Use your local record shop!!!!

[Tonestar1]

I don't really buy many cds from the net as I like going into my local store to have a look around. I only really buy on the net if I can't source the cd I want locally. I'm fortunate enough to be in a position where saving a £ or 2 isn't really a big issue and hopefully I'm doing my bit to keep them in business. The high street would be a sad place without good record stores. Monday lunchbreak is my CD buying time as it cheers me up and give me something new to listen to for the rest of the week.

Anyway today i bought

Monsters of Folk £10 not really a bargin but hopefully worth it.

Radioslave Fabric 48 same as above

Now onto the bargins

Billie Holiday "The Great American Songbook" Double CD 47 tracks in total £3

Teenage Fanclub double album pack "Grand Prix" and "Songs From Northern Britain" £3

Fopp Glasgow has a large selection of Jazz/Soul/Blues/swing albums all at £3 at the moment.

Also they have a load of classic album double packs (mainly 80s/90s stuff) also for £3.

Go in out the rain, take a wander, peruse, get urself a bargin!

 

[oldleodensian]

Tonestar1: The high street would be a sad place without good record stores.

Too true. Only HMV or supermarkets in my town to buy CDs from these days and not a single place to buy records, unless you count car boot sales and charity shops.

 

[Anonymous]

oldleodensian:

Too true. Only HMV or supermarkets in my town to buy CDs from these days and not a single place to buy records, unless you count car boot sales and charity shops.

Similar situation where I live. The only shop in my town centre that sells CDs is WH Smiths!

There are about two dozen charity shops though - if you have the time to browse through them, quite often there are bargains to be had.

 

[idc]

Fopp rocks, best record shop ever. I use the Byres Rd branch and last time I was there King Crimson albums were a fiver each. I have always found the staff to be helpful and enthusiastic. They also use B&W speakers for the instore music and it is the best sounding instore music I have ever heard.

 

[Anonymous]

I miss Fopp. My local one in Guildford was only open for around six months - it's soon to be a Jamie Oliver Italian - but I bet they won't have all the Neil Young albums for £3 each!

Even the ones that HMV saved aren't the same. too many DVDs, not enugh cheap catalogue albums.

 

[matthewpiano]

I can never find anything locally. Only HMVs within any reasonable sort of distance. I used to use Amazon for everything but I've recently started using the mail order services of independents, so at least I'm supporting somebody else's local record shop.

I've used, and can recommend:

Presto Classical (Excellent website and superb service)
Bath Compact Discs (Poor website but 1st class service)
MDC Classic Music (Excellent website and superb service)
MDT (Decent website and superb service)

 

[6th.replicant]

Fopp's outlets:

http://www.foppreturns.com/stores/

 

[Petherick]

Can anyone recommend a decent record shop within a reasonable distance of anywhere in Suffolk? Even Cambridge, which used to have 3 or 4, is no good any more. I know there's a Fopp, but it's always so packed full it's no fun. If you try to browse you're likely to get run over by a pack of tourists or students (I can't actually believe students buy music, do they?). I agree it would be lovely to use a local one, but where??

 

[idc]

Petherick:......... I know there's a Fopp, but it's always so packed full it's no fun......

It can ruin the browsing experience. The racks are too close together and all the books piled on the floor are annoying.

 

[bigboss]

Thanks to Government policies, music retailers will disappear soon. You get huge bargains when you buy them online, as many of the warehouses are located in Jersey etc, & do not attract taxes. Tesco has started selling some DVDs & CDs through vending machines, which again escapes the taxes, for some reason.

How else can you explain HMV giving big discounts online but not in-store?

And the difference is not merely £1 or £2. I was shopping around for Underworld Trilogy blu-ray set. On the high street (HMV), they were selling for £34.99, with the third instalment (Rise of the Lycans) alone selling for £17.99. I bought the trilogy from Amazon for £16.98. Similarly, I bought The Dark Knight from play.com for £11.99, when the high street price was £24.99.

 

[johnnyblue]

I used to own a record shop selling new and secondhand cds and dvds and secondhand records. I closed down 4 years ago after seventeen years in the business and I'm glad I did. It had just turned into a nightmare in the end. Competition from supermarkets, the internet, charity shops, car boot sales,newsagents, off licences - even the Edinbrugh Wool Shop sells dvd's for f*ck's sake! Add to that a whole new breed of customer who expects a lower price than Tesco's and the same kind of returns policy ie: "I bought this last week and I don't like it so I want a refund." . Or people who 'd spend half an hour listening to 20 cd singles out of the 3 for a £1.00 box and then not buy any. In the end it just wasn't worth the aggravation.

People bang on about the big labels profiteering, but i can't say I ever found an independent distributor or label that would've allowed me to make a reasonable profit and take a chance on stocking a wider range of cds. Mostly, i would've made one or two quid on something retailing for £12.99+. Well, at that sort of price in your average provincial town you're not going to have enough turnover to make it worth your while and, of course, anything you got stuck with would have to be sold at a massive loss, effectively losing you most of the profit you'd made on stuff that did sell.

I used to have a good wholesaler that did special offers, but I usually found that with anything I sold as a "loss leader" people would come in buy that item and only turn up again the next time I was selling Amy Winehouse or Neil Young cds for a fiver.

As for secondhand stuff it just ended up as being offered dozens of copies of whatever HMV or Tesco's were selling off cheap. Oasis, Limp Bizkit, Blur etc. So it became really boring and one of the main advantages of owning a record shop had all but disappeared - your chance to get your hands on new and interesting recordings and films.

I used to know about 12 guys in the trade and all but 3 have packed it in now as has my wholesaler. Fopp closed down a while ago and then reopened, but in my opinion they're not truly independent ie: owner/operator, and eve so they can still only exist in a very limited list of locations.

For myself, I buy everything online now. The chances of finding Midlake's The Trials of Van Occupanther. Temptations Psychadelic Soul, The Best Of Hardold Melvin and the Blue Notes, Clifford T Ward's The Both Of Us or Sothern Manners by The Watson Twins anywhere within a fifty miles radius of my house are nil, because not even HMV can afford to stock such a wide range of titles. And if they did I couldn't afford to pay their prices anymore.

 

[survivor]

It`s so sad. When I first started buying records there were record shops everywhere. Burnt Oak used to be a favourite haunt. Woolworths, the Co-op, a music shop which sold a small selection plus no less than three (!) independent record shops were all within a few hundred yards of each other. All I can do now is try to support independent stores via mail order which is better than nothing, but of course no substitute for walking around perusing. Shame.

 

[Tonestar1]

As I stated in my original post i usually go to fopp as i can make it there and back on my lunch. They are now owned by HMV though.

Anyone in Glasgow with an hour or two to spare should check out Avalnache records tucked up behind Queen Street Station

http://www.avalancheglasgow.co.uk/findus/findus.html

or Mono on King St in Glasgow

http://www.monorailmusic.com/

Both crackin good record stores. They do lots of small gigs by new artists, usually free. I recently saw moby play an acoustic gig at mono, yes for free, Mono is also tucked away at the back of a pub, also called Mono, so you can also enjoy a beer whilst you browse.

 

[Anonymous]

Petherick:Can anyone recommend a decent record shop within a reasonable distance of anywhere in Suffolk?

If you find yourself in Ipswich one of these days, Out Of Time Records is worth a look.

http://www.myspace.com/outoftimerecords

 

[Petherick]

Thanks Tractorboy, I'll get over there and look them up soon.

 

[idc]

Tonestar1:

As I stated in my original post i usually go to fopp as i can make it there and back on my lunch. They are now owned by HMV though.

Ah, so thats how they came back. Thankfully they have not changed from before.

Tonestar1:

Anyone in Glasgow with an hour or two to spare should check out Avalnache records tucked up behind Queen Street Station

http://www.avalancheglasgow.co.uk/findus/findus.html

or Mono on King St in Glasgow

http://www.monorailmusic.com/

Thats two places to visit next time I am in town

 

[jimdonnelly]

idc:Tonestar1:

As I stated in my original post i usually go to fopp as i can make it there and back on my lunch. They are now owned by HMV though.

Ah, so thats how they came back. Thankfully they have not changed from before.

Tonestar1:

Anyone in Glasgow with an hour or two to spare should check out Avalnache records tucked up behind Queen Street Station

http://www.avalancheglasgow.co.uk/findus/findus.html

or Mono on King St in Glasgow

http://www.monorailmusic.com/

Thats two places to visit next time I am in town

If you buy second hand you should also visit Missing. It is located on Argyle Street under the Heilanmans Umbrella.

 

[idc]

I thought Missing had, well gone missing. There was one on Gt Western Road near to Byres Rd. Glasgow does appear to be very well served with local music shops - Avalanche, 2 Fopps, Missing, Lost In Music, Mono, the Oxfam Music Shop, Mixed Up Records, Play It Again, 23rd Precinct and not too far away is Apollo and a Missing in Paisley