things i didn't say at the record store

the really true realness is this: people won't bug you or tell you long boring stories if your store is busy and people are buying things. because then they will realize that they are in a store. its when nobody else is in there that you have a problem. because then they forget that they're in a store. and that's when you need to think about drugs.

i'd kinda had it with people after the pandemic but maria pulled me off the ledge. she does the bulk of it now. i just want to work. that's really where most of my frustration came from. it was just me. and it made it hard to do as much online work as i wanted to do. i used to bring my work home with me and i was pricing CDs at homw last week but i have a LOT of television to watch and i am olderish. i could get drunk and clean 45s and watch netflix late into the night in the olden days. but that was then. i'm happier now! sorta. or my version of "happy" anyway. filled with dread and confusion.

It's weird. I've had my share of being trapped into convos but shoppers of a certain age will, say, Shazam the overhead music rather than ask an employee. I've had a couple people come up and be like, what is this? it's not coming up on Shazam. Like buddy go ahead and ask us in the first place! We are definitely down to gab about our stereo picks lol.

It's also a real thing now that many, many people genuinely don't understand why they shouldn't / aren't allowed to BLAST their phone speaker playing music or facetime or a phone call in a shop.

spooky clowns and scientologists. boo!

https://scontent-lga3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/395203360_10161529570687137_4290189502426148778_n.jpg?_nc_cat=100&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5f2048&_nc_ohc=D-hf42qGOe0AX9FyUbW&_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-2.xx&oh=00_AfDS425UoBgrx7JJaUVWNzXHxn40Nyy50ysBe3est-1rlw&oe=653AF6DF

heard today for the 447348373th time:

"I could spend hours in here. I might be tempted to buy something." *leaves store*

stop selling records. start charging admission.

Apparently a bookstore in Porto, Portugal that was swamped by Harry Potter fans 'cause JK based something on it, started doing exactly that (charging admission).

Halloween has to be the most grating holiday

Apparently a bookstore in Porto, Portugal that was swamped by Harry Potter fans 'cause JK based something on it, started doing exactly that (charging admission).

― deep wubs and tribral rhythms (Boring, Maryland), Monday, October 23, 2023 12:10 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Well yeah also it's an incredible space. I don't think they'd get away with it if it looked more ordinary

But yeah it's weird that people keep announcing their desire to spend time there and dangle the hypothetical of even purchasing something, my guess is that they find the idea of a record store magical but don't have the means to play records, kind of like how people might enter a gallery or a highly curated vintage (furniture or collectibles etc.) store / showroom to gawk but would never actually pull the trigger, no that would be reckless, but maybe... just maybe if they were feeling nuts you know just totally spontaneous or inspired after finding that perfect souvenir... something truly special...

Anyway I think that might be the mindset, and just like how some those other aforementioned businesses are more common to have people coming in to glance or go full tire-kicker only to leave with a "thanks for coming in!" regardless, they expect the record store is also the same kind of niche place for that song and dance.

Then there are musical instrument stores where people want to try multiple $4,000 guitars and leave with maybe some strings or picks or, more likely, nothing.

Sell download cards?

i sell a lot of CDs.

a lot of people still have CD players in their car. or they buy an old car that has one. so they come in looking. that works out well.

i just think the *threatening to buy* thing is funny because i can't imagine people doing that at other stores. you know? "wow, you guys sure do have a lot of great vitamins. i could spend hours in here." *leaves walgreens*

Well yeah but again they put record stores in the same category as other hobby stores or showrooms where they get to be a tourist

Sorry I've got major jet lag I've got to stop posting

I went to a place today and saw a tears for fears tape “hurting” for $3.75. I went to buy it and the clerk said “$10.80.” There was another sticker on the back.

you should have thrown it at them and screamed "you don't give me love!".

"Well yeah but again they put record stores in the same category as other hobby stores or showrooms where they get to be a tourist"

i wrote that in the paper i read at ucla. that sometimes i felt like the shabbiest tour guide in the shabbiest museum in massachusetts.

you can hear my dulcet tones right here. and greil introducing me.

https://archive.org/details/podcast_2011-emp-pop-conference-at-ucl_ebay-light-of-my-life-fire-o_1000093737988

re:"i could spend hours in here", ime when people say stuff like that its to tell themselves a story more than anything else. lots of people like to imagine themselves as the kind of person who frequents record shops, independent bookstores, arthouse theaters, etc, but don’t ever actually do those things. But hearing themselves say things like “I could spend hours in this record store” or “my idea of heaven is a good bookstore” reassures them that they are the kind of quirky interesting person who they imagine says things like that

completely and totally and utterly OTM.

Charge $10 to come browse ($40 if there's conversation expected), deduct from purchase on exit.

i'm not even gonna go into the guy who came in today and talked maria's ear off about possibly helping him sell the record he had made and wondering if we could be a sort of "fulfillment center" for it amd distribute it to all the local stores for him. because he has issues. i finally had to come out and say "oh maria are you going to have time to finish that tax thing..." and he finally left.

"I could spend hours in here. I might be tempted to buy something."

I can't think of any response other than "what am I, your fucking hostage?"

i actually yelled as he was going out the door: "Oh, no, we wouldn't want that to happen!" right after he said that about being tempted.

I went to a place today and saw a tears for fears tape “hurting” for $3.75. I went to buy it and the clerk said “$10.80.

I can't stand this indecision

I was leaving the weed dispensary which is next to a winery (omg Scott imagine if you had to deal with wine people) and some old rich dude just wandered in and bumped into me all “oh hello what’s this place” and the security guard was like “it’s a cannibus dispensary, I need to see your I’d” and he was like “oh good to know” like the doors of the world are just made for entitled rich white dudes to go around opening and walking through to see what the deal is, we’re all just here for their entertainment.

i DO know how good i have it overall. every time i go to a restaurant i think: oh thank god i don't have to work in a restaurant i would be killing people left and right. sometimes i think the whole thing is so archaic. "so, what do you recommend?" "i recommend you order something fast because we are fucking slammed and you will never get any food unless you hurry the fuck up."

Apparently a bookstore in Porto, Portugal that was swamped by Harry Potter fans 'cause JK based something on it, started doing exactly that (charging admission).

― deep wubs and tribral rhythms (Boring, Maryland), Monday, October 23, 2023 12:10 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Well yeah also it's an incredible space. I don't think they'd get away with it if it looked more ordinary

tbc this place was always a tourist trap, I went in a couple of times in the 00's and they had, like, computer manuals from the 90's lol. when I tried to order a book they didn't have they were borderline hostile.

I just meant the building is definitely pretty

Oh yeah agreed, charging admission was always the logical endpoint because it works as a cool spot to look at but is useless as a bookshop.

In 2002 I went to the Chateau Frontenac hotel in Quebec City and I vaguely recall being charged some kind of admission just to look around. Maybe I am misremembering.

There is a tour that (understandably) costs money, and of course they wouldn't charge actual guests an admission fee. But I think that at the time, they were trying to discourage tourists from just going there to look around and hang out.

This is of course irrelevant to the record store discussion, but fancy hotels exist in a liminal zone in between public space and a private business.

I will confess that I have used some of the world's nicest hotel lobbies as, essentially, an extension of my living room, either with or without being a paying guest.

See also: "My Darling Nikki."

sometimes i really wish i had a cell phone jammer. do you really have to look up EVERY record? definitely a time when i miss the olden days. whatever happened to chance? people will youtube or spotify 400 12-inch singles. babies.
have i made mistakes by buying blind my whole life? hell yeah. and i LEARN from my mistakes.

people here might do it too. i get it. i don't have to like it though!

i don't let people use their shittyass portables either. fuck off dj shadow.

and i haven't had a listening station since...i dunno...2010? too many broken needles made me say naaaah. i can't even imagine what it would be like now. ten times worse.

fwiw usually if I do this it's because I can't remember if I've already got it, or if that's the specific record I'm looking for by that band. this is what happens when you already have too many records and have listened to too much music

that totally makes sense though. these are people who literally look up EvERY record that they look at in the store. it takes them forever.

this is why i'm so glad i'm not out front much anymore. the agony of watching people be laboriously slow. i had a japanese dealer look at every record in my store in 20 minutes once.

Age 13 I bought a used copy of Quadrophenia from Stereo Jack’s in Cambridge MA for $5 based exclusively on the fact that it looked great, came with that beguiling pull-out photo booklet, and was a double record which made it seem even more of a deal. I had never heard a note of The Who in my life. The punchline should be that I hated it but reader I fell in love with it, taped it, and listened to it on my Walkman all the time, even when my family hiked up Mt Washington.

xp tbh I usually feel bad about looking things up because I assume the shop staff will assume I'm just looking it up on Discogs to see if I can flip it, but that isn't what I'm doing!

I will look things up if it is something that looks intriguing, but I'm not familiar with it. When I got back into listening to vinyl a few years ago, I was taking risks on stacks and stacks of stuff. I got spatially overwhelmed by all the music that I didn't want to listen to. At that point, I realized that it was not my duty or obligation to be the Disco 12" Guardian of My Small Town or whatever. It's pretty rare for me now to haul records back to Goodwill or try to sell them to a local record store. When I bring a record back to the house, I'd prefer that it's for keeps.

I have a bunch of stuff floating around in my mental wantlist where it’s like “is this the album by wire train heard that I liked?” so I need to look up on internet to confirm #oldstonerlife

I definitely walk away to a corner while I do it, though, if I can’t get out of peoples way I don’t do it.

people I didn’t punch at the record store

I've definitely started looking up more and more things to see whether I like them or not. Have put in my years of taking a chance on things, I've literally got about 1200 unwanted records to start putting up on discogs and a large amount of those were bought because they looked interesting and turned out to be not my thing, and a good few of the others are duplicates that I accidently bought. Don't really care how the shop owner feels about it tbh, I always buy something in every place I go unless it really sucks, and if they've priced their records properly then they don't need to worry that I'm trying to make a buck out of them (i do buy to flip though sometimes, some people put the daftest things in the bargain bins just cos they've dismissed whole genres as being not worthy of their time - those are some of my favourite shops tbh)

someone years ago came in and asked me which albums would be best to buy...to sell. i wasn't that helpful.

haha! I pulled out a copy of this from a box on the floor the other day. old mono classical record? straight in the quid bin mate...

https://www.discogs.com/release/4143663-Brahms-Johanna-Martzy-And-The-Philharmonia-Orchestra-Conducted-By-Paul-Kletzki-Brahms-Violin-Concert

xp the ones in your store, because you bought them to sell

Yeah if you’re going to look up every record, why even go into a store??

( M just told me that someone commented on a paid FB ad of ours and asked about stereo gear. they weren't looking to buy. they just wanted information. another local store commented and told them to come to their store because they have lots of gear. M hid the other store's comment. the old me would have been pissed. just seems like poor etiquette to tell someone to come to your store on an advertisement for someone else's store! but i'm in the back room listening to deep tech from argentina. live and let live! for the record: we don't sell stereo stuff. but i don't think that matters here. this other store is new and i don't know the owners well. just met them in passing. i went in and bought stuff when they opened and made a mention of them on our FB page to be neighborly.)

(but what say you, peanut gallery. poor form or what?)

I love going into a record store with no agenda or hope of getting any particular record. That said, if I’m looking up/price checking an album it’s because 1) don’t want to be scammed 2) genuinely surprised if the record in question is actually selling for $X used these days.

Yeah if you’re going to look up every record, why even go into a store??

For me, I mostly like buying records I've never even heard of before, things I'd never otherwise encounter. Some of them are in genres where there's a hell of a lot of mediocre records, if not outright garbage. Looking stuff up does help navigate things, especially if you can listen to them, otherwise I'd be going home with 20 fresh slices of total poop that would go straight in my ever-growing pile of shite I don't want.

Being able to look up things is a luxury! Prices can be all over the place depending on the shop, but the more I trust the place the more likely it is that I'm looking up things just to get a better handle on what something intriguing or vaguely familiar actually is.