In The Wake of Record Store Day
Ben Sisario's NYT article about indie record stores was quite a bummer, but Sasha Frere-Jones blog post from last Friday got me thinking that the demise of 3,100 record stores since 2003 isn't such a bad thing.
SFJ writes: "There are many educating angels out there, and I owe several kind people a lifetime’s tuition, but, good Lord, record-store employees can be grumpy. And scary. And insulting. And make you feel like never ever going into a store again. And that’s relevant."
It is relevant. We've all had these High Fidelity-type experiences and if you think of this stuff in small business terms–as opposed to cultural terms–it's especially baffling.
I certainly don't welcome the demise of record stores, but here are some questions to think about, once again in small business terms...
Will the stores that are left over have to work much harder for your money?
Will they have to do things to differentiate themselves from the vast resources of the internet?
Will they be much happier to see you walk through the door?
I think the answer to all three is 'yes.' Is this a tragedy? Not at all.
12:14 pm
Spent a majority of my young-to-mid adulthood working in a 20 year-old indie record shop, first as clerk, later as manager/buyer.
I can attest to the attitude, and have been certainly guilty of displaying it. For some reason, however, people actually expect this out of record shops, just as they expect the workers at high-end fashion boutiques to give you the hairy eyeball for whatever it is you're wearing (or not wearing.)
Exactly WHY we were such colossal dicks is tougher to pin down. I think it has something to do with being dissatisfied with our pay, but being in a band and not wanting to get a "real" job, hating customers, hating customers' buying habits/requests, and always being hungover.
Or maybe the job just attracts cynical, know-it-all jerks. And the Department of Motor Vehicles doesn't prize a deep knowledge of krautrock.
1:37 pm
I think record clerk bad attitude is BS especially in D.C. [Full disclosure: I worked at a record store years ago and was cynical but only after the customers left the store].
I think the guys who run Melody, Crooked Beat, and Orpheus were/are exceedingly nice. If given the chance, they will talk your ear off about records. In Baltimore, the folks who run True Vine are exceptional in the face of ignorance and stupidity. A few weeks ago, they introduced me to the Washington Phillips reissue. I'm like who's that? They didn't snicker. They just put the record on and let me hear it.
I'd love to tell you that Skip Groff of YandT was a meanie 24/7, but he wasn't. Sure, he wasn't the most engaging personality on the planet. But he was always nice enough. And the same goes for Vinyl Ink.
You want real snarky jerks: ask a cop for something, go to CVS and wait in line, endure the Safeway checkout any day of the week.
1:58 pm
My prediction is that there will be fewer record stores, but more like Melody and True Vine--places where the snarkiness is at a minimum and the love is on display.
I have great conversations with Rick at Orpheus and I used to volunteer at Now in Arlington, so I know that it's not all negative.
But I also remember a Smash! employee making fun of me TO MY FACE when I bought a For Carnation record there in the mid-90s.
My only point is that, if a waiter did this to you, you'd be like, 'screw you, buddy,' and head across the street to another restaurant.
4:20 pm
In my experience, it's the hipper-than-thou patrons in DC record stores who are the assholes--not the employees. For example, you couldn't find a nicer guy (record-store clerk or no) than Josh Harkavy at Red Onion...but there always seems to be some dick sneering at me when I go to the counter with a Lionel Hampton record...
12:25 am
DCCD folks were always pleasant. Had some good shows in there too.