…one of the founding principals of Too Tone Records was that we were going to be a record store/shop that didn’t sell on line or take phone orders…
…y’know, foster musical community, get back to the basics of flicking thru stacks, meeting people with similar or intriguing musical tastes, sharing info’ and experiences….stumbling on that rare gem you didn’t know you needed…
…the basis of this principle lies in the fact that both of my previous record store/shop employers required staff to hold back rare & interesting items to be perused, removed & sold on by the “company” website… we could get away with selling it to regulars with one outfit (so long as we got good money) but it was a firable offence with the other…
…it always struck me that the parent companies were strip mining the local resource…thus reducing what was available to listen to &/or be inspiration for the next generation of music lovers…
..why would you bother regularly visiting a shop that sold all their interesting stuff on-line???…
…and there’d be less interesting stuff available locally to turn up again in a few years time…
…apart from selling dead stock on Trademe (if it’s been in the shop for two years I ain’t gonna sell it here!) I’m sticking to that basic principle…
…no matter what any body says about how they’d run my business….
…that is why I don’t engage in social media or broad cast my e-mail address…
…you just end up with a bunch of grasping knob-ends collectors who think you will help them complete their lives if they wave enough money in your face…
…which is what I told my good friend Ian who guiltily admitted to having started one (there is more than one!) of the Too Tone records unauthorised Facebook pages….
…Ian is beginning to receive an increasing bunch of communications from knob ends people outside Dunedin….waving fists full of cash and clutching the front of their trousers (yep – all guys)…
…he dutifully draws them to my attention and always gets the same reply…
..nope, I don’t do requests or lists…or soften to pleading…
…get in a car or a plane or a combination of the two and get your spoilt, lazy, internet-oriented arses down here…I have no objection to you walking thru my door to buy stuff….in fact it’s always fun to see folk from outta town and talk crap about record shopping from around the world…it’s good for the rest of Dunedin’s economy as a whole as well, if you visit….
…make some fucking effort….I’m not in this to make bucket loads of cash, I’m in it to share my experience of music… I’m polite enough if I’m being fed regular…..
…and for those of you who are too lazy to support your local record shop on any other day than Record Store Day (clammering over a bunch of exclusive releases like they are mana from heaven) & shop on line the rest of the year….
… (there you go Ian, just link them to this, save a shit load of typing on both our parts!).
Bored with a record shop. 