Discogs but I also know how much they normally cost when they appear in shops or at record fairs and there’s a pretty significant disparity in the values. Like I suggested though this really was just the straw that broke the camel’s back, the shops general practice of late has left a lot to desired. RE: The Real Estate and M83 LP’s; nope they hadn’t ordered them in on CD. The owner basically told me that he didn’t like the bands so, on that basis, he’d speculated that they wouldn’t sell.

Dog Latin – Yup, the price of the Red House Painters LP was a total joke. The owner has subsequently put it up on eBay where it’s up to about £20 I think.

Mark – The Boos LP was ‘Giant Steps’

I was rather annoyed at a message posted on the Avalanche website which made reference to my comments;
“As one customer pointed out this week the most sensible thing for me to do after getting in such a great collection of vinyl would be to shut the doors and just put it all online. That is a given if money was the only consideration. However contrary to what a small minority seem to think it has never been about the money as many others will testify. We have to make money. We have to make enough money. It is not about maximising the amount of money to be made at the expense of the things that have made Avalanche known all over the world.”

Small minority? The people who actually buy music in Avalanche are the small minority!

My big gripe with all of this is that, if managed reasonably, this wealth of stock really could’ve really revitalised a dying shop. Sure you could potentially make more selling each of the items one-by-one on eBay but is that really best practice, is it not better to actually have people coming into the shop and having a positive experience?

Giant Steps is priceless IMO.

.. and if that's a decent quality copy, that's a bargain.

Bottom line: I think you are absolutely right about the Real Estate/M83 albums, that would be the "what's the point" point.

tbf, and I am taking into acct that this is a skewed perspective, Popsike results for RHP on eBay are kind of zomg

The whole collection was in a pretty shoddy state to be honest. The copy of 'Giant Steps' was in rough condition and the Foo's LP, well, initially it had no record in it. I eventually found the record, seperated from its cover and inner, in another pile. It was an ex-DJ collection so everything had visable signs of wear and tear.

Fair enough then.

Although that does remind me of recently, when I found Siouxsie's "Join Hands" LP for £2 in a charshop. On checking the condition, I decided it was 'rough', so did not buy it.

Is that Avalanche, the one in the Grassmarket? If so I visited it when I was up for the festival and it was one of the most dispiriting shops I'd been in, just a feeling of impending gloom.

Yeah, that's the one and yeah, that's the feeling.

Great blog post, especicially the part about Record Store Day. After my experience last year I'll never take part in that clusterfuck of a sham ever again. Two hours in line, only to watch the first ten clowns in line buy a copy of every single item on the list for obvious eBay fodder, thus shutting out a lot of people excited to get their hands on stuff they truly cared about. The part that really bugged me was that I stood in line next to these three high school kids who were only there to pick up some My Chemical Romance exclusive because they were huge fans, and were absolutely crushed when they sold out so quickly. I'm pretty sure the 45 year-olds first in line, greedily grabbing up a copy of everything on the list cuold give a fuck about My Chemical Romance and that really defeats the purpose of Record Store Day. Watching greedy assholes ruin the entire experience for the next excited generation of potential record store customers absolutely crushed me and spoiled the whole thing. Yes, granted, those kids were probably not going to turn into rabid collectors right away, but after their experience that night I'm fairly certain they'll never step foot in a record store again. It started out well intentioned but, tbh, fuck Record Store Day and the greed that has destroyed it.

RSD pretty much sucks and the fact it has to exist sucks even more but it helps some of my friends get mad paid so I just look the other way y'know

Well, yeah, of course I'm thrilled that it keeps the independent shops afloat, but I wish there was a way it could be tailored more to the event's original intent instead of a scrum for eBay fodder.

Yes, but I also remember back when it was difficult to get those 'limited edition' singles, from 1976 onwards.

Things like the Who "Substitute" 12" which sold 'out' quite quickly, the Ramones' "Sheena" as well.

It got to the point where you wouldn't buy the regular 7" version in case one of the 'desireable' versions came your way but you didn't have the kind of money to buy the same record twice just because the 'nice' one was on red vinyl or some such.

Of course, all this was purely to give the record a boost for chart purposes. Still, though.

Yes, there was no e-bay then, but then again there were those record shops that 'dealt' in 2nd hand vinyl that'd price them accordingly. And sometimes they 'suspiciously' dealt in new records at the same time (Adrians', is it still going?)

Of course, ebay sort of democratises the process in that if you really want to find that Who 12", you can now. And it's not that expensive.

So, bottom line: Is an original "Odessey and Oracle" worth £1200 ?

Hahaha oh man "original pressing", that can really crack me up. Like my notoriously awful local shop that slaps $35 price tags on shit that was printed in the millions on its original pressing (like Rumors or w/e), justified by the huge "ORIGINAL PRESSING!!!" sticker on the front.

Wish there were more stores like jerry's in pittsburgh, unbelievable stock. can't really replace w something like eBay because the stuff you end up buying you never knew of before, half the time

The fun in record stores isn't 'rare expensive' records, collectors items or whatever, it's 'rare cheap' records, no idea what this is but I'm going to try it out

xp Vintage Vinyl in Evanston did (probably still does) that all the fucking time. $35 sounds like a bargain there.

Haha, Vintange Vinyl is exactly the store I was referring to!

I'm beyond baffled that place still exists. But as a friend pointed out to me, all that guy needs to do is sell 5 or 6 $250 records a month, and that's enough for him to stay afloat.

I mean ffs, I've seen CD-Rs go for $25 there.

Someone mentioned on another thread where we railed about that shop that the dude who runs it is supposedly independently wealthy via other means.

Makes sense/is the only plausible explanation. Dude managed to outlast no fewer than seven record stores in downtown Evanston in the last 25 years or so. Fortunately, there's still 2nd Hand Tunes.

Sorry, make that eight (forgot Dr. Wax).

Oh yes, thank god for 2nd Hand Tunes, even if their selection can be hit or miss. At least the prices are entirely reasonable. When I first moved to Evanston we also had Dr. Wax, but that went downhill really fast in the year or so before it closed.

And occasionally at 2HT you'd find stuff priced way way way below what it should've been priced at, probably because they weren't sure what they had. A friend of mine bought some Deutsche Gramophone records for $15/each which could've easily (and reasonably) gone for $50/each. But I liked that you could walk in with $10 and walk out with 10 (or more) records, and none of the folks who worked there ever copped an attitude.

otm

red house painters vinyl is really hard to come by in the states. 4AD put most of it out in the u.k./europe. and even then not a lot of people bought it cuz everyone was buying CDs. that's why a lot of 90's vinyl is so expensive now. cuz they made small runs and nobody bought them. so, in some cases, there just aren't a lot of copies to be found and nowhere near enough to meet modern demand.

heh, those dudes on the old 4AD forum that bought literally every single release on 4AD on vinyl are sitting pretty right now.

dead can dance vinyl for a while on ebay...good money. just saw a really pretty dcd vinyl box that someone was selling. forget what label put it out. they have two out actually.

in my store i have two boxes of LPs and two boxes of 45s that are discogs stuff and i have a store price that is much lower than my discogs price. i definitely want people to buy records in my store. in some cases the price is 20 dollars cheaper than my discogs price! i do what i can. i don't get a ton of traffic and it would take forever for me to sell some stuff in the store. i got great reggae in and almost all of it will go on ebay. i let people know that i had it, but i would have to sit on it too long here. and i can't afford to do that.

jah gotta love it

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/318648_10150397137257137_686202136_8417899_2075906006_n.jpg

It comes down to "Who are your passing trade"

If a lot of reggae dudes were to be where Scott has his shop, he would not need to ebay.

However, if 4AD dudes pass by, he can price his stock at 'lower than ebay' and the records will turn over reasonably quickly.

RE: The Real Estate and M83 LP’s; nope they hadn’t ordered them in on CD. The owner basically told me that he didn’t like the bands so, on that basis, he’d speculated that they wouldn’t sell.

Wow, Real Estate the talk of everywhere right now and M83 - top 20 in the States and top 40 here - and he still didn't want to order them? Sounds like someone too old and jaded to be running a record shop. Think I'll stick to Morningside Oxfam next time I'm in town.

I want to be where Skot has his shop.

i really have to take that king sporty album home...i try to be good, but it's too cool to languish on my wall. and the french don't deserve it (been sending a lot of reggae to france. just kidding, france. luv ya). funky disco reggae! i don't own too much funky disco reggae from the 70's. or any maybe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfXv8yyuxos

in my store i have two boxes of LPs and two boxes of 45s that are discogs stuff and i have a store price that is much lower than my discogs price. i definitely want people to buy records in my store. in some cases the price is 20 dollars cheaper than my discogs price!

Now that, in my humble estimation, is how you run a proper record shop. Good work Scott. Bet you actually value the trade, and opinions, of your regulars too!

Scott's a good guy and we all know.

there is a record shop in Edinburgh on the way to Arthur's Seat which is so unfriendly it doesn't even let you look at the records

idea of boycotting a record shop sounds insane to me, in an age when all record shops are supposedly over a cliff. like fulminating against the hegemony of Latin in our society or campaigning against vintage trams.

(I like record shops)

At work so can't hear King Sporty :-(

The Pinefox - That'll be Backbeat Records on East Crosscauseway up the Bridges. The guy who owns the shop is notorious for, as you said, not letting people into the shop to even look at the records. What he tends to do, if you dare visit his shop, is interrogate you about what specifically your after then tell you to come back later. I made the mistake of doing this years ago when I was after a copy of 'Blonde on Blonde'. Upon returning to the shop the guy proceeded to pull out dozens upon dozens of copies of the records ranging from £15 to £150 price wise. I'm sure I bought the cheapest copy just to get the guy off my back and get outta there. The guy obviously has some collection but it's just so disorganized. Boxes upon boxes stacked on top of each other to the ceiling.

Also, don't mention trams please . . .

there is a record shop in Edinburgh on the way to Arthur's Seat which is so unfriendly it doesn't even let you look at the records

The clue being that it's in Edinburgh

Oh, I remember that one.

I did look at a record, didn't buy, went on my way. They had a bunch of "John Peel Festive Fifty" CDs, obviously taped off the radio.

Apart from that...

Anyone been to that new record store on stoke newington road? Went in briefly, and its nice to have a record store in the area but I didn't buy anything because they didn't have anything I wanted:/

It's all for Wire readers and Dissensus types so I haven't been tempted to return to the street of horrible dogs and prats in porkpie hats.

why don't you read 'the wire'?

Reading it is like going to school and I left school more than thirty years ago.

Manuel Gottsching's on the cover so, fuck it, I'm buying it

So you have nothing to learn from it? Wow. I learn new things from it every month.

xp

The only thing I learned from last reading it was not to read it again.

I wish my school had had lessons about Zomby and Delia Darbyshire TBF.

I've not been into the Notting Hill MVE since i had a trial shift there and found the staff members in the soul and dance section to be the rudest, most twattish people I'd ever met.

really? I've never had any problems with them but then again I've never worked there.

Yep.

When I asked one of the guys to talk me through an average day in the shop - a fairly standard question for a boy on a trial shift to ask, I thought - one of the grumpy sods looked at me for about a minute and then said, 'we buy records and sell records, what do you think we do?'. Most of the day I was ignored. Then I got sent home for putting an acid jazz record in the jazz section.

where / what's the place on Stoke Newington Road?

Then I got sent home for putting an acid jazz record in the jazz section.

Sackable offence, imo.

emil.y would have put it in the bin on the stereo

Last year I offloaded some funk/reggae doubles I've not been into the Notting Hill MVE since i had a trial shift there and found the staff members in the soul and dance section to be the rudest, most twattish people I'd ever met.

They have a copy of "Last chicken in the shop" in their window, been tempted for a while...

When I asked one of the guys to talk me through an average day in the shop - a fairly standard question for a boy on a trial shift to ask, I thought - one of the grumpy sods looked at me for about a minute and then said, 'we buy records and sell records, what do you think we do?

LOLled at this tbh

maybe he was observing a minute's silence at the time?

"Do you have anything by the Doors?"

"Yeah, a fire extinguisher and a bucket of sand."

where / what's the place on Stoke Newington Road?

― sunn :o))) (Merdeyeux), Thursday, 10 November 2011 18:5

http://www.kristinarecords.com/about-us/

xpost LOL

I love a good Doors joke.

I too enjoy waiting for the pun.

That MVE, they keep leaving copies of the fourth Spandau Ballet album against the radiators to warp. You know, the soft Parade.

nothin...

http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kqln9zMXCO1qa3gf8o1_400.jpg
"I thought I told you to turn the bloody Doors off!"